A Good Friday

This evening we (even Evan) walked down Jaffe Road from Causeway Bay to Wan Chai and hopped on the Star ferry to Kowloon. Then we wandered over to the Promenade to watch the sound and light show. The buildings on the Hong Kong island and Kowloon side on the city light up to synchronized music. Cheesy. Then we chanced upon a very nice pho shop on Nathan road in Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner. Evan only ate soft shell crab and literally bawled when we ran out of crab. Vivian was the caring big sister and gave him her crab.

Afterwards, we took a picture with the Giant Hong Kong Easter Bunny. Then we spoiled ourselves with the best warm chocolate brownie I've ever laid on my tongue while the kids stuffed themselves with chocolate eggs. As usual we didn't get the chocolate completely wiped off their faces and hands.

The maids at the hotel must be wondering about our chocolate problem. This is the second day in a row that the pristine white high thread count sheets are stained with chocolate.

Pink Dolphins

We went to see the pink dolphins today. It should be the name of a gay rock band. Perhaps is. Officially these are the white Indo-Chinese humpback dolphins. But just like a white person often gets a bit ruddy while exercising, these white dolphins appear quite pink.

There are only about 120 of these lovely mammals left around Hong Kong. They live in the shallow waters of the Pearl River estuary in the narrow extremely busy shipping channel between Hong Kong airport and Kowloon harbor.

We saw several dolphins. For a while Evan would yell "monkey" whenever anyone on the boat said "look!". It's a holdover from his orangutan and proboscis monkey watching days in Sabah. Eventually he got with the program and gleefully shouted "dol! dol!".

The dolphins were hard to photograph. They never cooperate. So I'll bore you with only two pictures of fuzzy pink blobs. I took photos of three specimen of container shipus because they are much easier to photograph and far more plentiful. Evan called the ships "carey" (his word for car) at first. Then he progressed to "boa".

Vivian and Evan were our pride and joy. They behaved splendidly, seemed interested in the dolphins, and didn't jump off the boat.

Lucky Dessert

We landed in Hong Kong at 7:50am today. It felt like 4:50am. Given that, the kids were surprisingly happy till we put Evan in his roller car seat. You get through immigration faster with a bawling child.

Being vastly outnumbered by our luggage and kids we took a limo. The kids slept all the way to the hotel. Here's the view from the hotel in the morning and evening.

We napped. Ate. Napped. Ate. Then ate. The last "ate" was a trip to Lucky Dessert down the street from the hotel. Thankfully they had pictures of food. Our kids like the food around here.

Back to square one

We started our journey in Hyderabad at Preethi International (Sharath's home) and we are back here. We vacate our flat tomorrow. Suitcases are almost packed. Fridge and pantry are empty. Bed linens have been put away. Toys and books and clothes have been given away. We arrived here with four suitcases. We are leaving with two.

Jo, Evan and Vivian are napping soundly at Preethi after a lunch of rice and dal and ghee and tomato chutney.

Tomorrow we hop on a flight to Hong Kong for the last part of this nine month long trip. The chowkidar (security gaurd) at Vivian's school was dismayed when we told him that tomorrow would be Vivian's last day at school. Even Shoana teacher said that she would miss her.

The pain of leaving. The joy of arriving.