Last Sunday I wrote about my “best business trip ever,” the five weeks I spent in Manila in 2006. During one weekend of that period, a co-worker and I took a flight north to Hong Kong for a quick two-day excursion through one of the world’s most exciting and international cities. It was a whirlwind 48 hours, with my co-worker – who had been there before on a month-long assignment – serving as my personal tour guide. Here are a few pictures from that memorable weekend.
Arrival in Hong Kong
Two cool things about the airport, besides its incredible architecture and modernity: when we arrived, we had to go through a scanner that read our body temperatures to make sure we didn’t have SARS; and when we left, we had a small snafu because we had to prove our return to the Philippines was only temporary and we were in fact eventually going to the U.S. As if a couple of pudgy middle-aged white guys would conspire to illegally immigrate to Manila when they were really supposed to return to America. Actually, though, that may not be as far-fetched as it sounds, considering all the creepy Anglo guys we saw predatorily stalking attractive young Filipino women.
Vegetarians, look away
My sincerest apologies if you happen to be reading this over breakfast (or any meal, for that matter). This is an open-air meat cart we encountered on the side streets of the Kowloon district. I won’t attempt to identify any animal types or body parts, since knowing that the leg-like pairing that’s hanging in the foreground were actually monkey lungs wouldn’t make them any less disgusting.
Me and James at high tea
Right before we flew out on Monday afternoon, we stopped in at one of the most exclusive hotels in greater Hong Kong, the Peninsula, for high tea. I was vaguely familiar with the concept and only mildly interested, but my fellow traveler had it “high” on his priority list, so that’s what we had for what I would’ve called lunch. Interesting fact: apparently it’s called high tea because the food (mostly muffin- and scone-like objects) is stacked three levels high, and because there’s tea on the side. Note the glazed look on my face as a bolus of scone attempts to travel from my stomach into my upper intestines.
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