At 11:30 we were taken to the top floor of our hotel for a safety briefing before our ride. The helicopter portal is an amazing room filled with many historical artifacts from the days of the China Clipper. After a very brief safety review we heard the helicopter land and they ushered us on to the roof and loaded us up. I was really impressed with the high-tech helipads on the roof of the hotel. When the helicopter landed the safety gates around the deck rose up hydraulically. Before taking off they flattened again to ensure they wouldn't be an obstacle for the helicopter. There was even fire fighting equipment built in to the helicpad that could operated remotely with a joystick from the roof or from the ready room. Pretty cool.
The flight was awesome. We flew around Hong Kong island and learned quite a bit about the city from the pilots. After landing they took us back to the ready room where they gave us water, hand towels and a hat. First class!
After the flight we headed down the street to a tailor recommended to us by the hotel concierge. Eddie, our new best friend, has been at this location for 36 years, impressive. Eddie's shop is a small room on the 2nd floor of a building in downtown Hong Kong. I spent my time picking out fabric for a couple new three piece suits and some shirts while Katie worked with Eddie to design two new suits for herself. We spent about 2 hours in the shop. All in all we bought 4 suits and 8 shirts for less than what one of my suits costs in the US. Furthermore, we are both very confident these will be our favorites,,, Eddie does all the suits for big wigs in Hong Kong along with having examples and testimonials from 1000s of US clients.
After the selection Eddie insisted he treat us to an authentic Chinese lunch. Around 3 PM we headed to a tiny elevator right on the street just about 2 blocks away. We went up to the 3rd floor and it was obvious, this place was authentic. Katie and I were the only white people in the place and telling from their stares, they didn't get many white folks for lunch. Eddie knew a lot of the employees and pretty much helped himself to a table (while there were people waiting for a table) and a menu. He quickly checked off about 10 selections, ordered some beers and continued to share a lot of local knowledge, history and his life story with us,,,,, very interesting!
The food was fantastic. Most of it was pork in some form or fashion but very tasty. The food just kept coming and coming; Eddie was so excited to have us taste his favorite dishes. Our favorite was the Dim Sum -- a pork dumpling with some sort of soy sauce. After lunch we thanked Eddie and headed off to explore the town. At 6 we returned to the shop for our first fitting which took about 30 minutes. After that we headed to the hotel to prepare for our night out.
Around 8:15 we headed to the nearby ferry station and boated across the bay to Hong Kong island. There is a famous district known as Lan Kwai Fong which has an abundance of night life, restaurants, etc. We ate Italian food just because we both needed a break from the "local" food. We even ordered a bottle of Napa Cab,,, go figure. After dinner we had a few drinks at a few different bars enjoying great conversation and some very interesting people watching. We didn't last long, around 1 or so we headed home,,,, exhausted. We were told that Lan Kwai Fong goes till 3 or 4 in the AM,,, not for us last night.
Enjoy the pictures,,, Wednesday will be another day of exploring.......
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