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Everyday Strangeisms

First of three thoughts:

As I was leaving the grocery store w/ paper towels and cereal filling my arms (you have to pay for bags here and I'm cheap), I was thinking that it's so very odd that there are escalators entering and exiting the grocery store we go to.... Every time I step on that thing when we're leaving the store I almost eat it! It's not a normal escalator, it's a devil escalator that goes at high speeds just to mock the poor person who has their arms full... I don't know how the senior citizens survive it!

Secondly:

 You would never know how much you actually appreciate the fact that you GET to do your own laundry.  There are not laundromats in Hong Kong.  Not ONE.  Nor are there laundry facilities in my building.  Thus I have to take my clothes to be laundered.  The first time was a horrible experience.  I had separation anxiety from my clothes.  They don't hang anything to dry, it all gets thrown into these blazing infernos of dryers to suck out any colours that may have inhabited your clothes and then burns into it any stains that may have magically appeared.... Such as pit stains.  What the heck?  17 brand new white tops that never had any staining before all of a sudden are stained when I pick them up... That's magical.  Lockey had a white shirt that somehow got back and it had a very groovy yellow tie dyed effect going on... And as he grabbed the first pair of board shorts that he's ever paid for I gasped at the rust colour stains in a whiskers pattern as though they were trying to be trendy jeans.  So you can see my hesitation in getting my laundry done.  Please appreciate that you CAN do your own laundry.  (I'm writing this to remind myself in years to come that I really do prefer my laundry done my way, shocking I know!)

Third, but not most importantly:

Stairs.  I feel like the stairs and hills are never ending here.  I wake up in the morning and I run stairs and hills.  When I return to my apartment complex I get to walk up 3 and a half flights of stairs.  We hike.  We hike even when we are just trying to make it to the beginning of our hike.  We walk up stairs at the MTR (subway).  There are constantly stairs.  My issue is this: Why are they not getting any easier?  It should be like drugs, your body builds up a tolerance to drugs, so you just take more... My body should get used to stairs, and then I'll just climb more... or something like that.  (And it's not just me in case anyone was wondering, Lockey still doesn't like climbing those flights of stairs to our apartment either, and no there is no elevator, we're high class.)

Short and sweet like coconut and mango!

Tuesday we went to Wan Chai and to pick up our passports (We were getting visas to go to mainland China).  The first time we were there dropping off our passports we could smell something coconutty close to the McDonalds, but knew it wasn't McDonalds, so tried to follow our noses.... It didn't work, so when we went back this time we tried again... We found it!  These are little "egg cupcakes"  they are kinda like waffles, but crispy and hollow and made w/ a coconutty batter.  you could just break off each individual egg, it was splendid! 

We then went and bought our Japan Rail pass which was more than our flights to Japan.  I'm guessing that our budget is going to be blown on our Japan trip contrary to our best efforts!  But we're still thrilled to be going!  

After that little side trip we walked to the Temple Street market.  We wanted DVD's... which we found, but we had to ask a guy who was only selling Blu rays if he had any DVD's... he told us to follow him, and he took us through a door to a back room with a curtain in front of it and there was his stash of DVDs... we payed 100HKD just over 10 bucks for 4 DVDs... you think they are legit? 

After the market it was time for dinner... we thought this bazaar would be interesting, and cheap... It wasn't that cheap... nor was it that interesting... But it was funny... who eats in a tent in the middle of the city?  

just a street close to the Temple Street Market, Lockey said it reminded him of where he stayed when he came w/ his dad and Bradey. 

We had been looking for mangoes the last few days as we had finished our last one and couldn't find one close by... but I saw some at a mans fruit booth on the street and picked it up and boy did he yell at me! "DON'T TOUCH!!!!"  I would've left except I really wanted the mango so I made Lockey deal w/ him.  So anyways, we got our mango, and if you think it is odd how I really wanted this mango wait until you see it... I think it is called a Queen Mango.  And they are HUGE and Juicy... and very heavy to take on a train ride home, but oh so worth it... 

bigger and heavier than a swack of bananas! 

Lockey and I also went climbing one day this week, and I ripped my hands up really good... lots of tape was used!  And then Lockey went yesterday and ripped up his pinkies!  The holds are brutal!  Hopefully we'll get our hands all callused up again!  

Stay tuned for more fun and adventures! 

Celebrities Wax On, Wax Off!

On Monday we went to Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum at The Peak... rather than hiking up this time we took the tram.  Wise choice.  I don't know if we have ever mentioned how HOT it is here, but it is dang hot, and super humid.  It has been a teeny bit cooler this past week, which we are enjoying but if you want to enjoy a museum w/out being sweaty, it's best not to hike there.  So these pictures are pretty fun.  We had a great time being silly and seeing the crazy wax celebrities... and FYI it takes 1 person 140 hours to put a full head of hair on one of the wax figures.  They do it strand by strand.

Lockey was very surprised at how tall Nicole Kidman was! 

We got to play dress up!  

