HappyChristmas!!!

That's what the Brits in Hong Kong say anyway. So we just finished a spectacular holiday eat a thon, complete with imported French turkey with all the homemade fixins, fantastic wine and the traditional Christmas apple-rhubarb pie.

We are in Hong Kong with my childhood friend, Dana, her lovely British husband, Justin, and their adorable 17 month old son, Aidan. We arrived a few days ago and have been fully entertained since we stepped off the plane. Dana knows me so well that she had pints of Guiness and gourmet hamburgers waiting for us when we arrived. I'm pretty sure we haven't gone more than a couple of hours without eating since then.

Hong Kong is an incredible island metropolis. Today, after a lovely Christmas service at St. John's Cathedral (complete with an explanation of why Christmas trees are green), we visited Hong Kong Park, a tropical rainforest habitat right in the middle of the city. While watching exotic, brightly colored lorikeets and green imperial pigeons tree hopping in what seemed to them to be their natural habitat, we almost forgot about the the hustle and bustle of the city in the background. It wasn't until I looked up and noticed the skyscrapers (hundreds of them)towering above the chain link fence that I realized I was not on a trek in the jungle.

From there, just for the contrast, we walked to a mall and did a little last minute Christmas shopping. The people here love to shop and they spend a lot of money doing it. Louis Vitton, Hugo Boss, Prada and many other designers I can't even pronounce, much less afford. What did we buy? Food, of course!

Although we miss everyone, especially during this time of celebration and love, we have been welcomed with open arms to Dana's house and by all of her friends here. Eddie and I are both very happy to not be eating daal baat on the streets of Kathmandu or pad thai on Kao San road in Bangkok for Christmas. Of course, we'll have to work off the 5 kilos we will gain here, but every bite is worth it.

Prior to coming to Hong Kong, we spent a couple of days in Pai, a small "new agey" town north of Chiang Mai. It was quiet and relaxed and Eddie and I took a really nice Thai cooking class together. Again, the theme was to eat as much as possible in an afternoon. The food was delicious and we can't wait to have you all over for a Thai food extravaganza.

We went back to Chiang Mai for a night and managed to find our way to a movie theater, where we saw a Thai movie with English subtitles which reminded me a bit of a comical "Cinema Paradiso". Unfortunately, we don't know the name, but it entailed a theater haunted by ghosts (who spent most of their time in the bathrooms), a vertically challenged, obese, drunk movie distributor and, of course, a love story. The theater was really nice, complete with "honeymoon seating", two seats without an armrest between them, for which you pay an extra 20 baht (about 60 cents). We even had popcorn and coke! It was pretty entertaining and a good cultural experience. I'm not sure I'm hooked on Thai movies, however.

From there, we took the overnight sleeper train to Bangkok and arrived just in time to see the lines of monks collecting alms on the street. I tried to buy a food collection to give one of them, but I think the salesperson thought I was trying to buy it to eat it myself, so I just gave the monk cash, which I hope he doesn't waste on cigarettes and whisky. Ok, probably no whiskey, but you do see a surprising number of monks hanging out in the smoking sections of the city and the temples. Interesting...maybe cigarettes are no longer considered one of the 108 earthly desires. Anyway, watching the morning ritual is always interesting and educational.

As usual, we are having a great time and meeting some amazing people, as well as some ridiculous people. Eddie met one of the ugliest travelers ever in Pai. I'll let him describe the interaction in his next post, but the overall gist of it is that even the most patient man in the world couldn't stand the guy, so he must have been horrible. Fortunately, I missed the encounter.

So we'll be here until the 30th and then head back to Bangkok. We hope to spend New Year's Eve in Cambodia at Angkor Wat. We hear from everyone that it's not to be missed.

Eddie's bday is on December 28th, so we're going to do something incredible, I'm sure. If any of you can, please send him a birthday email when you can. It's the big 3-0!!

We will update again in the next couple of days and download some photos as well. We actually have figured out how to do it now, but it takes quite a long time, so we need to have a lot of time to sit around the computer.

We hope all of you have an incredible holiday, whichever one it is you celebrate. We wish you the best in your hopes and dreams and thank you for supporting us in ours. All of our love to you and your families.

Peace!!
Love, Laurie and Eddie