Sai Kung

We had a blast tonight with our friends Trish, Jeff and their 2-year old son Griffin. They’ve got wheels so we made the journey to Sai Kung, a fishing town outside of Hong Kong that is famous for its outdoor seafood restaurants. So what did we have for dinner? Texas BBQ of course! Of all places, Sai Kung has a great BBQ joint owned/operated by an expat Yank and all the beef is flown in from Harris Ranch! Photo’s from the Wild West, cowboy paraphernalia and a wooden Indian out front had me missing the States big time.













After dinner we strolled the waterfront and gawked at the aquarium-quality fish tanks fronting the seafood restaurants. You point to the fish or crustacean and a restaurant worker will scamper over the tanks and hold up your choice for your evaluation. You like it, they cook it. Though you’d need a pretty big party to order the 200lb grouper that is so big it can barely do a U-turn in its tank.

Ingrid and Griffin loved playing with the fish but it got real when they were caught in the crossfire of a cuttlefish ‘inking.’ A customer selected a cuttlefish and as it was being lifted from the tank to meet its maker it shot a beam of ink onto the startled kids!

The creepiest sight were the giant shrimps that appeared to have been raised since birth inside of plastic soda bottles. It was like some sort of sci-fi movie where lifeforms are harvested in pods or something. And why would that make them taste better? Perhaps their meat is more tender because they have lived a life confined to a small bottle, completely devoid of movement. Who knows, maybe the restaurant owner is just a sick and twisted guy.

8 Years On

Bamboo Scaffolds

In order to build ultra modern skyrises Hong Kong's construction crews rely upon scaffolding typically fashioned out of bamboo and plastic zipties. I could watch these guys all day. No one wears a harness or any kind of safety rigging as they spider their way around the scaffolding. It's more like Cirque du Soleil than construction.

Widowmaker

I'm still working up to this delight at my favorite Hong Kong-style cafe.

Auspicious

Hong Kong and Mainland couples flocked to the altar yesterday to take advantage of the numerically auspicious Sept 9, 2009. Some even coordinated their vows to occur at 9:09pm. 'nine, nine,' or 'jiu, jiu' means "for a long time" and all the more nines you can include is all the better.

Happiest Place in Asia

Ingrid and her good friend Colin ('Tully' as she calls him) flexed their season passes at Hong Kong Disneyland this afternoon. Ing took her first merry-go-round ride and you can see from the picture that she doesn't look sold on the experience.

Unique Sense of Style

Ingrid picked out her own clothes this morning. In a contrast of styles, she mixed a camoflauge tee-shirt with bright lifesaver-striped leg warmers.

Star Ferry

Spaaace Maaan

Frank Chu move over. This guy is a local celeb DJ in Hong Kong and he made a scene on an MTR train yesterday, donning his futuristic bee-keeper cum space suit and blasting tunes out of an 80's boombox. As he was cuffed he simply said, "I come from Space. I'm always happy and never complain."

Spiderman Does it Again

Human Spiderman is up to his old tricks again. This morning he freeclimbed 88 floors and higher to the very top of the spire of Kuala Lumpur's iconic Petronas Towers. Those new readers to the blog should know that Ingrid became a very big fan of his after meeting him at a Hong Kong booksigning 18 months ago.