Greetings from Hong Kong, here this 6th day of the “Year of the Tiger”. Which, if you’re wondering what Hong Kong is like over the Chinese New Year, I’d say it’s pretty comparable to NYC over Thanksgiving. Not that I’ve ever done NYC over Thanksgiving, but now I’m fairly certain that I have no desire to brave these types of crowds again.
It’s pretty late here- about 1am on our last day in Hong Kong but I am on duty until 3am so I figured I would jot down a few things about this port visit. I wont go into TOO many details since I have another 34 days of blogging ahead of me with no port visits to break it up. But let’s see…
I spent the 4 days here with my 2 favorite travel buddies, Nicole & Jean-Ann (JA for short). I think I mentioned this before, but JA studied Chinese in college and studied in China every summer during college. This makes her not only a great traveler, very worldly, and adventurous, but also makes her an ideal liberty buddy when in China. This was her 3rd trip to HK but normally she has been there in the summer when it was like 90 degrees. Apparently the weather gods have decided that we’ve been spoiled enough by our mild Gulf winters and equatorial climate these past 5 months and decided to really throw us for a loop here in HK. The temperatures were in their 40’s! Now, I know, I know, all of my family & friends back East are like “40’s?! mu ahaha, we’ve had 30” of snow”, however; imagine that you had no heat, no jacket, and one pair of long pants. Also, imagine that you have spent the past three years in Florida, Southern California, or hovering somewhere around the equator in south America or SE Asia. You can see where this 40 degree weather really got on my nerves. After piling on my (one) pair of jeans, some underarmor cold weather gear I brought because it is cold in the Zulu module where I stand watch, my one long sleeved shirt (a brown Gap waffle shirt I wore to sleep in) and a Nike zip up jacket I bought in Bahrain at the NEX because I felt like spending money, it was super cheap and it “looked fun” and lasting approximately 15 minutes in the cold, the first order of business was to capitalize on the “New Year’s” sales in HK. I purchased myself a pinkish/brown tweed button up jacket that is sorta preppy with a big collar but is casual with ribbed cuffs and banding around the bottom. However, it was (relatively) cute, warm enough and only cost $30. Sold. This wouldn’t have been necessary if places in Hong Kong actually knew how to properly heat their buildings, but I guess they weren't expecting the freak cold weather.
Then I stocked up on another pashmina. Let me just say, that I never want to see another pashmina for sale EVER.AGAIN. the past 5 port visits (Bahrain, dubai, Thailand, Malaysia & Hong Kong) have all been either near or part of the pashmina trade routes and you can’t cross a street w/o someone trying to sell you a pashmina. The good news is, they were only like $3 and I now own like 3, 2 of which I layered to keep both my neck and head warm. The bad news is, if someone tries to sell me a pashmina back home, I might have a psychotic breakdown. Pashmina Sellers of America- you’ve been warned.
In addition to the 3 pashminas (pink-ish bronze, light brown, and ivory) and new tweed jacket that I have bought I feel like it is a good idea to detail the list of things that I’ve purchased this deployment. This is in hopes that 1) my husband has a better understanding of our bank statements this past month or so and 2) he can finally say like all good husbands say: “my wife is always going shopping” and 3) he is not totally shocked when I continue to pull souvenir after souvenir out of my suitcase(s) next month.
In Bahrain I found 2 fabulous Persian rugs (which are already enjoying a plush, no pun intended, life at 1455 Kettner Blvd). From Dubai, my favorite souvenir was the time I spent with Dan, but my dad made out pretty great with a “Harley Davidson of UAE” tee shirt and my in-laws received Arabica coffee beans and Iranian dates. I also walked away (or sailed away) from Dubai with a pair of black pearl earrings and a big container of “medium-spicy middle eastern curry” spices. Yum!
Thailand was where things started to get a little out of hand. 2 beach cover-ups, 3 tailored dresses and 2 tailored pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shoes to match this, a woven tissue box cover (Dan: Wow! No way! Not a woven tissue box covers, I’ve ALWAYS wanted one of those!), some fabulous lemongrass spa products, a “Harley Davidson of Patong Beach” tee-shirt, a leather wallet for Dan and some cute elephant outfits for my niece and probably 4-5 other things I’ve already forgotten later, we picked up anchor and headed for Malaysia.
