Mid-Autumn Festival and Grocery Store Rewards Programs

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

In Hong Kong, the day after Mid-Autumn Festival is a public Holiday (which is this Friday), so Jill and I along with another couple are headed to Guiyang (mainland China) tomorrow for the long weekend.  Read more about the Mid-Autumn Festival here.

On our trip we're planning on visiting the Huangguoshu waterfall (amongst other things) which is supposed to be the biggest waterfall in Asia.  I'll try and put the photography lessons to good use!

And just a cultural side note...you know how in the U.S. it seems like everywhere you go you can sign up to be a member of their savings/rewards program?  Walgreens, every grocery store, Macy's etc.  Everywhere has them. And every time you go to purchase something, you get asked "Are you a rewards member? No?  Well let me tell you about all the savings you're missing out on!"  Then they go on to give you the whole spiel.  I hate that...

Well they have savings programs here too, except I've only seen them at grocery stores.  The major groceries are Wellcome (that's how they spell it), Park 'n Shop, and City Super (basically the Whole Foods of Hong Kong), and they all have programs.  What's awesome here is that there is no convincing you to join.  No selling.  They simply ask, "Rewards club member?" and that's it.  No spiel, no trying to get you to sign up.  It's great.  It's just so different from the US though.  Even after having gone to the grocery a hundred times since I've been here, I still expect them to follow the "Rewards card member?" question with a sales pitch.  But it never happens.

I believe there are two reasons why that is.  Reason #1, they aren't required to sell you on it, or they have no real incentive to do so from the employer.  Reason #2, they don't feel comfortable enough trying to do it in English.  I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's just not part of the grocery store's strategy, but it's probably the latter.

I guess I enjoy the fact that it's so opposite of the high-pressure sales pitch you normally get in the U.S. I just get a kick out of thinking of the cashiers here taking it to the way opposite extreme. Something to the effect of:

Cashier: "Rewards club member?"
Me: "Nope"
Cashier:  "Good.  Go f#$@ yourself." 

Now that I think about it, we should probably sign up...we're probably missing out on a ton of savings...

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jil

College Football

Yes I can get up early on Sunday mornings to watch the Saturday night games, but it's just not the same.  College Football Saturdays in 'Merica are really, really tough to beat.  That is all...

Til Next Time,

Luke (I would include Jill in this signature, but she doesn't feel as strongly about this as I do)

Palau

I realize it was 3 weeks ago, but I haven't blogged since then, so I just wanted to make sure I mentioned how great it was to see everyone back in the US of A.  It was a bit of a crazy trip (I spent over 40 hours on a plane when all was said and done), but definitely well-worth it.  Jill and I both got to see a lot of friends and family, got to eat BBQ (that's the one type of food you can't get in Hong Kong), and I got to play a lot of golf.  Not too shabby.

We were both a little jet-lagged when we got back, but other than that we were able to pick right back up where we left off.  Last week Jill was in Guam for a work conference, and so we planned to meet in Palau for the weekend.  Palau is located here, and it was a bit a pain to get there, but it was a really cool experience.

Palau is pretty underdeveloped, and our accommodations were certainly not luxurious, but the snorkeling and kayaking we did was amazing.  The first stop on our snorkel trip was to a place called jellyfish lake.  This was probably one of, if not the coolest things, Jill or I have ever done.  It's a lake filled with jellyfish, but they don't have stingers, so you swim out and snorkel among literally thousands and thousands of jellyfish. It was like something out of Fantasia.  Unfortunately, Jill and I forgot our waterproof camera back in Chicago (it's packed away in our storage unit somewhere, how we forgot to bring it I have no idea, but it's Jill's fault), but a guy on our boat was nice enough to take some underwater pictures of us.  Now it's just a matter of whether or not he actually sends them to me...if he does I will definitely post them, but for now, just use this as a visual for what we did.

