The Bing Sutt Starbucks

The bing sutt literally means "ice room" but was actually the coffeehouse (tea house) of the old days where people would gather and were served coffee or tea and Western treats. I had heard of this Starbucks that had been built as a collaborative project with the quintessential Hong Kong brand G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) to "recreate the fusion of Eastern traditions and Western Modernization" and so I thought I would go check it out today. Man, I'm glad I did. It really was such a unique fusion of the two cultures. People say that it does closely resemble the Hong Kong tea houses of the 1950's with half the restaurant also looking just like a Western Starbucks. My sister, Marcie, would have loved it! So, I ordered myself a creme brulee latte and an egg tart (my own fusion.) Egg tarts are very popular little delicacies here and y'all, they. are. delicious. I mean, WHOA! And then I went to town taking pics. Enjoy....

Here is the Western side. Just like all Starbucks big comfy chairs and small tables line the floors and other than the vintage birdhouse it is just like the ones in the States.

And then you turn and it's just SO COOL and VINTAGE and HONG KONG...

I heard this took some serious convincing to the people in Seattle (Starbucks' headquarters) but I'm really glad they obliged. This is a very unique and quaint set up they've created.

Light Show

Every evening the city puts on a light show and all the buildings light up to music. It's a pretty fabulous thing to watch and we went over to the other side of the island to check the show out this past Friday night. It's hard to capture with a still shot but here's the best I could do....

Ocean Park

So, I've sort of found myself a tutoring job that occupies some of my time. Devin met a guy from his work who offered up his kids for me to go read to and tutor in English. They are an Australian family, so the kids (a little boy and girl) already know English, so I just go over the kids' vocabulary words and we practice writing, speaking and reading. All that to say, these kids are the most precious little things and it was J's (that's what I'll call her) birthday this week so I took her to a theme park right by the house and we had A BLAST frolicking around and trying to steer clear of the "baddies" which is what she called the scary Halloween characters.

She rolls in style....

Self portrait of us on the cable cars. She sort of melts my heart....

See what I mean?

We saw a show that was completely in Mandarin. She LOVED it but it gave me an epic headache. It was a really fun day in all, though! Nothing like being around kids to put you in the right mood!

A LONG CELEBRATION

This Sunday we celebrated this lady's birth, Ms. Long-Long Wu. Because she is amazing and we love her and she is part of "Team Long" which our other friends have nicknamed us.

We took the celebration to this floating restaurant which I've shown you before because Michelle and I visited this place by boat but we'd never been inside.

It was so intricately detailed and so Asian. It was a fun experience and the day was beautiful!

Super Target

So, of course there is nothing close to a Super Target near us. But, one of the coolest things about this place is how there's a little local shop or market for ANYTHING you could ever need. It's like each aisle of a Target has it's own store and local owner which is pretty amazing. Here's a glimpse of what I mean....

My most favorite: The banana lady (Fruit Aisle) She has to be 100 years old but goes out there and sells bananas in the heat every single day.

The paper guy (School Supply Aisle)

Holiday Decor Aisle (Halloween is really huge here)

The Bow Lady (ummm, I guess Hair Accessory Aisle?) She was selling a gajillion bows and scrunchies circa 1992

The piano guy (Music Aisle)

The light guy (Electronics Aisle)

The ribbon lady (Arts and Crafts Aisle)

The shoe guy (Shoelaces Aisle? I'm stretching on that one...)

The Rare Book Guy (Book Aisle...Obviously)

The coffee guy (my favorite aisle because at Target it also houses the candy)

I just liked this picture of the cobbler working hard on a shoe-they claim same day service...

Now granted, it takes MUCH longer to get the shopping done but it is such a unique experience to shop this way and though it's still a thousand degrees outside I don't mind meandering around to pick up what I need from these guys. It's a memory if nothing else. Except-no scrunchies. That was just to show you what I meant. I haven't completely lost it over here.

Dancing

I just read in a magazine today that dancing around your house can burn 300 extra calories a day! That's two bags of Tropical Fruit Skittles, which they don't have over here anyway, but still a rather substantial amount. So, I have downloaded some new tunes and I'm about to make use of all 600 sq ft of this "apartment" before my husband gets home. Because dancing makes me feel like this....

I hope you have a dance around your house kind of day! I apologize for the lack of blogging. We've both been down and out with some kind of sickness going around. Might have something to do with never getting any immunization shots before we came but that's a theory. I'll be back to the world of Hong Kong pics soon enough and there's a trip brewing to Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia so if that pans out...stay tuned.

Boracay

We just got back from Boracay in the Philippines and my feelings for the place can be summed up in this billboard I saw right when we got there. I'm with Ace on this one....

This is the view from the resort's backyard....

Cue the steel drums huh? But, it's not very easy to get to this paradise. We first took a plane to Manila (the capital) on Thursday night. Then we boarded a bus to take us to a prop plane that then took us to some place I can't remember the name of (this was the view from the little prop plane which weighed you before you got on the plane to situate the weight evenly-scary)

This is the little town we ended up in before heading on a boat to get to the island

This exact boat actually....

The crew getting on the boat

But then we arrived to the crystal clear waters and it was perfect....

Here is the crew. 10 of us in all...

Saturday night we went to this wet market where you pick out your fish from the market and they cook it for you at this little restaurant next door...it was AWESOME!

You could take your pick from fresh lobster...

clams....

oysters....

Here's the grill they grilled them up on....

The shrimp were the biggest I have ever seen....

They were also more delicious than any shrimp I have ever had...

Steph got the Snapper which tasted so great too

Ann, seen below from our Thailand trip, loved her Ray Bans so much that she ran off while we were eating and bought some for the WHOLE crew!

And so here we are.....

Devin proceeded to wear his for the rest of the night...almost.