Lockey looked prettier in the skirt. This wax model actually spun to music when you twisted the key! Very cool, and her dress was super intricate.

I have vampire fangs, so this was fitting.  

I read a book called Madam Tussaud and it was all about the wax museum she had in Paris and the french revolution, so it was cool to see the time line behind us in this picture as well as some pictures from back in the day.  And I was shocked to see how tiny Marie Tussaud was!  That's Crazy!

The bloody heads were actually "death masks" made from the heads of people that were killed by the guillotine, and this is a picture of some of the original ones she made.  She made some of Robespierre and King Louis XVI as well as his wife Marie Antionette.  She did this only to preserve her own life. 

Naught naughty Saddam Hussein....

Lockey is not a fan of Hitler

It was funny, Lockey was shaking his head in this picture... Apparently he had some tips for Shakespeare.

Anyone know who this artist is?  The name has now slipped my mind... but he does good work ;)

Einstein and his brilliant protege....

I'd say Hitchcock looks pretty scary here... 

This picture is for Ethan! We totally met Spiderman! We said hi for you!

Oh is that Victoria Beckham?

Yao's totally getting stuffed

Pretty sure it looks like I'm in a romance w/ this Asia dude... don't worry it was all Lockey's idea.

Lockey and his gay pirate friend

Lockey was very popular during this photo shoot... the Asians thought he was hilarious... we couldn't understand what they were saying... (probably something about how he's a lady boy or something), but they were all laughing! 

Lockey advising Tiger on golf, not women.  

Again, we had quite the audience while we were dressing up!  This was a lot of fun... and I actually have cleave! 

Lockey's got a great butt! 

apparently smelling your opponents armpits gives you an advantage.... 

That was the first punch... I wouldn't stick around for the backlash!

Ain't nothin but a hound dog!

K he's like a lot skinnier than me... eat a sandwich. 

Lockey fits right in! 

Who knew Lady Gaga was so mini?  or that in Asia they call her Gaga Lady... See the sign in the background.

Lockey is way too much fun! 

Madonna is Lockey's backup dancer

View from the peak 

We are singing in this picture... In West Philadelphia born and raised, quick finish that line! 

We're pretty much gangsters.... I mean gangstas.... 

Game over!

Creatures, Nature and Hiking Galore

Let's see how many of you will follow us through two posts in one day.  Post something at the end of this if you made it through. 

We were going to wake up early and go on another hike, but waking up early turned into sleeping in late.  That's what you get when everyday is a holiday I guess.  The hike branched off from where we hiked last week and was supposed to be around 25km and was personally recommended by Gary, one of our new friends from the ward.  

Because we are cheap we walked to the bus station, but walked past it and had to back track and it turned into an hour walk around Downtown.  It was a good warm up. 

Cool building on the way to our Bus, on the way to our hike

Once we get to our bus stop, we started our first hill climb to our trailhead near park view.  Cami needed to stop for a bathroom break so I practiced my superman push ups.

I pushed out thirty of these and then turned it into a dip and repped out another thirty of those.  No big deal

So we decided to skip the part that we did last week and walked down this reservoir road full of fun picnic tables and some families picnicking a the fun picnic tables.

It was a nice little jaunt with some magical friends along the way.  This little guy Cami described copper lizard that was going through a little oxidation.  Does anyone remember the pneumonic device they taught us in school to remember what is happening during oxidation.  LEO - GER - Losing electrons... Cami didn't remember that one either.

Leo the Lizard 

Much of the trail followed this reservoir that is in the background.

Smiles

Pretty Butterfly 

This is a book Gary gave us.  I think we are on the right path

Highlight of the trek was this little creek that turned into a waterfall.

Another Magical Critter this is the exceptionally rare and beautiful Pinkillus Camillus 

This is the upper part of the Waterfall 

Smooches 

So Cami thought one of these pictures should go in and she put one of me smiling, but if we are putting something like this in, then it has to be as creepy as possible.  I am wearing some boxers here, not naked, so that is my first disclaimer and the second is that I was being goofy, so don't think that I'm trying to be all serious or something and my third is......, well there isn't a third, but with a picture like this there should be a third.  

First Spider friend of the hike.  Check out the crazy long front legs!!!

Pretty berries in Macro

Pretty view of the Dam 

This was our second Spider, lots bigger and scarier

Sun beams over the bay.  We came from the middle peak and still have another hour to go at this point. 

Only 6 hours later and we are finished, minus the 300m of stairs behind us and a bumpy bus ride back 

So you should get the story from the pictures.  It was a good hike and we had tons of fun playing in the water and walking through the Asian scenery, but we were exhausted by the time we were done.

When we got back to the city we saw a cool market that we decided to check out.  We had left at 12:00 so I didn't think that we needed to pack that much food, but we should have packed some sandwiches, like Cami said we should.  Anyway, we found a nice cheap sushi place where we had some sashimi and some ramen noodles with dumplings. Then we headed home and picked up some mini desserts at Mrs. Field's Cookies.  Yum.

Later!!!