HongKongavong Adventure!: 2013

Whoops. It's been quite a while...It seems like we've finally settled into the flow of the big city and WOW time can pass by quickly. It feels like we've only been here a month or two, seriously, where the heck did the time go?!

But whether I believe it or not..it's almost May. Which means the best news of all; my parents get here in less than a week!! :) and not to mention my vacation is in less than 2 weeks. THANK GOODNESS. I'm in desperate need of a vacation, the 6 day work weeks are taking a tole on my sanity. Well...it's either the work weeks..or the rain. Maybe both. It's not even the rainy season and some how we've been getting thunderstorms like it's nobody's bidniss. They are fun though :) mainly because it stays about 80 all day and once it starts raining it feels like you're in a shower. I left for work the other day and it was beautiful out, super sunny and warm..perfect day for beer on the waterfront (of course I didn't listen to the weather forecast) as soon as I was heading home from work, I got out of the MTR in a tank top, flip flops and no umbrella..just to see the beginning of a thunderstorm. UGH. I got stuck trying to walk up stream while the water was flowing into the alleyway where the MTR exit was..slipped. lost a flip flop. hobbled back. and by then it was too late, I was completely drenched. Good thing I had no plans that night except to go home and sit on my butt while watching Suits. I stopped by 711 to grab handfuls of candy and ice cream though, so my night DID get better..eventually ;)

Eric and I did get to tour around a bit more. Even though our schedules never go along with one another. That's the bad part about only getting Sundays off..Eric always works Sundays here. :( womp womp. We did get to check out Ocean Park one day, only for a half day, but well worth it! SO much fun. Next on the list is Disneyland :D Hopefully my mama will want to check that out while she's here?!...crossing my fingers. I also got to go to Thailand for a weekend, it's so nice being able to do that. Hop on a plane on a friday and 2 hours later you're on a beautiful white sand beach. AMAZING. Anyways, Natasha and I had a blast in Phuket, we stayed near Patong Beach and laid out both days...got absolutely FRIED but also, well worth it!

Other than that, we've been mostly laying low. Going to our favorite restaurants and favorite whole-in-the-wall bars, staying in quite a bit too. Last weekend was our friend Jordie's birthday, his parents live up at the peak so the view is absolutely incredible. He hosted a huge beer pong tournament with about 30 people, SO much fun. The people there asked us if it's true that everyone plays beer pong when they go to "uni" in the states and that they have it at every party..we had to think about it at first, we didn't realize that it was true..hahah oh well, I guess that means we just practice a lot? :)

Last night was also pretty rough.."beer pong in wanchai" turned into "dinner at brickhouse -- drinks and hookah at ilan -- free shots -- more shots -- and LKF" ugh. Paying for it today.

Tonight I'm going to a friend's birthday dinner with some other girls. Should be a low key night..but who knows..Whenever I say that I seem to have a wild night. I need to stop doing that.

One of the bonuses about my job is that if I work my butt off to get projects completed and stay really late a few days, I can end up getting off really early one day. This is what happened when I found out that Eric had last Wednesday off! :) Worked late on Sunday evening, then stayed late on Monday and Tuesday, went in early Wednesday and got off by noon! Our CFO had a book on hiking in Hong Kong..WITH pictures!! So of course I immediately started browsing the book for beaches. It was supposed to be 26 degrees Wednesday (Celsius of course, everybody here goes by celsius..confused me a bit at first but now I think I'm cool because I understand it..:D) For those of you "non-celsius" users...basically everybody because I don't really understand the point of celsius being used for weather in the first place..makes it seem a lot colder than it really is. ugh. Anyways..it was going to be around 78-80 degrees, with humidity at 90%..so it only seemed right to be outside.

As soon as I got off we started the trek to Sai Kung (hour long bus ride after getting off the MTR)..then took another bus to Pak Tam Chung Station (15 mins) then found out that it's a 3 hour hike to get to Long Ke beach.. YA RIIIIIIIGHT. So we took a cab to the East Dam (apparently a lot of people do that.. we're not the only lazy ones I swear!) From East Dam, it's only a 25 minute hike to the beach..and the hike was absolutely beautiful!! I cannot wait for my parents to come visit so that we can take them there! It was amazing..I think the entire time Eric and I were looking at each other with the same kind of "holy crap we live here!" look. Dang. It was so cool.