The jellyfish were in an enclosed lake, but the snorkeling out in the ocean was awesome too.  It rivaled what we saw at the Great Barrier Reef in our opinion mainly for the fact that a lot of the coral we saw was still alive.  There were tons of fish, and we saw a couple of sea turtles, but the coolest thing we saw (at least in my opinion, Jill not so much) was sharks. On the stop after jellyfish lake, the first thing we saw after jumping in was 3 black tip reef sharks about 20 feet down. Literally jumped in, looked down, and saw 3 sharks. I have been wanting to see sharks in the wild for a long time, so I thought it was incredible. They didn't stick around very long, but it was pretty awesome for those to be the first things we saw.  Again, don't have any pictures from the snorkeling, but you'll have to take our word for it. Aside from the boat ride out to the different dive-spots (oh and I forgot to mention that Palau is famous for its scuba diving.  Jill and I were totally the odd-people out on our boat since we were the only ones not scuba diving...but whatever) the weather was pretty crappy.  It was raining pretty much the whole day, but the visibility in the water was still pretty good considering the conditions.

The second day we went kayaking amongst the little islands near the big island where the hotel was located.  This was cool because it was just the two of us and a guide that knew all about the local wildlife and plants found in the area.  The weather was crappy again, but it didn't bother us.  At one point, it just started pouring, but it was actually really cool being out on the water in a downpour...it made us feel rugged.  You'll see just how rugged in the pictures below.  The other really cool thing was that there was absolutely no one else around.  No boats, no beaches filled with chain smoking Russians, no tourists besides ourselves.  It was great. Here's some pics:

This was actually from the first day of snorkeling.  We stopped on a little beach and had lunch, and Jill and I took the opportunity to make another painfully romantic little message in the sand.  We didn't even have to wipe out another couple's name this time.

Our guide, Robby.  He was a chain-chewing (all day he was gnawing on a combination of Red Man tobacco and bitter nut...whatever that is.  His spit was bright orange), self-proclaimed medicine man who told us all about the natural healing powers of the native plants.  Most of them cured skin conditions or ear infections.

Yes-I am wearing a poncho over a rash guard and a t-shirt over my head to keep my neck from getting sunburned.  And, yes, even in the rain.  Screw you.  And I am honestly much happier than I appear in this picture.  I really don't know why I'm flashing the peace sign and look like I want to kill someone.  This was taken in one of what seemed like hundreds of little lagoons that we got to kayak into.  Robby was doing his best to find us some saltwater crocodiles to see, but they were nowhere to be found

Poncho's gone...tshirt remains

The Japanese occupied Palau during WWII, and we stopped for lunch at an area that was, at one point during the war, being used to build a dock.  It was never finished.  This is the remains of a car engine from that time.  The Japanese thought all the little islands of Palau would offer their ships enough cover from the American bombers, but based on all the ship wrecks littered around the islands it didn't work out for them.

This is at the same area where the car engine was.  There was a clam farm nearby, and the farmers come to this spot to barbecue.  These shells were huge.

One of a few different shipwrecks we were able to see.  The water is crystal clear, and not too deep near the islands so you could see the whole ship.  Pretty awesome.  We also got to see a downed B52 bomber...no pic though

Let me say that these pictures do not do the place justice.  The scenery was amazing, the water was an amazing turquoise color...these pictures are an insult to Palau.  However, Jill got me photography lessons for my birthday, so hopefully my skills will improve. Here's what Palau really looks like.



So, we would definitely recommend going to Palau, but understand that it is a pain in the ass to get there.  And also understand that it's not the place to go if you're looking for luxurious accommodations and a plethora of fine dining options.  But what made it cool was that it was not overrun with tourists.  Granted, it was not their peak season. But given the lack of huge resort hotels and the fact that almost no one's ever even heard of it (even most of the people I work with here in Hong Kong hadn't heard of it), it's pretty low-key compared to a place like Phuket. Which was nice.

On the way back to Hong Kong we had to connect in Guam.  We landed there around 5 AM, and our flight to Hong Kong didn't leave til 6:40 PM.  So while I worked, Jill relaxed by the pool at the Hyatt Regency Guam.  Here was the view from our room.  Probably the best layover you can ask for.

 

Jill didn't get to do/see enough in Guam while she was there for her conference, so we'll have to try and get back there again sometime soon.

