the meeting

wednesday dec 24th

due to jet lag, lee and i woke up way early like around 7 am, as well as because we both collapsed into bed rather early. after a quick breakfast, tim, lee, my auntie lisa and i headed out onto the mtr to head to chai wan to do some browsing. we wondered along the streets, looked at street vendors which sold old style toys, and waited for my auntie candy, my uncle's wife for our first dim sum of the trip. at the restaurant, i for the first time got to meet my auntie candy. it was nice dim sum lunch, we were able to try out many different new dishes, which we would not have tried in toronto or the quality of the dishes would be lower. after lunch, we browsed through a couple shoe stores because my running shoes were half destroyed and i was desparate for a new pair of running shoes. having not really seen anything that i particularly liked, we headed off to stanley.

stanley is a typical tourist location, its a sea/bay side area where the bay is surround of uber expensive beachside properties. as well as, attractions and eateries that were there just for tourists. it was nice to take a stroll around the beach, but like all typical tourist locations, it was very tourist-y and not very local at all, not what the real hk is like.

we headed to causeway bay after our stop at stanley. the ride to and from stanley is like a rollercoaster ride. as discussed before, the driving in hk is a bit sketchy, so sketchy driving plus intense narrow winding roads makes for a very interesting ride. causebay was literally a shopping paradise for those who enjoy shopping to the n-th degree. it was so crowded there that the fear of getting left behind and be completely lost was so great, i literally hung onto lee to be dragged along in the crowd so we wouldn't lose sight of my auntie candy, who knew exactly where to shop for everything and where we were going for dinner that night. she is an amazing tourguide around hk. at times square, which was this huge mall with 7 floors, i finally bought myself a new pair of pumas and a super nice puma bag. yay, shopping!

dinner was at this northern chinese (shanghai style) restaurant. it was at the 27th floor of this building it was so cool. post dinner, we got took the streetcar over to the place where you hop on the tram to get to the peak. the peak is at the highest mountain in hk, and there is a sky terrace where you can look out over at the skyline of hk. it was so pretty at night, where you can see all the lights that adorn the skyscrapers of hk. as well as the ability to get alway from all the light pollution to see actual stars. the view from the top was just absolutely gorgeous. the tram ride was super fun because of the intense incline that was required to travel up the mountain. lee also have a mini adventure in seach of a bathroom on the peak. (yes, hk publich washrooms are way shady)

tim and i did a mini countdown to christmas. it was nice sitting outside of haagen-daz at the peak to celebrate the first hour of christmas. although, in actuality for a torontonian christmas doesn't really arrive for another 13 hours. it was super nice nonetheless. my grandma's brother who works as a taxi driver picked us and and drove us home. i quickly collapsed into my bed and did not wake up until 8 this morning.

today is finally christmas! i am celebrating christmas with my josh groban noel cd in hk! so excited. lots to do today, and i simply can't wait.