Hong Kong is overwhelming.

I'm having so much fun in Hong Kong so far! Please forgive me if this entry seems disjointed... I'm having pretty bad jetlag right now and Hong Kong really overstimulated my senses today.

But... I guess I should start this blog off by telling you how our plane rides here went. Asiana Airlines was alright. It could have been better, it could have been worse. When we went through security I was pulled out of the line as usual. I always get pulled out of the line and extra inspected and I don't know why. This time they swabbed my hands down "for particles." I don't know what that means, that's just what the security guy told me when he tested my hands in some weird machine.

On the first leg of the flight I was stuck sitting next to a fuller figured older Indian lady. I spent most of the flight with her elbow jabbing into my left side. I tempered my unhappiness with her uncomfortable elbow by reminding myself that she's an old lady and someday I'll be an old lady too and I'll probably have to jab some poor young lady with my elbow on a 14 hour flight, and I hope she'll be patient with me. The Indian lady didn't speak any English and was very perplexed during most of the flight. She would squeeze my leg and start speaking in her language when she wanted me to help her unhook her seatbelt, turn off her light, or move her purse.

The whole flight was full of elderly Indian people. I wonder if there was a tour group that went to San Francisco? Mike joked that he was among his brethren because all the Indian men had impressive beards.

They served bibimbap for lunch and it was pretty good. The red bean paste came in a toothpaste like tube which was interesting. The rest of the food was unremarkable. All the Indians were served vegetarian curry that I was pretty jealous of.

Arriving in Seoul was quite confusing. We had to transfer to another plane and the gates weren't really well marked. There was a large queue that all the other people on my plane were in, so we went there. It turned out to be the right line. We had to go through security again which I thought was odd. Let me tell you, the security in Seoul's airport is like how security used to be in the 1980s before all that awful terrorism. You don't have to take off your shoes or empty your bag or get a full body scan. I can't tell you much else about the airport because I was very tired at this point and ended up curling into a little ball on a bench until they boarded the flight for Hong Kong.

I slept during most of the flight to HK. My favorite part of the flight was watching all the stewardesses bow at the same time. Asiana stewardesses are all remarkably beautiful. A PSY lookalike sat in front of me.

Towards the end of the flight, the turbulence got really bad. When we'd hit a rough spot, the whole plane would gasp in unison. Several people threw up. I was sitting next to a window near the wing and lightning hit it several times. That scared the hell out of me. And yes, Jessica, I did think of the Twilight Zone when it happened.

When we landed I was struck by how humid it was. There was a definite smell in the air and I thought of how Hong Kong is named "Fragrant Harbor." Since I have been here, I have smelled so many indescribable things.

Getting through immigration took forever and we weren't able to leave the airport until 2 am. We took a taxi into the city because the train had stopped running, and besides... we were both totally mentally toasted after being in the plane for so long. I perked up when we drove into the city and I saw all the interesting buildings and neon. Hong Kong is so sci-fi when it's lit up at night!

We were both SO relieved when we walked into our hotel room. Finally we could stretch out and get some sleep and some quiet time to ourselves. The hotel room is better than I expected. After reading so many reviews about how most hotel rooms in HK are glorified closets and seeing pictures of atrocious filth on TripAdvisor, my expectations were pretty low. I was delighted to find our hotel room is quite spacious and recently remodeled, so it's very clean. The beds are a different story though. I had read that rock hard beds are par for the course in this part of the world, and it's true. Mike sat on the bed first and said "the beds are worse than you'd expect." And he was right. The bed is about as hard as sleeping on the ground in a tent. But I am not here to sleep!

I was only able to get a few hours of sleep in before my jet lag kicked in and I was wide awake and ravenous for food. I looked out the window and saw the city and got restless to wake up and experience it. Our hotel serves a breakfast that TripAdvisor reviewers had very negative things to say. Well, it wasn't as bad as I expected and it adequately fueled me for the day. There was a mixture of Western style food like scrambled eggs and pancakes and Chinese food like steamed pork buns and rice with vegetables. The dining room crowd was a mixture of Chinese people and international tourists.

We decided to spend the day checking out the various markets in our neighborhood of Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui. The first market we checked out was a the jade market, which consisted of several buildings full of small stalls hawking various jade trinkets. All the guides books I had read warned of buying fake jade under false pretenses that it was real. The shop owners were VERY aggressive! I wasn't used to it and it freaked me out at first. They grabbed my arms and tried to put bracelets on me and would follow me around. Eventually I found a few necklaces I liked that were made of fake jade with a decent price. The lady who sold me the second necklace was very funny. She tried to tell me the hole in the middle of my pendant was "where good lucky money goes, in hole" and had a different story each time she described the 6 lucky beads. One time it was for "luck child" and the next time it was for "long love." Whatever, I just thought it was a pretty necklace.

Next we checked out the Ladies Market, which is basically a massive collection of tents selling anything from fake Jimmy Choo bags to iPhone cases. It was at this market that I started to notice the streets were really filling up with hundreds of people.

After the Ladies Market, we went to the Flower Market and Bird Market. The Flower Market was really green and peaceful after the clamor and chaos of the Ladies Market. Plants of every shape, size, and color were for sale. The Bird Market was interesting and made me a little sad. There were so many birds crammed into tiny cages. I never understood why people want to caged birds as pets. Birds are meant to fly free in trees! It was still a really neat market. There were lots of beautiful cages and creepy crawlies for birds to eat for sale.

After the Bird Market, we checked out the Goldfish Market which turned out to be a street lined with pet shops selling creatures of all sorts. Again, this made me a little sad because I don't like creatures of any sort miserably crammed into a tiny bag or cage. PETA would have a heart attack over what I witnessed today.

After all the marketing, we had worked up quite an appetite. I had a yen for some Japanese noodles, so we found a ramen shop. At this point my jet lag had started to hit me pretty bad and I began to feel quite disoriented and I decided I want to come back to the hotel and write a blog before I got to the point of being unable to focus.

Let me tell you, Hong Kong is an overwhelming place to be. There are so many people and things to see here. The buildings are very tall and people live in very cramped quarters. The sidewalks are always congested with people. When you walk, you always have to pay attention because you are always surrounded by humanity. When you look around, it's hard to focus on any one things since there is so much going on at once - so many colors, smells, sounds, and sights. It is crazier than I expected. So far, I like it quite a bit.

Tonight I had hoped to go to the Temple Street Night Market but now I don't think that's going to happen because Mike has dozed off. Maybe I will go out myself? I want to photograph some of the insane neon signs! Of course, pictures don't do it justice.