Junk Boat Trip

The weather in Hong Kong has started to get warmer and several of my friends have visitors in town so we decided to charter a junk boat. Despite the fact that it wasn't completely sunny, it was still warm and we had a great time. We took the junk out to the Sai Kung area and had a seafood lunch. It was way to much food but very delicious. The highlight was the whole steamed fish. After lunch, we took the junk to a little alcove and everyone started swimming. It was great, we swam out to some rocks and over to a beach. Everyone was jumping off the top level of the junk (except for Kelly, Theresa and I--I think I wrote a blog entry about the last time I jumped off the top of a junk) and swiming in inner tubes. Kelly's friend Theresa from high school in New Jersey was there with her boyfriend, and Payal's college roommate from Portland was there.

At the end of the day the weather started getting stormy and two of the people on our boat were sea sick so we headed home. Later on Kelly, Theresa, and I and all of our boyfriends went over to the Kee Club. That is our favorite club in Hong Kong but you have to be invited by a member so it was a real treat. (If you are staying it a really ritzy hotel like the Grand Hyatt like Theresa and her boyfriend were, the concierge can get you in.)


Matt, Meagan and Kelly on the Junk Boat 


Payal, Lauren and Meagan 


Eating a Seafood Lunch 

Grandma's Visit Comes to an End

While Grandma was here, we had to try Peking Duck. Matt and I took her to one of our favorite, low key (ie. "not trendy") Chinese restaurants called the Red Pepper in Causeway Bay. My friends kelly and maria met us there, and it was a good thing they did because we ended up getting a whole duck! It was probably the best peking duck I had ever had, there was a good ratio of skin and fat to meat on the pieces carved from the duck. Sometimes there is way to much fat and not enough meat. (At least for my taste, I think Chinese people prefer the fat.) I think Gradnma loved it. We also had sizzling chili prawns and some veggies. For dessert, we had toffee covered fruit pieces. These are amazing! The banana and apple slices are slightly warmed and soft because they are dipped in hot toffee. Then they are dipped into ice cold water, where the toffee becomes cold and crispy while the fruit stays warm and soft. The contrasting temperatures and textures is so delicious! I knew Grandma would love it not only because she has a raging sweet tooth, but also because she loves candied apples. It was a delicious meal and I was so glad Grandma got to meet some of my friends.

I must have tired Grandma out, because for the rest of her trip, we pretty much hung out at home reading and relaxing. It was very peaceful, which is a feeling that is hard to obtain in Hong Kong. I loved it. For Grandma's last meal in Hong Kong we took her to Felix and took a ride on the Star Ferry. I had been wanting to try Felix for a long time, and I have to say that where food was concerned, I was slightly disappointed. It was good, but not as good as the price would make you expect it to be. I guess you are paying for the view, which is amazing, and the design of the place, which was done by Phillipe Starcke.

I know that memories of Grandma's trip to Hong Kong will stay with me forever; I am so glad she was able to come to visit me. I learned a lot about her and she gave me lots of advice about men and relationships, as well as insights into her past relationships and life events. She inspired me in many ways. I can only hope that when I am a grandma, I will be as adventurous and open minded as she is. There aren't many people over 70 that would fly to visit their grand daughter in Hong Kong, try all sorts of foods they have never had before, zip around in taxis, get foot massages in a Chinese person's apartment, and even try yoga. It was amazing! Another amazing thing was Grandma's raging sweet tooth. I have NEVER seen anything like it. She can sense sweets telepathically and find them almost instantaneously if they are within a 100 foot radius of her! I am not joking! Interestingly, I think my sweet tooth is almost completely eradicated. living among Chinese people, the food is a lot less sweet and so are the desserts. I think Chinese people prefer savory food, and now I have become accustomed to it. Western desserts and candy taste overwhelmingly sweet now. Don't worry, I am sure my affinity for sweets will return once I move back to the US. I think it is impossible to avoid sweets in the States unless you are really militant against sugar.

I feel blessed that through all of the obstacles that I have faced this year, which has been the hardest year of my life, I have learned that I have an amazing family that loves and supports me. I guess sometimes it takes sad or negative events to realize all of the wonderful things in your life that you have to be grateful for.


Grandma with Peking Duck 


Kelly, Maria and Grandma 


Chinese Feast 

Cheung Chau Bun Festival

The day after e got back from Singapore, it was the Annual Cheung Chau Bun Festival. Cheung Chau is a little island that is part of Hong Kong, and the bun festival is unique to the island. I am not sure the exact history behind it, but I do know that it is somehow in honor of a god, and that it is a major source of community pride for Cheung Chau residents. This year was special because they brought back the annual Bun Tower Scramble, in which people compete to climb a giant tower covered with steamed buns. The buns are good luck and whoever gathers the most from the tower has the most luck. Buns are distributed to island residents so that they will have good luck for the next year. Also, the buns that are higher to the top are luckier. They had banned the bun climb cause many years ago the bun tower collapsed and people died. They brought it back this year, but the climbers had to have practice sessions and they were wearing rock climbing gear.

