Many Happy Returns... to Hong Kong

It's my birthday and I'll post if I want to (even though I haven't got much to say). Happy Birthday to me! Hooray! I'm 31!

01 Fast Cars, HK

HK is a pretty exciting place to have a birthday, all things considered.  Last night we went to the HK Cultural Centre to see Mahler's 5th Symphony. I thought it was excellent, although, not having yet seen 'Mahler: Episode 6' I didn't know what would happen in the future and so wasn't quite able to put the prequel into context.  After that, we went to Peking Garden where we polished off a whole Peking duck, served (as it traditionally is) with pancakes, hoisin sauce, cucumber, spring onion and Heinz tomato ketchup. Ok, not really with ketchup.  We actually would have been quite happy with half a duck but they aren't grown that way.  We didn't feel too guilty weightwatcherwise as we'd earlier done Stage 8 of the Hong Kong Trail: "the Dragon's Back".  This was an 8.5km trail over an undulating  ridge on the south west tip of Hong Kong island. It was marked on the trail map as being 'extremely strenuous' and for 'very experienced' hikers only.  Well, either these Hong Kongers are a bit wimpy or Rach and I are totally buff and rugged. In any event we didn't find it too much of a struggle, compared to our ascent of Sri Pada in Sri Lanka, that is. By the way, this kind of smug country-dropping will only get worse as we go on, so you'd better get used to it.  We'd prepared for the hike with a fabulous dim sum brunch at Cuisine Cuisine (in IFC mall), the best food we've had here so far.  We tried about 8 different kinds of dim sum between the four of us, including steamed octopus and green pea dumplings which were green and shaped to look like an octopus. The chef had obviously never been told it's rude to play with your food.

02 Seafood on Lamma Island, HK

The day before that we'd had a lazy one, recovering from an unusually big night (for two such middle-aged backpackers) out on the town the previous night.  We'd started with Capirinhas at Aria bar under 2 Exchange Square, then enjoyed a fine meal at Bizou up on Elgin St in Soho, and finished off with Russian cocktails (make mine a 'Lenincolada') at Balalaika in Lan Kwai Fong.  Fortunately, this city is made for both partying and lazing - we had a quiet morning eating health food at Life Restaurant and then took a tram into Causeway bay to check out the shops and see the Excelsior, where Rach used to stay when she came here for work. All very swish. In the evening R took me out for a pre-birthday meal at Cru, where we had Peking duck quesadillas and seared tuna with sesame seed crust, served with wasabi mayonnaise, followed by steamed fish with lime and sweet chili and rack of lamb with a parmesan and cumin crust, served with a huge bowl of wasabi mash. It was all very good indeed and the appearance of wasabi all over the place and prolific use of the word 'crust' can only be a good thing, in my view.

02 Shopping...for wealthy people

Tonight we're going out (on my actual birthday, coincidentally) to Felix for dinner and drinks overlooking the harbour.  This was a wedding present so we're really looking forward to it. We're also going to be moving into the Grand Hyatt Hotel later today  - another wedding present - so we're feeling jolly pampered at the moment and would certainly like to come back here some day.  Such a shame we have to put back on our rucksacks and flip-flops soon and return to budget-travelling in SE Asia. Ho hum. How long before we get to Tahiti? (T)

03 Shopping...for everyone else

05 Freaky fishhead snuff movie

06 HK night vision

07 International Finance Centre 1