Posts From the Way Back Machine #7: A Love Letter to Hong Kong

Editors Note: In his last post looking back at months-old events, Ian sums up some of his favorite experiences from Hong Kong, or "China-lite."

Well folks, the Way Back Machine is just about out of gas (or plutonium, or chili-cheese fries, or whatever it is these crazy things run on), and I'd like to end on a high note. We loved our time in Hong Kong, and today I'd like to share with you some of our favorite things that made it so very special to us.

Dumplings:
The first time we walked down the street at dinner-time we passed a restaurant doing so much business the crowd formed a line out the door that blocked the sidewalk. This not only made the place hard to miss, but also quite literally arrested my attention. We tried it out the next day, and it was love at first bite - we ate dumplings four times in the next 24 hours. Despite dozens of return visits, we never got a good picture. As soon as the delicate morsels appeared in front of us our frontal-lobes shut down and all non-dumpling-related thoughts ceased.

An OK shot of take-home dumplings. I think they were infused with opium.

Signs:

There were a lot of funny English and demonstrative graphics on signs in Hong Kong. It's usually hard to pick one favorite, but not when you've got this one:

The graphic hints at marvelous things, though we never saw people doing this

Ocean Park:
Hong Kong has its own home-grown amusement complex, "Ocean Park." It's old Sea World meets new Sea World - dolphin shows and parrots and pandas and roller coasters. As if that weren't enough, the whole thing is set on a hill overlooking the coast, and several of the rides (plus the cable car) practically go out over the water. And did I mention the pandas? Coolest theme park ever.

We've got enough pictures to do a whole Ocean Park blog (it was our first day with a new camera), but for now you'll have to be satisfied with a shot of "The Dragon":

Breathtaking view, heart-stopping drops, and neck-breaking jolts make the dragon an exhilarating if poorly engineered ride.

Old People:

Yes, they're everywhere, but they are especially in Hong Kong. When I wasn't getting elbowed out of my place in line or pushed off the sidewalk by them, I was marveling at their resilience. I'm pleased to close the Hong Kong posts with a picture of our favorite old lady riding a bicycle with training wheels on it:

Further support for my theory that old people are actually just really wrinkly six-year-olds.