Hong Kong - first impressions

OMG - the buildings here are so tall! Gives the word skyscraper a whole new dimension. We arrived, got a bit confused by the signs at customs, jumped on a highly efficient train and airport shuttle and arrived at our hotel. For those of you who are interested, have a look on the "mira hotel" website, and you'll know what I mean when I say that there are plenty of floaty amoebas in the lobby...

Anyway we were then due to meet my colleague Shanthi and her mum for dinner. Once we figured out how to buy a train ticket (when the machine didn't accept cards, when the ticket office didn't accept cards and when the cash machine didn't accept cards we offered it at first), we travelled a couple of stops on the local metro and ended up in soho. There we used apparently the worlds longest escalator complex (qua length) and had a local meal of Manchurian food! Gorgeous vegetable and mushroom dumplings (so soft and juicy), spicy chicken in freshly baked sesame seed pockets, lamb & long beans (length, of the beans that is, was a topic of discussion before we ordered) and pork & coriander pancakes. Eternally grateful to Shanthi for showing us the local Hong Kong (apparently she used to live just up the road from where we had dinner) - I don't think we would have ever found that restaurant (or known how to order those foods) on our own.

Then for dessert, something from a market stall (well, actually more of a hole on the wall between two shops), which we couldn't recognize - in fact we even thought it was dessert, when it was actually potato (?) dumpling balls in curry sauce! I would not even start to guess at what the meat was in the curry...Not quite what Niina was expecting. Luckily the mini round waffles? were closer to dessert.

and now its time to crash (although don't know if I'll sleep as my body clock still thinks its afternoon....)