Monday Morning

Not my pics -- BTW!

Well, I'm TRYING to not wake up so early, but I can only lie in bed for so long and I collapsed into bed at 8:30. So, I am enjoying my last night of the Hong Kong skyline. At some time during the night, they turn off the neon lights and gigantic advertisements and the skyline looks a bit more relaxed.

I did forget to mention that we visited the Stanley Market on Sunday, too. I didn't see much to buy, but we did buy some prints and one original painting. We were running late to meet our guide so I passed on the mandarin dog clothes -- Lindsay would have loved them so I'm feeling a bit guilty about that (until I think about how much Sadie and Oliver would NOT have loved them).

I was getting so tired I couldn't make decisions so we let our guide take us to a jewelry store -- I've read about others who get taken on these "tours" so I was a bit interested in experiencing it for myself. They pretty much take you to a jewelry store (or jade, porcelain, etc) and I assume get a tip of some sort for doing so. The song and dance is that the store is regulated in some way by the government so you know you are getting quality items. They had a chart of Chinese zodiac signs and Shi Shi's is the rooster. It said that September was a "lucky" month for her. I don't know how she will feel about it, but we are certainly feeling lucky and blessed this month! I found a garnet necklace I wanted, but I had never shopped for garnet before so I had no idea if the price was acceptable or not so I regrettably passed on it. My ability to function was hitting an all time low for the day so I just needed to get back to the hotel room.

We came back and rested a bit then went to tea in the lobby downstairs. If you are a guest, you can get a reservation and have a table waiting for you and you don't have to stand in line -- a very welcome perk. We drank delicious Jasmine tea and some scrumptious dessert and finger sandwiches before Jason started not feeling well so he headed back upstairs.

It was only 6 pm so we knew we needed to get moving to try and stay awake as long as possible. We walked down Nathan road and used the glaring neon lights that stretch as far as the eye can see to keep us awake. Shop after shop lines the street and cross streets. After awhile I started getting delirious again so we headed back to the shore to watch a light show they do every night at 8pm. It was clever how they sync up a number of the buildings and I wish I would have seen it from our room the night before so that we could compare vantage points. We did what we could, but at 8:30 I collapsed into bed, slept until 12 am, took an Ambien and sleep until 3 am.

Today we will have another yummy visit from room service for breakfast and then we need to check out at 12 am and "our" Rolls Royce drives us back to the airport at 2 pm. I hope to get a picture of the suspension bridge (second longest in the world, but longest bridge that has a motorway and railway.) I love the lines of the cables stretching up when you drive under it. We get to Nanchang at 8:30 pm and our agency guide will pick us up and take us to the hotel. Hopefully the traveling will keep me up longer tonight! Then tomorrow we unpack and wander aimlessly until it is time to get Ms. Shi Shi in our arms that afternoon.