That's all for now. Hope all is well!

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jill

India and some random HK photos

I had heard some pretty awful stories about India (mainly about poverty/cleanliness issues), so I was a little nervous before heading to Hyderabad for a few days.  I was there for work, and didn't get to see much, but after completing my journey I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of things. 

The Good:
-The food was awesome. It was spicy and it seemed like almost everything had curry in it, but I love curry so I was happy.  I also learned that food from the various regions of India is very different.  We ate a lot of Biryani (a rice dish) which was delicious.  I didn't have the opportunity to eat any meals with my hands, but next time I'm there that's going to be on my list.  I am also extremely happy that I didn't catch "Delhi Belly" which is India's version of Montezuma's Revenge. 

-The people were very nice and courteous.  Not that I was expecting them to be rude or anything, but I did notice that everyone was genuinely nice and very pleasant to talk to.  Granted I was in a hotel the whole time...and it is people's job to be hospitable...but regardless the people were great.

-My trip to the Taj Falaknuma Palace for a tour and dinner was incredible.  Learn more about the palace here.  Myself and a couple of colleagues took a trip to the palace and for dinner the chef actually surprised us with a customized menu. There were a lot of courses and I don't remember exactly everything we ate, but it was amazing.  Here are a few pics from the palace:

This is right outside the front of the palace.  The three of us actually rode the horse-drawn carriage from the very front entrance.  So romantic.

Entryway



The Nizam - it was his palace

Our tour guide claimed that this is the longest single dining room table in the world.  It seats 101 people.  We didn't get to eat at this table...

Just another day at the office for the Nizam and his rifle.  Tigers never stood a chance.  This was obviously before Tigers become endangered...but it's a pretty awesome shot...I mean I am all for conservation but doing the Captain Morgan pose on a pile of fearsome beasts that you've just bagged is primo-badass.  Most Interesting Man in the World-level stuff.

The Bad:

-India is dirty.  Now I am basing this observation on the limited time I spent going to and from the airport from the hotel, but most of what I saw was pretty filthy.  Trash is everywhere.  Another thing that was a bit of a shock was on at least 7 different occasions I saw a guy just peeing in broad daylight on the side of the road.  Don't mind me...just taking a piss.  I have heard that a lot of India is like what I saw, which is sad.  And there is definitely a lot of poverty...which is always tough to see.  These are two fairly big issues, but I am glad that I was able to look past that stuff and still enjoy myself.

-The way people drive in India is crazy.  The rules are there are no rules.  Lanes do not exist, and I have never heard so many car horns in my life.  It's just a chaotic mess.  Coming back from the palace one of my colleagues made me sit in the front seat because the drive there gave her so much anxiety.  I don't think I could drive there....seriously a nightmare.

All in all I would say it was a good trip.  I didn't get sick, and actually got to learn a little more about India in my brief time there.  I told Jill I would go back to India, but if we do I want to get a guide of some kind that knows their way around.  I have a feeling that going there and trying to find our way around by ourselves would be stressful...

Switching gears a bit, here are just some random photos of Hong Kong that I've taken over the past couple of weeks.  I'm trying to learn more about our camera.  I think I am getting a little bit better....not much though.  Enjoy.

Mid-Levels

Lippo Center - Island side

Bruce Lee graffiti in Wan Chai

Temple in Wan Chai

We're looking forward for our first trip back to the US!  Hopefully we'll see you soon!

Til Next Time,

Luke & Jill

Some Different Views of Hong Kong

When you first saw the title of this post you might have thought this was going to be a bit of a deeper, more thoughtful/meaningful blog. Sorry to disappoint you.  Here are, quite literally, some different views of Hong Kong.

Use this first one as a guide to the other views. I also called out where we live and work for your reference.

Last Thursday Jill and I decided to hike the Peak, and these first photos were taken from the top.  It's not an easy hike (I was sweating profusely), but the view made it worth it.

