Dear Loyal Bloggers,
We left Bali for 6 days in Hong Kong and were in for a treat. Matt surprised us by offering to pay for three nights in the original Peninsula Hotel, free of charge. It was our wedding present and it was amazing. We got picked up from the airport in their forest green Rolls Royce limosine. Matt entertained himself with the sites while we literally did nothing. The pool occupied a full floor and had floor to ceiling glass walls looking at the HK skyline. It was 3 days of pure luxury. Quite a shock after three plus months mostly spent in rooms for 10 dollars or less. Matt was a little shell shocked paying the bill on our way to our cousins place. He underestimated what we could do in 3 days. One night we went to their famous rooftop restaurant and bar designed by Philippe Starck. They require shoes so we all had to go out and buy some. Matt doesnt own anything but Berks, so it was humorous watching him struggle to put shoes on. After dinner we went to the bar and met a bunch of people. One mother and daughter combo from Portland, Oregon of all places sticks in our memory. The mother was a boisterous woman who seemingly thought out loud, and said one ridiculous thing after another. She made Pat look calm. It didnt matter though, as her daughter was extremely good looking. We appropriately named them Smoke Show and Shit Show. The bathrooms up there were worth going by themselves. The urinals faced a wall of glass looking over the city. Matt and Pat sophmorically snickered that they were peeing on HK. We also went out in the Lan Kwai Fung area with Sashies brother Alexander. Sashie is Pats cousin Wills wife, and it was at her parents place we stayed the last 3 nights in HK. Will and Sashie had yet to arrive and Alexander took us out for a Saturday night. It was comparable to NYC. Fun times. This is when we took the famed Star Ferry looking at perhaps the most famous skyline in the world.
As we said, we spent the last 3 days with Sashies family at their place in Pok Fu Lam. Fantastic place. The view was incredible, looking out on the water and the cargo ships passing by. We spent the first evening on a junk boat with Sashies family and friends for Wills 34th birthday. We landed on Lamma Island and had a seafood feast. As Pats family does, we then proceeded to stay up until 4am solving all the worlds problems. We forgot all of our solutions by the time we woke up. The morning was not kind to Will, who now has a beautiful 2 year old boy, Jasper. Jasper does not care what Will does at 4am, but he does care what Will does when he wakes up at 5am. Kids are tough. Anyway, we spent the next days doing the major HK sites, like The Peak and Happy Valley Racetrack, and had a great time. Sashies parents hospitality was greatly appreciated. We went to some fabulous restaurants. We lived as the locals do for a few days and the experience was invaluable. Between this and the Peninsula, we were sad to get back on our backpacker budget. The only downside was having to pay 350 dollars for a rush Chinese visa, and Matt having a bad reaction to mosquito bites. He seems to have recovered, and so have we. After all, we did spend 6 nights in HK for nothing. Thank you so much to OUR wonderful brother, Matthew Jerome, for a perfect wedding present.
Next were off to the mainland for a month in the orient.
Until then. Much love and admiration,
S & P
We left Bali for 6 days in Hong Kong and were in for a treat. Matt surprised us by offering to pay for three nights in the original Peninsula Hotel, free of charge. It was our wedding present and it was amazing. We got picked up from the airport in their forest green Rolls Royce limosine. Matt entertained himself with the sites while we literally did nothing. The pool occupied a full floor and had floor to ceiling glass walls looking at the HK skyline. It was 3 days of pure luxury. Quite a shock after three plus months mostly spent in rooms for 10 dollars or less. Matt was a little shell shocked paying the bill on our way to our cousins place. He underestimated what we could do in 3 days. One night we went to their famous rooftop restaurant and bar designed by Philippe Starck. They require shoes so we all had to go out and buy some. Matt doesnt own anything but Berks, so it was humorous watching him struggle to put shoes on. After dinner we went to the bar and met a bunch of people. One mother and daughter combo from Portland, Oregon of all places sticks in our memory. The mother was a boisterous woman who seemingly thought out loud, and said one ridiculous thing after another. She made Pat look calm. It didnt matter though, as her daughter was extremely good looking. We appropriately named them Smoke Show and Shit Show. The bathrooms up there were worth going by themselves. The urinals faced a wall of glass looking over the city. Matt and Pat sophmorically snickered that they were peeing on HK. We also went out in the Lan Kwai Fung area with Sashies brother Alexander. Sashie is Pats cousin Wills wife, and it was at her parents place we stayed the last 3 nights in HK. Will and Sashie had yet to arrive and Alexander took us out for a Saturday night. It was comparable to NYC. Fun times. This is when we took the famed Star Ferry looking at perhaps the most famous skyline in the world.
As we said, we spent the last 3 days with Sashies family at their place in Pok Fu Lam. Fantastic place. The view was incredible, looking out on the water and the cargo ships passing by. We spent the first evening on a junk boat with Sashies family and friends for Wills 34th birthday. We landed on Lamma Island and had a seafood feast. As Pats family does, we then proceeded to stay up until 4am solving all the worlds problems. We forgot all of our solutions by the time we woke up. The morning was not kind to Will, who now has a beautiful 2 year old boy, Jasper. Jasper does not care what Will does at 4am, but he does care what Will does when he wakes up at 5am. Kids are tough. Anyway, we spent the next days doing the major HK sites, like The Peak and Happy Valley Racetrack, and had a great time. Sashies parents hospitality was greatly appreciated. We went to some fabulous restaurants. We lived as the locals do for a few days and the experience was invaluable. Between this and the Peninsula, we were sad to get back on our backpacker budget. The only downside was having to pay 350 dollars for a rush Chinese visa, and Matt having a bad reaction to mosquito bites. He seems to have recovered, and so have we. After all, we did spend 6 nights in HK for nothing. Thank you so much to OUR wonderful brother, Matthew Jerome, for a perfect wedding present.
Next were off to the mainland for a month in the orient.
Until then. Much love and admiration,
S & P