Matt and I made the trek out to Cheung Chau for the parade that precedes the Bun Tower Scramble. It was HOT and crowded and we could barely see anything. From what we could tell, the parade consisted of children dressed up in fancy outfits being held above the crowd and people doing the lion dance. It was interesting but there was a huge line to catch the ferry back to Hong Kong, and it was really hot, and if you have ever seen Chinese people lining up you will know why I didn't want to come back at night for the Bun Tower Scramble. Chinese people don't think of lines as places where you give others space to breathe, and you respect that people in front of you are actually in front of you. If you give them an inch of room to either side of you, they will violently shove you aside and stand in front of you. Old ladies are the worst about this. If you even look like you have a shadow of fear or doubt on your face, they will take advantage of it! It can be quite frustrating! I think Matt saw my blood boiling and he told me to take it easy, but hey, I don't like being shoved around!

Grandma didn't come with us because she was tired from our Singapore adventures. I think that she is a very smart woman! I think I fried my brain in Cheung Chau!


Bun Festival Parade 


The Parade 


It was crowded and HOT 


The Bun Tower 

Orchard Road

For our last night in Singapore, Grandma and I headed down to Orchard Road. Orchard Road is a main drag with lots of shopping, movies, restaurant and also LOTS of people! The only thing that it doesn't have a lot of is taxis, as grandma and I found out. That is one of the great things about Hong Kong, there is never a shortage of taxis. The lines at the taxi stands in Singapore were ridiculously long, and Singaporeans didn't seem to notice which makes me think that they have to wait in lines that long all the time.

Orchard Road has a ton of western stores that we don't have in Hong Kong. I squealed with delight at Borders books. Such a huge store, filled with books in English! Woo hoo! I was happy, but once we got inside I was tired from all our sightseeing. Also, all the books looked like they had been handled by everyone in town. They were sort of dirtly looking and dog-eared and had pages folded over and stuff. It was sort of strange. I was going to buy myself some books but I decided not to. Also, the store was SO crowded. I had meant to buy myself clothes in Singapore but i never got around to it. I just didn't feel like shopping, even though I should have because they had a lot more mid-range clothing stores than Hong Kong. In Hong Kong clothes are either designer or they were hauled into Hong Kong from Mainland China in the back of some guy's truck and then sold on the street.

Orchard Road was great for people watching. It is funny, because it seems like every visitor has something different that they are intrigued by when they travel to Asia. For me, it is the many different kinds of food, without a doubt. For my last visitors, Missy and Nic it was shopping and for my friend Lara it was beaches. For Grandma, it was the many different kinds of people. She kept noticing the different body types of different races and the clothes that they wore. She was fascinated by the eating habits and the saris on the Indian women we would see at breakfast. So, I think it was a good thing we decided to visit Singapore while she was here because it is a city that has an incredible mix of different races, religions and ethnicities.


Orchard Road 

Sentosa Island

The next day was gorgeous, so Grandma and I excited to head over to Sentosa Island. Sentosa Island is like an elaborate resort, with lots of different attractions to see and beaches to play on. We took the cable car over, and the view was amazing! We lucked out with the perfectly sunny weather and blue sky. We did the "Sentosa Island Package" which included a trip to Fort Siloso, the Merlion and Carlsberg Tower.

Grandma really wanted to go tour Fort Siloso because she is a history buff and was really interested in Singapore's role in World War 2. The fort was very well laid out, and I learned a lot about the Japanese occupation. Looking at pictures of people held in the Japanese prisoner of war camps was truly horrifying. They were similar to the pictures of prisoners that were held in Hong Kong, and I read a book about the Bataan Death March in the Philippines which sounded even more gruesome, and a book about when the Japanese invaded Nanking in Chin which sounded the worst of all. It is astounding to think that all of these atrocities occurred only a shot time ago, within Grandma's lifetime! Seeing those images made me think about the current tensions between China and Japan, due to the Japanese trying to gloss over, deny or even glorify their war time actions, depending on how you interpret the Japanese leaders visiting war shrines for their World War 2 leaders. I am all for calm international relations, but it is dangerous to forget the past.

