Tea Class

We are both tea people—tea snobs, possibly.  Excellent tea was one of the things we left behind on our journey.  We haven’t had access to actual tea, even in teabag form, for most of the trip—there are a lot of hot drinks around the world that are called tea but have nothing to do with leaves from a tea plant.  We knew that Hong Kong was one of the best places to seek out some truly spectacular tea, so we did our best to find some. The recommendations we found were to visit somewhere called LockCha Tea Shop, so we took ourselves there on our first morning in town. After tasting four different kinds of teas and then buying some (yeah, we know, we don’t buy stuff), when our tea sommelier told us about a tea appreciation class that was available at the Museum of Tea Wares, we signed up on the spot.
Outside the tea house, they had a section of tea plants growing, which were quite pretty.

Hong Kong: Snapshots

Hong Kong was vibrant, culturally diverse, and very easy to get around on foot and by public transit.  It was a pleasant surprise, and a good change, after Singapore.  Some snapshots, and brief notes:

Hong Kong Markets

Dried pig haunches?  Anyone?  The streets around our hotel, in Hong Kong, were filled with curious dried things.  Nominally, we were in the dried seafood market, but the items certainly weren’t limited to the sea.

Meals of Asia

The next installment in our meals around the world includes: Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.  We had some amazing meals, in Hong Kong and Vietnam in particular.  We were no strangers to Asian cuisine, but were surprised by the difference that local ingredients and regional variations made.  We were also surprised by the variety of delicious, cheap fruit smoothies, and you'll see we had them with most meals.  That may be what we miss most!

Here is the slideshow version:

Hong Kong Subway

Typical subway scene in Hong Kong.  Clean car.  Map with illuminated indicator for current stop, next stop, and which side  the doors will open on. Quiet, polite passengers.  Tote bag with pandas that look like KISS band members.  Let’s zoom in on that, shall we?

Hong Kong is awesome.

Postcard: Hong Kong

Dusk, Sheung Wan district, Hong Kong.  Taken on Wing Lok street.  Yes, that’s Lana on the right.