China Trip Part 2: Day 1 in Hong Kong

So shoot me, I did not take a camera, nor did I take my cell phone (with camera)--I opted for the Blackberry with International Roaming and no bills that come to me...it was a smart idea, really, given my natural disinclination for taking good photographs. Thus y'all have to suffer with my elegant "word pictures" of my trip.

Day 2: What can I say, except toothpicks to prop up the eyelids would have been a good accessory--perhaps a smashing flirty plaid toothpick? Ah well, awake I stayed, with only one really embarrassing moment, around 3:30 in the afternoon, when I tried to pay for a cup of coffee ($21 HK Dollars) with $40 US Dollars...thank goodness for honest baristas.

I had several meeting in the morning at the company's Hong Kong office. It is in the tall building with the "flying buttresses" on the left in the photo.


We had a lunch meeting at The China Club, seated in the middle of the main dining room. This is a private restaurant/club, owned by an eccentric wealthy man who also owns the Shanghai Tang stores. Great lunch--and lots of Chinese art (mostly modern and eccentric). It is an interesting spot. (P.S. I "borrowed" the following photos of the China Club, and have no idea who the gentleman is in the first photo--please ignore him).



After lunch, which ended about 3:00 (now THERE'S a business lunch!), I went in search of the afore-mentioned coffee and found coffee nirvana at Pacific Coffee. Then off to a "department store" called China Arts & Crafts to see top examples of local work--silks, embroderies, jade sculptures, teapots, etc. All top quality, not that junk we routinely find. I decided to purchase some flower tea. We had some at lunch and it was such a treat to watch the hard little nugget bloom into a beautiful, fragrant tea.

By this time I'm dropping and head for "home away from home", the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. I ordered room service for a late dinner, counting on my trusty favorite, the club sandwich, for a little smackerel before nighty-night. But one bite into my sandwich revealed that it had been befouled with a fried egg! And not only the club sandwich, but the hamburger also! What's up with that?? On behalf of tired Americans everywhere, please don't make our comfort food contain even more protein... And no, I'm not anti-local food, but I had local food for breakfast & lunch and was so tired I couldn't think straight...Don't worry, I eat plenty of local food throughout the trip.

Tomorrow begins the sight-seeing odyssey of sparse free time until the litigation in China...