The hike down was super easy, a bunch of stairs. At the moment we didn't think about the stairs at all, we had our eyes on the prize! The beach had just come into view and the water looked so clear that all we could think about was getting down there as quick as possible! As soon as we arrived on the beach, shoes and socks came off and we made the initial sprint to the water! It wasn't until a few minutes later that we started to realize that it was only us and 3 others on the entire beach..everyone that was there when we arrived was just passing through..weirdos. It was so hot and the water was cool! What were they thinking?

So we ignored it and continued to enjoy our day in the sun, we took naps on the beach, dipped in the water, played in the waves, and at about 4:30 we decided to start heading back (the horse races were starting at 7:30 and we were meeting our friend Cherry there--by the way, shout out to Casey Knuth for introducing us to Cherry! She's so great!) It wasn't until we started on those stairs that we realized this "easy" hike..not so easy anymore. Majority of the hike to get back to the East Dam was up hill..which meant stairs...the ENTIRE way. That mixed with the humidity and my asthma..we were in a world of trouble. haha, as soon as we conquered the stairs (it actually wasn't totally awful..just not something you want to do after taking a nap on a beach and eating a hold bag of sour cream and cheddar ruffles) we made it to the cab pick up and headed back to Sai Kung to get back on our bus :)

We made it home at about 7..and immediately changed our plans with Cherry to just grab food instead..we were exhaaaausted. Met up with Cherry at 7:45 in LKF and she took us to this awesome little spot called "Brickhouse". Started by a chef from Austin, Texas..so you can imagine how at-home we felt! Graffiti on the walls, good drinks, great food and such good music. Not to mention it was down some random alley that's covered by an old dude selling purses. You gotta know where you're going to get there. at 7:45 there was a 45 minute wait, perfect amount of time to grab a lychee martini across the road at Ilan..and it felt good to know that we finally got the "in" there. We went to Ilan for about 15 minutes and as soon as we arrived they started asking us how we've been, the token old man that always is there came up and shook our hands and was excited to see us! They then told us that anytime we come in there, they will give us the "buy 2 get 1 free" martini deal, so awesome..because those lychee martinis go down like water..really freaking good tasting water.

Brickhouse was so ridiculously good, that we decided to go there again on Friday, and we told some of our friends about it and now we're going again tomorrow night! haha..soon enough we're gonna be regulars..I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. There are so many cool little places around here..a lot of places you have to know about because most places don't advertise. Friday, our friend Jeannie took us to this rooftop bar in the middle of LKF.. you went into an apartment building and took the "lift" (because elevators aren't called elevators here) to the 20th floor! So amazing!..If only I could remember which apartment building in LKF it was....hmm.

Tonight Eric and I are celebrating our much belated Valentines Day dinner. whoops! We got a recommendation to go to WoolooMooloo in TST East from Cherry. I made the reservation without even looking at the food or the website really...we trust Cherry's taste when it comes to cool places to go in Hong Kong. She's the one that introduced us to Brickhouse afterall ;) So as soon as I made the reservation, I started looking at where it was..HOLY MOLY I am so excited for dinner now!! haha...not that I wasn't before..but seriously..this restaurant is on the 21st floor on the Kowloon side, which means you get the full view of the Hong Kong skyline! And luckily I made our reservations at 7:30, because come 8pm we'll get a great front row seat for the lazer light show! OWOWW!

On a side note, my Hong Kong ID got approved yesterday! :) I go pick it up tomorrow and then head to Macau on Eric's day off!..I think we're going to try the bungee jumping..it's the tallest bungee jump from a building in the world! yikes. We'll see how that plays out..

Sai Kung Country Park!

I spy a little puppy in the middle!

Puppy surrounded by water..and turtles..how the heck did the little guy get there?

Eric was so happy to see turtles!

He loves me so much :D haha

Owoww! Start of the hike!

Eric found a bamboo stick..he was so happy

First pretty view we got, and we thought THIS was amazing!

Sooo warm

Cutie pants ;)

He seriously didn't put the stick down..it's now just sitting in our apartment..he said it's good luck. haha

First glance over the mountain!

Yikes! Steep trail!

haha I was a little excited

I SEE BEACH!

Instagram takes over from here on out

So much cow poop on the trail

For your information I am not throwing up a peace sign..that is the number 2 to show that we've made it to Maclehose Trail part 2! haha..Eric still thinks I'm turning Asian..