After some delay at Chinese customs (the husband was pulled into the back room, but he assured me the rubber gloves didn’t come out…this time) [Ed. note: A couple of Chinese officials kept looking at me, looking at my passport photo, and rubbing their chins – discussing my beard. I haven’t trimmed it to its normal short length since before we left, so it’s getting really fluffy!] we made the slow drive across the Hong Kong border.  Although it was late on a “school night”, it was so nice to finally arrive in Hong Kong. After months of hotel living and the dreaded camping, we had a few days to stay at our friend’s house…our friends who had fresh chocolate cookies awaiting our arrival.  We might just cancel the last third of the trip and make our home here!  They supplied us with Octopus cards for the public transport and a few ideas of what sightseeing to do the next day before we all went to sleep with plans of a big night out together the next day. 

Hong Kong is a very cool place…and a very tall place.  It seems to be made entirely of giant skyscrapers and vertical shopping malls…which was lucky for me, as I had a pair of jeans to replace!  After some initial struggles with the local tram system (we played eenie meenie miney mo to pick the car and when it turned right at the big intersection and we wanted to head left, we knew that gamble didn’t pay off…) [Ed. note: you’d think we’d be good at this by now…] we got back on track and started our day off by finding the highest spot on the mountain top to watch the ships go by.  We also caved and ate a pizza, but promised ourselves we’d fully immerse in the local cuisine starting that night!   Basically, we were just killing time until our friends came home from work to talk to us…because after 2 months we were more than ready for English conversation with a different person!

Our evening ahead was a big event…the Happy Valley Horse Races were on! Usually held each Wednesday, we thought we would miss out since it was Thursday, but due to a public holiday to celebrate the 9th day of the 9th month (you know, October 21st…) the races were moved one day and we were able to walk down the hill after dinner to join the masses.  Since we met living in Kentucky, my husband and I like to pretend we know horse racing. In truth, I bet based on the silk colors, and he only goes for the bourbon. [Ed. note: mmm] The horse races in Hong Kong were nothing like what we grew up with.  First, it was Octoberfest, so instead of men in suits and ladies in hats, we had Asian servers in lederhosen selling us jugs of Chinese beer.  I was excited at the prospect of placing some bets, but every around us were much more concerned with the polka band and drinking contest on the large center stage rather than the horses thundering home behind them!

We managed fight past the beer tents to grab an open spot on the fence and catch the last few races in action.  Being surrounded by glittering skyscrapers instead of rolling green hills definitely brought out a different aspect of race spectating, but the general event was the same.   You scream and yell “Number 11, number 11” or whatever horse you picked and it leads the pack for a turn and a half…until it inevitably falls backwards to lose by 27 lengths…every single time.   Luckily, we never did manage to make it back past the lure of the beer tents to place any bets, so we could save our gambling money for the next day’s adventure!