Good Times in Mother Kong

This my first ever blog, and the latest in a long line of "firsts" from the past few days. Let me tell you about a few...

I've now been closer to the North Pole than I ever imagined I would be. My flight to Hong Kong was epic - we flew northeast (it seemed) from NJ, up over Labrador, the Davis Strait, Iqualuit, Greenland, and the North Pole! So we went over the top of the globe and then came down over the north of the ex-USSR - I don't know what it is now but maybe Siberia? Then over northern China, Beijing, and into Hong Kong. The flight took fifteen and a half hours, the monotony of which was broken for me by a hiliarious movie, Run Fatboy Run, some addictive logic puzzles, and a spike of adrenaline to my entire nervous system when we hit turbulence over Russia somewhere, and the plane bounced around like on the first episode of Lost, right before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. I was relieved to touch down in Hong Kong, and even more relieved to see Jonners in the crowd of people in the arrival hall, towering above all the Asians, waiting for me as I came out of the baggage claim. Here's a picture of the Hong Kong skyline.


My next challenging experience for growth (haha) was at the Mirador Mansion, where our "guest house" is. Our guest house is more like a cluster of rooms in a sprawling, slightly run-down highrise which is full of lots of other guest houses, garment factories, shops, and small apartments. We are on the 12th floor. Our room is tiled all in white (floor, walls, and ceiling), with a blue all-in-one bathroom where you can shower as you are sitting on the toilet and spitting your toothpaste into the sink. Here's me in the room!


As there is a lot of open air hallways, stairways, and a courtyard far below, the effect seemed to me like being inside a suspended white tile shoebox far, far above the ground. And as some of you may already know (memories of the train bridge in St. Jacob's), I am really, REALLY scared of heights.

I fell asleep my first night in Hong Kong feeling like the city was getting the best of me. But I didn't let it keep me down. I breathed deep, prayed for a safe trip (out of our guest house in case of fire, at least!), imagined calm moments like riding my mountain bike at night through the forest or Big P giving me a hug (shout out to you, Peter!) and convinced myself that the good times would be waiting for me the next day. And they were...




This is Jon and I on Lantau Island, where Jon did his adventure racing earlier this year. We crossed over on the ferry this morning, and the first thing I noticed was that the place was full of bikes. We were hopeful that we could get in on the bike action, and sure enough, found a place renting them. We jumped on our matching Merida Pinkys (which seemed to be a famous brand on the island) and had an amazing day exploring the island. Our bells and brakes were well-used, and so were our legs by the end of the afternoon.



This is the base of a beautiful waterfall, with lush tropical plants all around, and strange little inch worms covering all the flat surfaces. I discovered the inch worms by accident when I put my hand down on the stone fence and it came away covered with moving creatures!

We toured around on our bikes for the afternoon, checking out a Buddhist temple, another waterfall, and little villages in the mountains. It started raining pretty hard, so we took a break by the covered gate to an unoccupied villa up in the hills. Here I am, waiting for the rain to let up a bit.



It was a great day. In the end, the rain kept coming, so we just rode around in the rain, which made the descent back to the beach a slick adventure. Jon had great style on the way down - good form, confidence, and no wipeouts on the corners. I made it down as well, but with my foot out a few times and more screaming brakes (got to remember that the back brake is on the left, not the right!). It was excellent. We finished off the day with a treat that reminded me of home - a dinner of curried chicken casserole as tasty as the curried beef brisket from our favourite Chinese restaurant in Waterloo.

So here I am, in Asia at last. After a rocky start to our relationship, Mother Kong has become my friend!