In Malaysia I scored an awesome pair of hand-made and hand-painted Malaysian wooden clog sandals, some woven trays (to match my woven tissue box cover, obviously), a cheap painting of some asian-looking cherry blossoms (a note on cheap art: Dan and I love collecting art from all of the places that we’ve been. Sometimes the art is super cheap, sometimes it’s super expensive, sometimes it’s somewhere in the middle but it’s always something that we love and it’s amazing what michael’s framing department can do with a 3 euro painting. This one is of cherry-blossoms, which I think are really pretty and so we’ll see where it ends up in the apartment), a handcarved owl (I couldn’t resist :)), cheap ($1.20) beige bucket hat
to shade my face from the sun [seen to the right], a pewter pitcher (from the famous “Royal Selangor Pewter Factory”), 5 yards of 100% pure raw Indian silk (so my momma & I can get dresses made :)). I also picked up 3 books: Eat, Pray, Love; 3 cups of Tea; and Reading Lolita in Tehran, all “must reads” according to my friends who recommended them so I am excited to have these great books to keep me company the next few weeks. Again, there must be 4-5 more things but I’ve already forgotten. (This was inspired by my roommate Nicole, who went through every single souvenir that she bought this deployment tonight. I wasn’t prepared to embark on such a 3 hour long endeavor tonight so that will have to wait until later once we’re underway). Here is the photographic evidence of the amount of shopping damage that 3 girls did in 3 days in Kuala Lumpur:
to shade my face from the sun [seen to the right], a pewter pitcher (from the famous “Royal Selangor Pewter Factory”), 5 yards of 100% pure raw Indian silk (so my momma & I can get dresses made :)). I also picked up 3 books: Eat, Pray, Love; 3 cups of Tea; and Reading Lolita in Tehran, all “must reads” according to my friends who recommended them so I am excited to have these great books to keep me company the next few weeks. Again, there must be 4-5 more things but I’ve already forgotten. (This was inspired by my roommate Nicole, who went through every single souvenir that she bought this deployment tonight. I wasn’t prepared to embark on such a 3 hour long endeavor tonight so that will have to wait until later once we’re underway). Here is the photographic evidence of the amount of shopping damage that 3 girls did in 3 days in Kuala Lumpur: 
In Hong Kong I became a proud owner of: 2 pairs of chopsticks, a tea-set with cherry blossoms (my favorite) painted on it, a set of blue and white printed china (not a full china set, but a serving bowl, 8 small plates and 8 small bowls, as accents to our every day dinner ware since we did not register for China from the wedding), another inexpensive but pretty framed piece of art (I’m not a huge fan of the overly-asian themed art with Chinese characters, but this one was a painting of a blue and white china vase set in a really nice mat and frame), a silk bathrobe, a new oversized cloth bag/purse (which was mainly purchased to help carry all of this stuff back to the boat), a pair of cute “furry” looking (more of a fringe style, but they look sorta furry) gold ballet flats, a pair of bright pink chuck taylors (purchased at the night market from a shady looking lady who sold authentic converse shoes out of her even more shady looking trunk for a grand total of like $10), 2 pairs of fuzzy socks, a cashmere hat (notice the “I’m cold so I need to buy warm clothes” trend?), and again, 4-5 things that I probably forgot. (I can probably dedicate a full separate blog post to the “list of things that I forgot that I bought”. This is all in addition to the copious amount of bath products that were “borrowed” from our myriad of Sheraton hotel stays to furnish our guest bathroom. )So, the short of it is, you should come visit us in San Diego. I promise great, worldly art; tea from my new Chinese tea set; luxury bath products and more woven trays than even I know what to do with :) All I know is that I am so grateful to have the experience for this 6-month world tour and now I have so many wonderful things to remind me of my time out here from literally all over the world. And besides, after 6 months apart from Dan, well, at least now I have cool things to show for it, right?
Well, I guess that’s about it for now. There is more to say on all of these fantastic port visits, but I should probably let Dan recover from his retail-induced heart attack
and I should get back to watch. OH! And I got another hair cut in Hong Kong. It was getting to be just about out of regulation and I didn’t want to have to fuss with trying to get it all stuck up in a bun right around the time that we came home. Here is a picture of me with my new-do in the HK Night Market. It is kinda hard to see amidst all of the layers of clothing I’m wearing, but it’s about 2 inches shorter in the front and about 3 inches shorter in the back. Overall, I am pleased but I think I will like it more in a month once it gets a little more length to it.
and I should get back to watch. OH! And I got another hair cut in Hong Kong. It was getting to be just about out of regulation and I didn’t want to have to fuss with trying to get it all stuck up in a bun right around the time that we came home. Here is a picture of me with my new-do in the HK Night Market. It is kinda hard to see amidst all of the layers of clothing I’m wearing, but it’s about 2 inches shorter in the front and about 3 inches shorter in the back. Overall, I am pleased but I think I will like it more in a month once it gets a little more length to it. A few more Hong Kong pictures---- JA & I at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant- this is her giving me my first (of many!) chopstick lessons. The Chinese girls next to us were laughing at me, and rightly so- my chopstick skills were atrocious! But it’s ok, because t
he reward was the world’s most amazing, hot and fresh dumplings. I’ve seriously never had anything like this in my life. I can’t even put into words how amazing these du
mplings were. And at like $2 for a bamboo steamer of 6, I could eat them for the rest of my life. Here is the dumpling man that would take a HUGE bowl of dumpling filling (whatever secret delicious things were mashed up in here), put them into the dumpling wrapper and wrap them up in these cute little bundles of deliciousness. Here is the end result that I am totally in love with. JA knows how to make dumplings and we’re going to have a girls night after we get back and she’s going to teach us how to make them (this is where the chopsticks will come in handy, see Dan- I bought practical souvenirs!)
he reward was the world’s most amazing, hot and fresh dumplings. I’ve seriously never had anything like this in my life. I can’t even put into words how amazing these du
mplings were. And at like $2 for a bamboo steamer of 6, I could eat them for the rest of my life. Here is the dumpling man that would take a HUGE bowl of dumpling filling (whatever secret delicious things were mashed up in here), put them into the dumpling wrapper and wrap them up in these cute little bundles of deliciousness. Here is the end result that I am totally in love with. JA knows how to make dumplings and we’re going to have a girls night after we get back and she’s going to teach us how to make them (this is where the chopsticks will come in handy, see Dan- I bought practical souvenirs!) 
Stay tuned for more about our 7th fleet port visits. Til then, it’s Anchors Aweigh for us!
Um my mouth was literally watering at the end of that post! Granted it is almost lunch time in the Eastern time zone, but those dumplings sound delish! And I am super jealous of all your souvenirs!
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