 

 

A friend of Jill's from United brought a couple of his friends to Hong Kong for the weekend.  As always, it was great to see a familiar face, however, I have noticed that the only people to visit thus far have been Jill's friends....just saying (never mind that one was passing through on the way home from her Honeymoon, and the other works for United with flight benefits).  Anyway, we met up with them Friday night at Ozone, which is the tallest bar in the world.  This is the view from the bar.

 



Photo2

The ambiance at Ozone makes the Signature Room at the Hancock building look/feel like a Waffle House

 

Before we went to the bar, we caught the light show.  Didn't capture any photos of the light show cause they blink too fast, but this is the view from the Avenue of Stars along the Kowloon side of harbor.

 

 

Photo 3

 Photo 4

 

 

Having visitors in town is nice because it gives us an excuse to do all the touristy things in the city.  On Saturday, we all went to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha.  We took a glass-bottom cable car up to the monument, which was pretty cool.  It was rainy so the views weren't spectacular, but we can now mark the Buddha off our list.

 

 

View of Hong Kong Airport from the cable car

Kinda spooky
 

 

 

Courtesy o' Jill's Instagramming

 

 

Another JIC (Jill Instagram Classic).  Who'da thunk the Buddha was a Nazi?  Turns out the Swastika symbol has been used for thousands of years in a lot of human civilizations as a sign of good luck and protection, amongst other things. So, I guess it was opposite day when Hitler chose this symbol...I mean...if this is where I worshipped I would be pissed.  For centuries that symbol was totally kick-ass, and then Hitler came along and totally ruined it.  Now the poor Buddha just looks like Edward Norton in American History X





 

JIC.  Buddha's view of the ocean.


Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jill

 

Phuket

 

Jill and I got back from Phuket, Thailand Monday evening, and we had an awesome time.  We took a lot of pics, so I will let those do most of the talking.

 

We got in to Phuket after connecting in Bangkok late Thursday night.  Jill found out after we returned to Hong Kong that a later non-stop flight from Hong Kong to Phuket that we were thinking about taking cancelled, so it's a good thing we did the connection.  We stayed at the JW Marriott which was a bit dated, but overall a nice property.  It was no Hyatt, but definitely a not a bad place to spend a few days.

 

Friday

 

We woke up Friday morning and the first thing we saw was this baby elephant.  That's the one thing I will say the Marriott has over Hyatt...I don't think we have any properties with resident elephants.  We should probably look into that...

 

 

 

After feeding the little fella we went and had breakfast ourselves, and after that the plan was to just chill at the pool all day.  And that's what we did.  There were a lot of families there, so we found a pool that was the least rowdy and set up camp.  Naturally we chose the pool with the swim-up bar.

 

No idea who that girl is but she totally photo bombed this picture



We didn't really spend any time on the beach while we were at the hotel.  They didn't really make it convenient to hang out on the beach - there weren't any lounge chairs out, and the sand wasn't so great.  The flags for the strong currents were always up too, so it wasn't the most "inviting" place to relax.  Nonetheless it was still fairly picturesque.

 

 

While we were at the pool we saw the elephant again, and Jill was able to get this shot of him as he strolled by with his trainer.  She really got into Instagram on this trip, and this is a sample of her work...

 

Not sure which filters she used, but good work, hon

The hotel was pretty far away from some of the more popular parts of Phuket.  Jill had heard of Patong, which is a popular tourist destination and is most well-known for the nightlife. So, Friday night we took a hotel shuttle an hour one-way to Patong. 

 

It was gross.  If you've been to Patong and really liked it, I'm sorry, but it was nasty.  Extremely crowded, tons of trashy t-shirt stores and dingy looking restaurants.  The odor in the air (which never went away because the air was as thick as a steam-room with no breeze) was made up of a combination of fried ethnic food and sewage, with an occasional hint of sweat.  Now, I'm being pretty judgmental, and I am sure plenty of people go to Patong and have a good time, but we have no desire to go back. 

 

Jill had found a restaurant online in the area that was supposed to be pretty good, but after walking around for about 45 minutes we couldn't find it.  The sun was going down, and the beach was right there, so we were able to get a good shot of the sunset from Patong Beach.  Another classic courtesy of Jill's Instagram skillz.

