Greetings from the Fragrant Harbour (aka Hong Kong)

My apologies for the radio silence. It's been a crazy week. I was in Dalian last week and managed to come down with what has since been diagnosed as viral gastrointenitis (spelling is up for debate). Needless to say, that put a damper on my plans. Flying to Hong Kong, I still didn't feel great and basically stayed in bed the entire weekend. At one point, I developed a fever and became paranoid that I had contracted swine flu. Nightmare scenarios of being quarantined and forbidden from travel played through my mind. Luckily, the doctor I saw here in HK was confident it was not swine flu. Now I just have to make sure the airlines believe her!

But since my recovery, I've had a chance to explore Hong Kong. I think it is probably the most beautiful city I've visited thus far. It's so different from Prague and Budapest that it is hard to compare, but walking along Tsim Sha Tsui at sunset and looking at the skyline on Hong Kong Island is unparalleled. I don't have my pictures just yet, but when I do, I'll be certain to upload them.

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to eat lunch at the prestigious Hong Kong Club. Sitting amongst the movers and shakers of Hong Kong, I felt a strange convergence of East and West. Here was a building and club that dripped in colonial heritage, but instead of being a remote outpost of the Empire, Hong Kong had become the epicenter of commerce. While it certainly has not dethroned London (pun intended), it's an impressive city serving as a gateway to an impressive region.

Sunday, I met up with a friend from Princeton who took me around town a bit. Hong Kong is funny in that it copies parts of other cities. There is a Soho and even a Times Square. I also didn't realize that the whole island is on a big hill up to the Peak. With typical Asian efficiency, they have installed escalators (or rather, travelators) which take you from the Central district up to the "mid-levels". It might sound a bit ridiculous, but when it is 34 degrees Celsius (92F) and 90% humidity, anything that reduces the amount you have to move outside of air-conditioning is wonderful. My friend then took me to the American Club of HK (clubs are a big thing here apparently... so it's not just Princeton!). On the 49th floor, I enjoyed a burger overlooking the 88-story IFC tower. You may know it better as building in Batman where he kidnaps the evil boss and then is flown away on a wire attached to the plane.

This week has been a mixture of sightseeing and research work. The fact that tomorrow is my last full day of the trip is only starting to sink in. My plan is to go to the Peak, hopefully have a famous HK dim sum lunch, see one of the local beaches (weather permitting) and then go out to dinner with some Princeton people. We have been getting some rain bands from the typhoon which devastated Taiwan, but nothing too serious. Hopefully, Mother Nature will cooperate with me on my last day!

This may be the last time I do this outside the States (sad!):

Day 71/82
Distance from NY JFK: 8062 miles
Current Music: Coldplay
Current Mood: Excited
Only here moment: Not losing reception on the subway... ever. Try doing that in New York or London. Even more impressive, wifi and free internet access terminals in the subway. Also, they sanitize the elevator buttons every 2 hours. Just in case...