She Wong Yee - hard place to find

Every day, we must do mandatory food scavenges - usually two. If you do not do the food scavenges, your points for the day do not count. The trip organizer, Bill Chalmers created the rule because some previous competitors who were very competitive did not stop to eat. Not healthy. There is always a choice of about 5 places. But usually, some are out af the way it is very hard to figure out others. When I say hard to figure out, I mean after asking many many people and witnessing much head scratching. Mid-day on the first day, we were in Central Hong Kong. We had just finished riding the world's longest escalator. It is outdoors, although covered with a roof, replaces a street of steps and ascends a steep hill through congested neighborhoods. It was a facinating ride by shops, restaurants, apartments. The restaurant we chose was simply referred to as "She Wong Yee in Causeway Bay". We got to the Causeway Bay area by choosing another scavenge - to ride the British Double Decker tram. Having stopped many people on the street to inquire about the restaurant, we finally found a darling English-speaking girl who knew it and gave us directions. Barely helpful, though. This is consistent with our experience that few people seem to know or use street names in Hong Kong. Compound that by our intended destination being named in Chinese (no transliteration). But fortunately, the street was only two blocks long. Process of elimination led us to focus on the eateries, then zero in on the ones with no English letters. Walking into the first one that met those criteria, I spied an envelope on the cashier's desk, addressed to the restaurant we sought. Bingo.
Although the wall-posted menus were in Chinese, the waiter gave us a list that offered choices something like: beef, pork, rice, vegetables, chicken. We ordered the vegys, which were perfectly steamed Chinese broccoli with a sweet thick soy sauce. Delicious. As we prepared to leave, a young couple who were locals approached us and asked if we were vegatarian, because if we were not, we should try the BBQ pork, as the restaurant is known for it. We sat back down and had the pork. It was fantastic.

Pandas!

So cute! Much effort for four minutes of visual joy. The scavenge required taking a bus to Ocean Park, the full blown amusement park where the Pandas are located. The park was thronged with Sunday visitors and outdoor performances. Nice if you want to stroll about. Not nice for us, as our mission was to find the pandas, photo and split. Unfortunately, in arriving by bus, we disembarked at the first entrance to Ocean Park, not realizing that the pandas were on the opposite side of the park. We had to wait a half hour for the shuttle bus. Annoying and hot, but we sat in the shade and took in the people watching - of which there are throngs to choose from! When we finally got to the panda section, I used my height advantage to reach and hover my camera over the 4-deep crowd which was pressed against the glass enclosure. On our dash out of the pavilion, we got a few minutes to view the adorable creatures through a break in the wall of people.

In a Fountain Under a Waterfall in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Park is a refreshing beautiful little oasis in Central Hong Kong. We did two scavenges there. One was to visit the former headquarters of the comander of the British Forces in Hong Kong from 1846. The house is now a tea museum. The other scavenge was to take a photo in a fountain under a waterfall. Hong Kong's steep hilly terrain allows for a dramatic waterfall dropping into the rather small urban park. Although there is a walkway under the waterfall, there is no fountain on the walkway. However, from a vantage point while posing at the bottom of the hilly park, with the waterfall in the background, it could seem that one is "under" the waterfall. We gladly took off our sweaty shoes and stood in a fountain, asking a passing tourist to take our photo in the fountain. We spent a lot of time wandering around the park to get that one, but the reward was a cool foot bath.

The Hong Kong Sunday Ladies

The first morning of the first day in the first country. We begin. We are in Hong Kong, staying in Kowloon (which I, as a Hong Kong newbie, did not know much about). Hong Kong is an island off of mainland China (which I did know); and it is very congested (knew that too). The large hotels are in Kowloon, which is on mainland China, reachable by ferry, train, or taxi. Our first scavenge was to take the Star Ferry from Kowloon to Central Hong Kong and to engage some of the ladies picnicing in the Central area near the Star ferry terminal. That was really interesting. There are thousands of young women seated in groups on the ground, lining the sides of buildings, clustered on grassy spots, and choking the arteries of the underground subway walkways in the area around the station. The ladies are young domestic household help who gather to socialze on their Sunday day off. Most are sitting in groups of five to ten and are eating take out food from styrofoam containers. Many have umbrellas opened around theim, forming a sort of colorful ringed fence around their circle. They sit for hours, talking, eating, playing cards. Many are from Indonesia and the Phillipines. They gather in throngs to enjoy the company of friends on their day off. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday of 75 degrees or so. I think it is a lovely custom. The one thing I thought was a little weird was the ones who chose to spend their sunny Sunday sitting underground on the floor of a dank undergound pedestrian walkway.

The Hunt Begins in Hong Kong

For a photo of the group and the official blog from the road, check out the official website. www.globalscavengerhunt.com. Look at the photo and guess who used to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The fun begins in one hour. We checked into the hotel in Kowloon after a 13 hour flight from San Francisco. We have time to check in, eat, wash up, and get ready for 11 hours of scavenging. More than half of the group has been here before. My partner Christine is one of them. Good thing because I did not even know that by being in Kowloon, we are not in Hong Kong. We are not allowed to read any guidebooks or maps until the cintest begins. I hope to be a lot smarter twelve hours from now.

Barbara and the Barbadian

Having decided that our team name was lame, we start anew with a new name. We are Barbara and the Barbadian. (My son Gordon came up with the name). There are 7 teams. Besides Barbados and Rhode Island, the travelers come from Texas, Florida, Indiana, Victoria, and Dubai.
My partner Christine and I are on our way to the San Francisco airport. First stop: Hong Kong! We leave at 1:20 PM.

"The Fairly Travelled Ladies"

... are off tomorrow to begin our trip around the world. My partner is Christine from Barbados. We will meet up tomorrow night in San Francisco. Between now and then there are zillions of little loose ends to attend to.
We DID choose our team name - " Fairly Travelled Ladies". Max thought it sounded classy. Sally said "huh"? I think it sounds sort of like Bare Naked Ladies. But, I am tired now, so the name might seem really dumb tomorrow.