1 down, 2 ATM cards to go

As day 2 began, we were greeted by our local tour guide, Jen Poon. A Hong Kong native, Florida resident and Penn '11 Alum, Jen kindly agreed to lead us through her city. We should note that traveling through Hong Kong entails traveling either underground through the subway system or above ground through the indoor mall system. It is too humid here to walk outside.

Between 8am and 2am, we ate six different meals. We experienced authentic Taiwanese dumplings, Fro-Yo, British High Tea, Korean BBQ and a late night snack at the “Denny’s of Hong Kong.” Now for a rundown of these exquisite eateries:

Only an hour after eating our hotel’s excellent breakfast spread, we went to Din Tai Fung for DumplingFest 2011. This restaurant is Michelin rated (as in the Michelin man). I remarked that I had never heard of a Michellin restaurant, to which Cymerman assured me that, since I’m from Kansas, I had “likely never been to or heard of anything Michelin rated.” Typical Northeast to Midwest interaction. For dessert, Steve L. demanded that we go to FroYo Ma Ma.

Afterwards we walked through eight different malls (not an estimate) and braved a monsoon to board a tram to take us to “The Peak” - the highest point in the mountains of Hong Kong. We happily paid the upgrade fee to access the “Sky Terrace” only to realize that the immense fog fully impaired our view…

Hungry for more, we descended to the InterContinental for a traditional High Tea; Hong Kong was a British controlled territory from 1898 to 1997. Jen, in standard tour guide fashion, informed us on the cab ride over that Hong Kong was rated the best skyline and best public transportation system (Hong Kong Magazine also rated Hong Kong the best subway system, the best eating city, the best weather and the best tourist destination). We enjoyed a sophisticated tea and scone spread, with the beautiful Hong Kong skyline as our backdrop. Pinkies were pointed out. Some highlights of our intelligent conversation included the Hong Kong capital gains tax, the internet bubble and, of course, the ability to respond with quotes Hall Pass to every conceivable life situation.

Only two hours and one foot massage later, we made our way to Sorabol, a delicious authentic Korean barbecue restaurant, to eat dinner and drink Sake with our tour guide’s brother and father. A nice enough lady cooked our meat on a burner in the middle of the table. Think melting pot, but the entrée is the best part, not the worst part.

As we went on with our night, we grabbed cocktails on the 49^th floor of the Marriot for an early drink. Lang ordered the Zombie- a $27 drink with 5 rums ("limit 1 per customer") - only to realize it was basically non-alcoholic pink lemonade. We're pretty sure that somewhere on the other side of the bar, a five year old kid who had ordered pink lemonade was getting wasted out of a sippy cup. After some discussion, the bartender delivered Steve an unbelievably potent concoction free of charge. Soon after, we relocated to the (in)famous “Club 7,” the 7-Eleven underneath a sex shop nearby where you can buy beers and drink them outside. In one bar, Lang and Cymerman toasted repeatedly in an attempt to capture the exact moment that their glasses met by photograph. Of course, Lang's glass shattered and he informed the bartender that the glass “exploded” to get a free beer. We ended our night in the “Denny’s of Hong Kong” for fish soup with noodles in vermicelli sauce. Somewhere along the line, Lang’s ATM card opted out of our trip. After an hour of trying to tune out a combative Skype call, I finally fell asleep. Lang: No PNC will NOT overnight a new ATM card to the Caritas Bianchi Lodge in Hong Kong.

Recap of a few highlights of the day—

-We found the largest snail ever. It was over eight inches long.

-As our last post discussed, Lang’s inability to walk in an orderly fashion continued, and he ran into three different women during the course of the day. These were not gentle bumps, one may have gotten whiplash.

-Hello Kitty is serious here. It was “Hello Kitty Princess Day” at Crabtree and Evelyn.

-High fashion is huge here. Our tour guide informed us that Kowloon in Hong Kong is the billionaire capital of the world. Stores such as Gucci and Prada have lines to enter. I was amazed by the parallels between this Armani ad and Bernie from weekend at Bernie’s.

-We saw the REAL JD Knapp!

#LetUsKnow!