We moved on from Fort Siloso to the Merlion. I think they included that in the package only because no one else would ever visit the Merlion otherwise. Basically, it was a giant Merlion statue that you could go into and watch a very cheesy movie about the origin of the Merlion myth. We had a slight crisis when we couldn't figure out how to get back up to the cable car terminal without walking. It was hot and Grandma would do anything to avoid walking back up the steps! We couldn't read the map and ended up getting lost and walking very far. Grandma's face was bright red, and I think one of the park workers was concerned so he drove down to where we were walking and asked if we needed help. We told him we wanted to find the quickest was to get back to the cable car terminal and he pointed up a very long and steep path...then he did a u-turn and drove up the hill! Grandma and I were like, "Why did he drive all the way down here and then point us up the hill? Why couldn't he give us a ride back up?" It was confusing...

We finally made it up the hill and went for a ride in the Carlsberg Tower. It is basically one of those rotating rides that go up a pole so that you can get a 360 degree view of your surroundings, sort of like the one at Sea World. It was nice, and we could see all the gorgeous beaches on the island. If Matt and I ever go to Singapore, I would like to explore the beaches more! Also on the island were a Shangri-La resort, an aquarium, a butterfly enclosure and some hiking trails. There are a lot of things for a tourist to do in Singapore, much more than in Hong Kong. Singapore is very well set up for travelers, and I think it is a good thing because it seems like Hong Kong is taking the lead as a business center for Asia. For instance, Matt's company used to have and office in Singapore but they moved it to Hong Kong because it is more business friendly. It seems like a lot of the expats in Hong Kong used to live in Singapore.



Grandma in the topical paradise of Sentosa Island 


Another Merlion 


I loved the Colonial-style buildings 


Meagan on top of the Merlion 


Grandma at Fort Siloso 


Meagan at Fort Siloso 


Meagan on the cable car 


Grandma on the cable car 


Meagan at the Cable Car terminal 

Shopping on Arab Street

My favorite day in Singapore is the day that Grandma and I went shopping on Arab Street. I am not sure why it was my favorite day...I am not a huge fan of shopping and most of the stuff for sale was similar to things I have seen before, in India and Indonesia. I didn't even buy much, plus it was raining. Despite all of this, it was my favorite day. For some reason it was really fun.

Grandma bought a lot of stuff at one shop in particular. I think it was called Dilip's Textiles or something like that. It was owned by an Indian family and they were very nice. I am not sure what it is about Grandma, but we got the royal treatment wherever we went! There was a very old and frail man, and I talked to him for a bit and he was very eager to talk about Delhi. I told him I had been to new Delhi and to Friend's Colony in particular, and he talked about how nice it was there and what was different about Singapore. He was nice, and his son was too. His son was in charge of the selling, and I really liked the way they didn't try to pressure you or follow you around the store like they do in a lot of stores in Asia. Grandma ended up buying alot of stuff there cause they had table cloths and sarongs and wall hangings. She also bought a lace table cloth which was alot cheaper than the one she had just bought in the US.

We walked around more, and stopped for lunch. Grandma bought alot of fabric at one store, because she wants to make a caftan. The man there was so impressed that I Grandmother and garandaughter would be travelling together. It almost brought tears to his eyes as he was telling us about how he didn't get to spend enough time with his own grandma. I think that is why Grandma and I kept getting such good reactions from people we met, they really appreciated grandparents and grandchildren spending time together. They loved it! You know, the whole "respect for elders" thing that other cultures have. (We have it too I guess, but somehow it seems less prominent in Western values.) The man at the shop was going on about how I could learn so much from Grandma and then he gave us both free gifts: tissue box covers! Haha! The other store gave us water and gave Grandma a free gift.

In the course of our trip, LOTS of people asked if Grandma was my mom. We would say, no, she is my grandma. They seemed to be amazed and intrigued by this! One time we were getting out of a taxi, and Grandma was already out on the curb, and I was still inside and the driver said, "Is that your mom?" I said, "No, it's my Grandma." He said, with a look of complete amazement and awe, "Your Grandma? But she's so fit!"

There is a sad part to that story...I told Grandma what the taxi driver said, thinking it was such a major compliment that she would be flattered. Instead she said, "He must have meant "so fat", not "so fit"!"

Anyway, it was a fun day. I bought Matt a really cool silk shirt that is baby blue, but when the light catches it at certain angles it looks magenta. Haha! I am not sure if he will ever wear it...I also got him a shirt that is made out of a paisley print material that was really common in Singapore. He has actually already worn that shirt and I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I don't usually buy him shirts, but for some reason they kept appearing so I figured I may as well buy them.

I kept thinking the whole day that Mom would have loved Arab Street. It had a lot the beautiful and interesting fabrics that India has, plus other types of fabric, only it was a lot cleaner and more orderly.


Grandma inspecting an Indian tapestry 


Meagan and Grandma discussing a potential purchase... 


Pretty buildings near Arab Street 


Meagan in front of a mosque near Arab Street 


Grandma bargaining for fabric