hello!!

we arrived in Hong Kong after a 14 hour flight at 6:25AM--no blood clots--hooray!! we only had 12 hours so we headed into the city to explore a little bit. we took Allison's recommendation and headed to the Peak. there's an amazing view from the top (see our photos) of the entire city. every inch is used of the Hong Kong valley making for an interesting contrast to the beautiful green hills that surround it. we met a couple from San Francisco (our new favorite US city thanks in huge part to Ryan, Robin & David) that suggested we head to Hollywood Road (somewhat of an arts district) for local food and shops. every alley off of Hollywood Road is PACKED with vendors/markets. they sell everything--lots of raw meats at room temperature--that's where we saw Amelia's Hong Kong sister, Alex (see photos again)! we ate a tasty lunch around there and then headed to the Star Ferry. for $0.25 matt and i rode across to Kowluun where there are a lot of museums and fancy shops. we mostly sat at the harbour and looked around there before heading back to the airport. Hong Kong is relatively small and VERY easy to get around!! much easier than even Dallas or Houston. there are signs for everything everywhere and since it's so small, we never once used any sort of transportation other than our feet. as big of a city as it is, it seemed very small. definitely lots of smog and about 23,907,524 McDonalds' with lines out the door... people were waiting in line for a table at the fanciest KFC we'd ever seen, but still the same ol' stuff. sickening. matt was very impressed with how fashionable all the girls were dressed...

headed to Kathmandu Nepal.... until then... love--cat (& matt)