Goodbye Hong Kong

One of the earliest postings on our blog was of the bronze lions that sit outside the HSBC building in Hong Kong. Named Stephen and Stitt, they have been sitting outside HSBC since the early 1900's and even have shrapnel wounds from the Japanese invasion of HK. The current HSBC Bank is renowned for its superior feng shui and rubbing the lions' claws is thought to bring prosperity and good luck so it was natural that we end our time in Hong Kong as we began it, by rubbing the lions' claws.

Tillie's Brush with Fame

Hong Kong is full of local movie stars, none of whom I ever recognize as they are being snapped on the street by the local paparazzi. But we bumped into one of America’s most easily recognized celebrities in Cathay Pacific’s business class lounge while waiting for our flight back home. Lizzie worked up the guts to approach him and to have Tillie’s photo taken with him. He was extremely nice and adored Tillie, and spoke of how he produced a movie called “Matilda’ way back when. Danny DeVito is a class act!

Bye Bye 80 Robinson

80 Robinson Road has been our home away from home for the past 2 years, our snug little nest high in the sky with beautiful panorama views of the Hong Kong skyline and Victoria Harbor. But it didn’t take long for our moving crew to box up our flat and move it out onto the curb for the waiting moving crate and slow boat ride to the US . Adieu 80 Robinson Road!

Ya Ya

There are so many aspects of Hong Kong that we will be sad to leave, but bar none our saddest goodbye will be to our beloved domestic helper Naty or 'Ya Ya' as Ingrid calls her. Of course we will miss Ya Ya's tremendous help in raising Ingrid and Tillie over the past two years but she really has become a member of the family so it will be sad to say bye bye. Ingrid has grown so close to her and loves her dearly. And she doesn't grasp the permanence of our departure tomorrow because we've had her in and out of HK so frequently in the past year. She think saying goodbye to Ya Ya is just a temporary thing.....its really quite sad to watch. But we're still working on getting Ya Ya to come with us to the States so hopefully it will have a happy ending!

Bye Bye Bangkok

Goodbye Bangkok, we'll miss you for now, we had a great trip. Thailand is known as the 'Land of Smiles' which is perfect for our happy little Ingrid who made such cute little friends here. We finished up our trip as we started it -- with food. We planned Ingrid and Tillie's nap schedules perfectly so we could enjoy ourselves at our favorite Thai food spots.

The Last Hurrah -- Off to Bangkok

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives in Asia. But with all our recent travel we're going out strong, so with only one weekend left we decided to pack it up and head to one of our favorite cities in the region: Bangkok.

The purpose of our trip is primarily food-based. We love Thai food and particularly a good bowl of Tom Yum Goong, so we've been patrolling the city's well known restaurants in search of our final fix. We only arrived yesterday afternoon but have already managed 4 bowls, all at established hotel restaurants like the Mandarin and the Peninsula. Tomorrow we plan to go a bit more local.

Big day today as we hit up the National Palace, did some shopping and even managed to squeeze in a wet and wild sunset khlong boat ride on the Chao Phraya river that left us all soaked like we were getting off the log ride at Great America, but we were laughing all the way. Ingrid also made a local friend today with whom she really clicked. More posts to follow.

India Random

India is semi-organized chaos which always makes for great photo subject matter. Add to that the stunning architecture, animals roaming the streets, the beautifully colored fabrics and the very colorful cast of local characters and you get a great photo roll. At times I wished that I could pause time and go around taking pictures of all the interesting characters and street scenes that I saw. Instead a lot of our photos were blurred because they were taken from the back of a car or atop an elephant, or weren't taken at all because I didn't have the nerve to stick my lens in the face of the subject. But here is a photodump of some memorable moments from our trip.