Day 12 - Livin La Vida Loca

The theme for this day is to live like the locals. One of our goals for the trip was to be in Hong Kong for 2 weeks and try to imagine how it would be to actually live here. This meant having an apartment, hanging out with the locals, and even exercising as those who live in Hong Kong do.

One order of business today, though, was to get up early and go to the Starbuck's across the street. Rich had read that an interesting activity when visiting a large city like Hong Kong is to attempt to see the city when it is quiet, before things really get going. Indeed, I had seen a pre-code 30's movie where the director had shot scenes from Paris in early hours, and it was neat. We did get going early for us, but unfortunately not early enough to see Hong Kong sleeping. (probably would have had to make it 5:00 instead of 7). Anyway, it was worth it to me to get a really good cup of coffee to start off the day.

My next big adventure for me personally today was to go to a zumba class. As some of you know, I am a zumba fanatic and I thought it would be special to shake it in an Asian zumba class. I researched it before the trip and found a California Fitness center within walking distance of our apartment that had zumba classes. Rich and I walked there, and he went shopping while I went to class. The fitness center was modern and nice. The zumba women were dressed in appropriate attire for this exercise and all appeared to be Chinese locals. Before the class, our instructor introduced himself to me – his name was JC (short for Juan Carlos). Being Hispanic, his English was better than most and we had a nice conservation about zumba. He even invited me to a zumba marathon being held tomorrow in Causeway Bay. JC's class was phenonenal- great Latin music, a lot of salsa, and a little hip hop. But the biggest surprise was that the last song we danced to was an MJ song- his version of “Horse with no name” on the Xscape album!! This was my best dance, of course. What a fun experience – wish I had the energy to attend the marathon tomorrow!

Rich wanted to go an another urban hike. He researched a found one that was very close to our area, Wan Chai. I was actually energized after the zumba class, and we did this hike. Although the first part was a lot of uphill (even more than Asheville), it did become flat, and was a nice paved trail. What was cool were the great city views from above on the left side of the trail, and some partly woods views on the right. There was even a small waterfall! Many locals were walking or running on this trail. It is obviously a fitness activity for them. This walk helped us to get back to our fitness level of several days ago. Great news, because I can now order a dessert tonight!

Interesting tidbit: Yesterday while strolling in Central district, I noticed a lot of “Chairman Mao” memorabilia. These included items such as Mao busts, paper weights, and even large statues. Some of the statues were as large as the Buddhas that are often used in Asian gardens. Unfortunately, forgot to get pictures. Having a statue of Chairman Mao in your Asian garden would really create a different kind of mood!

Tonight we ate in our Wan Chai District. We were going to repeat our experience at the tapas place, 22 Ships, as we had enjoyed it so much. Because of a long wait, we decided to go to a “fast food” Korean place called “Baab”. We both had the traditional stone bowls and enjoyed it – cheap but good food!

We then went back to the salsa club, Xperience. The scene on Friday is even more lively than our Sunday night experience. There are many serious Asian salsa dancers – good to see and enjoy. The Hong Kong residents have apparently decided that Latin music and salsa dancing is a fun addiction. I know what they mean – between my zumba dancing and salsa tonight, I am a slave to the rhythm!