We just got our apartment on Tuesday and with the Mid-Autumn Festival and locating free wifi we have had little time to be online. However I'm online now and trying to post photos and watching the presidential debate online.

1. Apartment info to be sent out shortly.
2. Photos are uploaded sequentially in the album. I'll organize them when we get wifi at our apartment.
3. Jeff has started working so we're on somewhat Pacific Time now.
4. We're going to check out "Bound" and "The Eagles" this month.
5. Travel arrangements are starting to happen...if anyone visits, we can probably host about 2 people. We have a 1 bedroom place in Causeway Bay. We're planning to head to China in December. Nothing else planned yet.

I promise to write more about our observations in the coming days.

I'm adding new photos every day, so please come visit often and feel free to share.

Preview of Lantern Fesitval and various street vendors. (Warning: there are offensive, or may be considered offensive, meat products in the photos!)

We still haven't selected an apartment. We're torn between inexpensive, spacious, "local" living or expensive, upbeat, exciting, dense and cramped quarters. Don't get me wrong local living is still a little dense, but it's "quiet" (loosely interpreted: about a smidge quieter) compared to Causeway Bay or Central.

Jet lag has not been kind ot us. Jeff and I have not had coffee in several months and with the urgency of having to locate housing we have taken up drinking espresso-based beverages to get us through the late afternoons. Also, the verdict is still unknown on whether or not lychee ice cream has impeded on my recent weight loss of 40lbs.

More on the history of mooncakes soon!

We've been too busy looking for an apartment to really capture the wonderful images around us. This is a pretty sorry start but I hope to capture more once we sign a lease.

HK2004/05: Jeff and Lisa's Excellent Adventure

Some highlights which I'll write more about later:
Starbucks Mooncakes
Thai Basil Restaurant
Noodle House and Jook Joints
MTR/Streetcars/Taxi
Apartment hunting
Aqua (Spirit), 360 View of Hong Kong & Kowloon at night
Gaylord Restaurant
Haagen Daz
The Vine

Last time in HK September 2002 we took many photos but unfortunately the rain cut into the nice scenic points. I'm determined to get good photos this time!

Arrived at 6am China Standard Time on Wed 9/22. The flight was very rough but we survived after 12 hours of watching Troy, Super Size Me, Stepford Wives and a variety of classic movies. We were both so tired after running around the last day of laundry and packing and getting our important papers notarized, witnessed and sealed away. We thought we were going to crash but it didn't quite happen. We're forcing ourselves to stay awake so that we can adjust to the new time zone. We've already checked out an apartment not too far from our hotel...sort of feels like home when you look out the window and there is a McDonald's and KFC down below and a Starbucks around the corner. Give me a noodle house please!!!!

We took a train ride from the airport to Central where we then caught a free hotel shuttle to Park Lane Hotel. It's raining outside and it is still quite humid. I think I'm going to cut my hair; all of its puffiness is quite a rat's nest. Also I'm thinking going either with blue or purple hair. I'll take votes later.

I think I'm going to invest some money in Travelsmith. I pulled out some new shirts I got from Travelsmith and not one item had a wrinkle. I just love it. Of course the fashions here are very different from back home, but I'll have to get a fashion aware 30-something to help me make the transition.

Anyone out there know why they give you an empty bowl at a certain restaurant before you order dim sum(no carts here since it's not cost efficient)? I couldn't really tell if folks were "sterilizing" their tea cup and chopsticks in the bowl. I'm too embarrassed to ask.

My favorite event so far is a visit to the Haagen Daz at the entrance of the hotel that sells lychee cream and ginger ice cream. It was pure heaven especially since I've been on a lychee craze recently.

We're starting to settle down at our hotel for a bit so that we can concentrate on hitting up more apartments over the next couple of days. We'll send out our HK address as soon as we find a place. Also the blog writing will be a bit short of details of more interesting things since I'm saving the best for the book writing attempt while I'm here.

In 2 days at this time we'll be in Hong Kong (18 hours ahead + the 16 hour flight). We have been quite busy the last few weeks visiting friends and family. I apologize if we didn't get to your neck of the woods. It was quite hectic to make the visits everywhere. We've been busy the last few days packing up our house as AP moves in to housesit for us and selling the last cars. Gosh, I can't believe we're down to one car.

Thanks again to DT for the phone and travel cards, I know it will come in handy once we arrive. I want to thank our church family for the fun and heartwarming send off party. I also want to thank MC for hosting a sendoff family dinner the other night. Thanks again to the GSB crew for sendoff and afternoon at Malibu Grand Prix. KC, I will have a dirty martini thinking of you when your bundle of joy arrives. EM/SM, goodluck for the century ride. VS/SK, goodluck with your bundle of joy next month. DP/LP, I'll be praying for you both when your bundle arrives as well. Sorry to those who have sent us info about weddings coming up, we'll celebrate with you when we come back.

Now we're down to the last few hours. Pack some meals(airlines are not so vegetarian friendly), finish writing out important documents, and doing another load of laundry.

We'll miss you all. Please keep in touch and hopfully I'll be able to blog from HK here at www.mywhine.com.

See you in 6 months!

Amazon to Take Searches on Web to a New Depth (free NY Times Registration Required)

Interesting article reviewing A9's services. This startup founded by Amazon is the research and development for Amazon's search technology. The article describes some interesting features which for me weren't new. The new spin on bookmark history and annotations for the web is how it relates to search. It seems that everyone these days has their "spin" on information retrieval, basically they are finding information, searching information, getting the right answer, or managing information. While Amazon is your typical ecommerce company, Google/Yahoo/Microsoft were mentioned in the article as potential competitors in the search field...I'm not quite sure how Amazon could really play well or if at all on that playground.

So just sold the BMW on Thursday just a few hours before I boarded a plane for IL. It was such a stressful day since I just wanted to sell the car and not stress this coming week of showing and negotiating. The car has a new home now in Pleasanton. I hope the new owners enjoy it as much as I have these past 6 months.

Yesterday was my last day at Stanford GSB. The casual mood for the day was set at lunch with some jokers posing as colleagues. I was given a nice casual ice cream send off with many in attendance. It was great to see some new additions to the GSB IT family. DT and JN brought their new arrivals and everyone had a fun time playing and holding the new bundles of joy. I saw someone taking photos so perhaps that will be posted shortly. After having been gone for 2 weeks on vacation, it was kind of strange to just show up for "work" on my last day.

After the sendoff, I picked up the last paycheck and headed to Malibu Grand Prix for a discounted deal of $20 for unlimited laps. Sessions lasted at least 30 minutes each time with a nice 5 or 10 minute break in between. We were there for about 2.5 hours. It was a nice way to end day...riding into the sunset.