Happy belated New Year!

I got back from Hong Kong late evening on Tuesday. I felt as if I had only gotten over my jet lag for a few days and then it was time to head back. I had a wonderful time. Yes, I had a lot of fun at the Andy Lau concerts, no question, but it was also fun during the day.

The concert was different than I expected, no mini-dramas this time which at first threw me but then I realized it was meant to be a journey through Andy's life in song. Having tickets to quite a few shows, one of the highlights for me were the guests. I am not just an Andy Lau fan, I am a fan of Hong Kong entertainment so I knew almost all of the guests. In 2007 when I came for those concerts, Andy had almost no guests so this made it an altogether different experience for me. My favorite guests were Anthony Wong, Sandra Ng, Sammi Cheng and George Lam. Oh, oh, yes, let's not forget the Wynners! I thought the Twins sang terribly and Leon Lai looked downright scared.

Most of the guests sang "Ming Sing" which was a great way to compare singing styles, the only ones that didn't were the Twins. Leon Lai sang it as a duet with Andy then sang one of Andy's songs as a solo. And Deannie Yip was a regular guest, I was a fan of hers before I even discovered Andy and their "mother-son" relationship. She also came out one night to sing "Ming Sing."

By day I was out and about. I didn't adhere to my plan of wandering around because I was with more people this trip. My one friend, who is a former Hong Konger who now lives in NYC, asked me before my trip where I wanted to go, that she would take me there. Not my first trip, I thought, I don't need a tour guide. But I told her a few places I wanted to go and she got the picture, I had done the tourist sites. We went to 2 of the 3 places I requested together. She was also with her father and two aunts and they are in great shape, we did a lot of walking and standing, no complaints at all and sometimes they'd go off on their own to do more things.

I was with this friend and her family most of my days and it was great for me. I certainly got a better idea of how locals get around, eat and shop in Hong Kong. I ate dim sum regularly as well as congee but I also had a variety of meals such as hotpot (pix coming soon), rice in the clay pot (which I have had in NYC but never got around to in HK) and bird's nest for dessert. I even tasted pig's blood. With other friends I went to Sai Kung for a seafood dinner, al fresco. One friend had brought her dog so we had to eat outside, which was too cold for me and a couple of others but we managed. There I finally got to try abalone.

As for shopping, we did a ton of it. Children's clothing, books, jeans, underwear ginger and all sorts of fish in Cheung Chau. We shopped at Ladies Market but also Bowring Street and Sham Shui Po.

I haven't offloaded my pix from my netbook yet. Mostly they are of the concerts but I have plenty others that folks here would be more interested in. I don't have a USB with enough space on it here at home, the ones with the most capacity are at work.