Civilization is a nice thing....

and we didn't even realize that we were missing it so much! We have been walking around the city for 4 days and we really like Hong Kong...but it's time to move on -we can only take so much consumerism. These people really know how to shop!

One thing I noticed on our first day here is that we never seemed to stop eating. That seems strange, but I think we got a little afraid of eating...well not afraid, just extremely cautious - so cautious that we didn't eat very often. And everyting tastes so good!!! We have had noodles and sushi, red bean cakes and dim sum. Ah, it is fabulous!!!

Everything here is so clean, it's even a bit extreme - most people carry their own toilet paper! And not because it isn't available in the public toilet, but because they don't trust the public loo paper, they want to be sure they have clean paper. We have sen quite a few people wearing masks and I have seen quite a few antibacterial hand cleaner dispensers in public places. The other thing we noticed is that all the personal cleaning supplies are in HUGE containers! We went looking for a small bottle of shampoo and it only comes in massive sizes - twice the size of regular bottles of shampoo and shower gel.

One thing I needed to do when we reached civilization is get my legs waxed...I know, it's painful, but I have alligator skin, so it doesn't hurt very much (it's well worth it! :) This was the strangest wax job I have ever had (and I have been waxing for quite a few years!). I had two women in masks, each sitting on a little stool, waxing my legs while I was standing up...very strange! They did a good job, though, and it was the easiest wax job I have ever had to recover from :)

Tomorrow we take the train to Beijing - 24 hours on the train, but we have our own sleeper compartment with 2 beds (we splurged on it - 70GBPs each :). We are going to look out the window, read and practice our Mandarin!

I know A has a bunch to say, too...catch you later!