My trip to Hong Kong...

[Hawkeye]

great pics!! Thanks for sharing. Did you see any Flowerhorns (freshwater mutations)? I use to raise them prior to saltwater?

I didn't really notice...was too busy trying to take pics without being noticed...hahah.

Wow that must of been a great trip! Someday I would love to go. The camera sterotype is def true. Fish in bags ready to go like a bag of chips, lol. Were all the aquarium stores using the knockoff leds?

Didn't notice...(see above).

awesome. i wish i knew chinese to go there . someday i will go when both of my sons old enough

Hey man! how goes it? as a british colony for 99 years - almost everyone there can speak english.

 

[Hawkeye]

wow i totally love the picture man. they really did catch my attention. just being curious jorge were you able to find and store that make tanks reef ready or just plain?

who's jorge? Anyways I didn't find any tank makers there.

Awesome pictures. So I have to ask, how many times did people cut the lines in ocean park? Omg. When I was there I got so tick off, I started body checking people cutting in front of me.

While its a cool place, when we went into the aquarium section, so many people were jammed in I was very afraid for the kids. The pandas were a great thing to see.

The family and I love Hong Kong, food and the sites are awesome. We'll have to trade notes.

LOL - that's usually the mainlanders. They were a big pain in the neck at Disneyland and Ocean Park. Definitely let's chat one day and compare notes!

Stuffed angry bird for $399 ?

Hahah - check this out: Hello Kitty in GOLD. Check out the price!!!! But it is a 7.8 (legit) to 1 conversion. The rip off artists gave 7 to 1.

Very Very nice. It looks like you all had a great time there.

I've never been to a foreign country dragging along 2 little kids...so it was first for me. It was fun but really tiring.

Wow Phil, thanks for sharing all those photos! I’ve always had interest to visiting that part of the world, but couldn’t take an entire day of travel….that’s the hard part.

Can’t believe they eat cuttlefish! But I’m sure there were other delectable items that were more bizarre than that.

And Alex (Shluzer), I believe the exchange rate is around 7.75 Hong Kong dollars for every 1 US dollar. So that angry big bird at 399 HK would be about 52 US.

And one more thing…wasn’t Hong Kong under British rule for 99 years? So don’t a good number of the residents speak English? Was there a language problem or can you speak the language?

I don't speak the language - my wife does. I can pass by with some menial cantonese and then get overwhelmed with rapidfire return answers that go over my head. LOL. It was a lot of fun but yes you are right - the flight there (16 hours plus) was a bit tiring to say the least.

 

[Hawkeye]

Last time I was there I had Mantis Shrimp, it was prepared with a mound of fried garlic and chili peppers (aka, Typhoon Chili crab/shrimp). It was pretty good, it was like the size of a lobster tail and the taste of shimp.

All kidding a side, HK is one of the easiest International trips to take. Your dollar is still worth something (unlike Europe) and you can find any type of food you want there. Yes, there are McD's, Pizza huts, KFC, and the like, but if you are going there, you will get some of the best chinese food in the world (as long as you go to the right places).

Check it out folks - Pizza hut is like GOURMET dining in HK:

Great pics Phil! Thanks for sharing. It's always interesting to see what other cultures have to offer.

Of all the pics, I'd say that giant lobster caught my eye the most. I've never seen a lobster look so beautiful that I'd hesitate to eat it! That one would make me think about if for a while at least.

Thanks man! Your thread on your trip to the carribean is what inspired this thread!!! I tried to pick up the lobster but there were some sharp barbs on the antennae!!!

Thanks for the picture show.Im wondering about the fish in a bag.Maybe they know something we dont.Its nice to see how differant cultures do things.Welcome back

No problem!!! I really wanted to get more pics of the aquarium shops there but that was like our first/second day and I was exhausted (kids driving me crazy!).

 

[Hawkeye]

One other big change that you cannot tell is that people in HK are extremely "efficient" and want to move quickly. You thought grand central station in NYC is crazy. The escalators/man movers in HK move about 10x the speed of the fastest escalator I've been on in the US. After 10 days of traveling on these things - I almost laughed at the speed of the escalator at Newark Airport / Menlo Park Mall.

Here are some of the HUGE escalators (note - no trash, no gum no dirt, no smell...the way a REAL subway should be run):

Again - Canon is very popular:

Escalators at Kowloon station (and more evidence of how clean the place is):

More hobbystuff - yes realistic guns:

Imagine buying somethign here and trying to makei t past TSA...hahaha

These tanks were the size of a nano tank / bc29:

 

[Hawkeye]

So trivan mentioned pushing and shoving...that happened to me twice - the second time was far worse and it happened on the way to Victoria Peak.

the line went around the corner...this was the few days that was bright/clear - it had been overcast most of our trip - but highs of 80, low of 70. Far warmer than here in the US. Towards the end of the trip it was mid-low 70s.

The crazy line inside the tram station, this where the pushing/shoving happened.

The tram deposited us directly into a Mall. Apparently everything in HK is centered around a mall these days. 20 yrs ago this was just a mountaintop with trees and a few platforms.

Inside the mall was a madame tussauds:

My man bruce lee:

bio on bruce:

A pic of the tram from above as it made it's way up the mountain:

From the top - you had some fabulous views of Central (downtown HK) and the harbor

note big black building is my asia office building...hahah

IM pei designed building - been there for years:

Harbor pics at night, my brother in law had this amazing harbor view:

 

[Hawkeye]

Finally - we made the pilgrammage to disney...my kids would've killed me if we didn't:

Apparently they don't like it's a small world...i loved it...!!!

Check it out- empty boat! It took longer walking around the path to get to the boat than waiting!

This place opened on the 18th of November - unbeknownst to us. So the queues/lines were enormous!

Anyways - I noticed the food selection was different...hhahaha

Cool fountain...

I probably took over 600 pics...but i'm not going to bore you guys with photos of my family etc. Hope you enjoyed the photo-menagerie as much as I enjoyed being there!

I can finally say that no one can post this:

for this thread!!! LOL.


oh and as the holidays are upon us - a tree for you to think about! lol:

 

[Daniel]

Awesome photos !!