 

 

We eventually found out that we would have to take a tuk tuk to get to the restaurant that we wanted to go to.  After contemplating for a while, we noticed that the tuk tuks were no ordinary tuk tuks...these were party tuk tuks. Neon lights, "Hello Kitty" themed tuk tuks with music blaring.  So we said Phuck it, grabbed some beers (of course you can drink on the party tuk tuks) and cruised to the restaurant.

 

Jill posing with our chariot

You can't really see it, but above Jill's head it says, "Pimp My Ride". 

The fist pumps could not be contained in this thing

The party tuk tuk was awesome.  So much better than trying to putz around the crowded, filthy streets.  We had an awesome Thai dinner (it was at a hotel a good distance away from the beaten path), and got a regular taxi back to area where the hotel shuttle was going to pick us up.  We had about 45 minutes to kill before the shuttle arrived, so we checked out a different area of Patong which wasn't different at all from what we'd seen earlier.  Jill and I love the breakfast spot, S&G in Chicago off of Lincoln, and we happened to find one in Patong too...we didn't go in though...

 

 



With a little bit more extra time to kill, we grabbed a few more road sodas, and got back in a party tuk tuk.  Just had them take us on a lap around Patong. I high-fived a few motor cyclers in-transit. It was great.

 

After that we took the shuttle back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

Saturday

 

Much less eventful than Friday.  Again, spent all day by the pool.  Around sunset, we went to grab a drink at one of the hotel bars near the beach.  There weren't any party tuk tuks to be found, but we were pleasantly surprised by this guy giving everyone an impromptu Tom Cruise in Cocktail-style performance.  I immediately started blaring "Additcted to Love" by Robert Palmer on my iPhone...

 

 

 



After drinks we were able to get some more shots of the sunset from the beach.  I started blaring "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John...

 

 







 

We had an early morning ahead of us, so after dinner we hit the hay. 

 

Sunday

 

We had booked an all-day snorkeling trip for Sunday, and we were picked up at the hotel at 7:00 AM.  Our destination was the Phi Phi Islands, which were made famous after "The Beach" was filmed there.  The actual beach on Maya Bay where a lot of the scenes were shot was our first destination.  It was pretty amazing...

 

 

Another couple had made this in the sand, so when Jill and I found it we wiped "Owen & Ashley" out and drew our names in.  I had done something similar on the beach at our hotel the day before, but nothing nearly as clever as spelling out "Phuket" with washed-up coral...I felt like a chump

 

Next stop was a kick-ass lagoon on the other side of the island.

 

On the way to the lagoon we passed a cave where they harvest Bird's nest soup, which is a very expensive delicacy in Asia. Supposed to be good for your skin or something

 

Next stop after the lagoon was Monkey Beach. Yep, monkeys again.  These monkeys weren't as pushy as the ones we encountered back in Hong Kong.

 

Our guide specifically told us not to look at the monkeys when giving them the food.  That's much easier said than done, which is why I look like I am passing a kidney stone in this picture

 

After the monkeys we stopped at the first snorkel spot.  No pics from the actual snorkeling...it was just ok.  Lots of fish, and had a great time doing it, but a lot of the coral was dead or dying which was disappointing.  Lunch followed, then we went to the next snorkel spot.  We ended the day at the beach on another gorgeous island.

 

 

 

The day was awesome.  We both really enjoyed it.  You probably can't tell from the pics, but the only downside to it was that there were a TON of other people out there doing the exact same thing as us.  And why shouldn't they be?  It's paradise, I get it.  However, it was just a bit...distracting.  You're sitting their trying to take in all this beauty, then you have Vladimir, the middle-aged, Speedo and gold chains-wearing dude chiefing a cig and blowing smoke in your face...thanks pal.

 

I'm not complaining.  Again, it was awesome.  If you have a chance to get to Phuket I would definitely recommend you do a day-trip like this.  I mean, you gotta see it.  Tourists are always going to be tough to avoid, but hey...

 

Yes, I created a meme of myself posing flawlessly as I jumped into the lagoon

 

Til Next Time,

Luke & Jill