our honeymoon was amazing. we were supposed to go to bali and hong kong, but the night of our wedding, bali got bombed. this put a slight damper on things during our "getting ready" time, but we soon forgot about it until the next day. we still were planning on visiting hong kong but also wanted a beach portion of the trip, so we looked at guam, sanya on hainan island in china and the philippines. we were seriously considering sanya, until we looked on cnn and saw it just got hit by a major typhoon! first a terrorist attack and then a typhoon. we also shortly realized we would need to acquire a visa well in advance, so that was out of the question. i was a little bugged about the muslim population in the philippines, but our friend meca convinced me that boracay island in the philippines would be amazing. melenie's father also always spoke of retiring there, so it seemed like an ideal place. it mainly was, to be honest with you, besides some rubbish washing up in the morning waters. the water was clear aqua/blue/green and the sand was as fine as baby powder. the island's food specialty was garlic rice and garlicky/butter seafood. here's a few pics, but visit my flickr page to the right for more:
hong kong was incredible also! a chinese country colonized and owned by britain for 100 years, it currently is operating under two systems. in 1997, britain gave the islands back to china and china agreed to keep it under "both systems" for fifty years. we'll see about that, though. hong kong is like new york but it seems like millions more people, even way more crowded, but much cleaner! public transportation is extremely easy to use, so it's great for getting around. the subway is sparking clean at all hours. great food can be purchased really cheap anywhere you look, but you will also see advertising at every glance of the eye. we also got to go to china for a daytrip. communist china REALLY does have giant, brainwashing billboards that read slogans such as: "empy talk is wasteful. work is efficient" and "time is money. work is prosperous." really weird. here's a couple more pics of the hong kong scenery (cool stores and 80's style, but check the flickr page for more:
also - some comments about hong kong food...we tried a set meal at peking garden one night in causeway bay. very good food and good service. we had shark's fin soup, fried prawns with chili sauce, pork sliced as thin as bacon over rice noodles, peking duck and a cool desert with squishy jellybean like balls stuffed with peanuts in cold rice wine soup. washed down with some tsing tao beer. great meal. also had an amazing szechuan meal at red pepper! orange beef as thin and crispy as can be with lots of peppers. imagine beef as crispy as potato chips mixed with beef jerky. tried fried pigeon at the same meal, reminiscent of quail. great fried rice there also and very tasty string beans with fried minced pork and ginger. best meal there, probably. on the street scene, imagine your typical hot dog vendors, but selling thebest dumplings, wontons, sausage, octapus, etc. little fast food joints everywhere selling cool things like noodles in a plastic bag, pick your sauce, pick your meats, pick your veggies (octapus with seaweed miso and giner sauce on spinach noodles for $1 is extremely nice!) also tons and tons of little noodle soup and congee soup shops. if you've never had congee, it's highly recommended. i've had it many times when melenie is sick and her mom makes it for her, or we order out for it. in thai they call it juk soup. it's rice soup with a chicken broth base, but it should have lots of ginger and garlic in it and pulled pork or ground pork. add an egg, some vinegar, soy and chili and it's an awesome breakfast or the asian version of chicken soup when you have a cold. what else? great dim sum and tea!!! we went to luk yu teahouse, where the rich go for tea. there's an extremely proper science to drinking tea. i'll go into it some other time, because i rather talk about the chu siu bao, or bbq pork steamed buns. amazing. har gow - shrimp dumplings, amazing. little crepes stuffed with mango, incredible. let's see...what else...ok, when you sit down at any restaurant in hong kong, big or small, you immediately are served tea. they try to conserve paper, so there are no napkins at the table unless it's a really nice joint. they do not give you water unless you ask. chopsticks, spoons, toothpics, vinegar, soy, white pepper and chili sauce are on every table. some pics, but flickr for more:
i think that's it for now. my body is still adjusting to the time so i went to bed at 8 or 9 last night and woke up at 5. we're moving to portland in one week so i'll have to readjust again. no jobs, no apartment. a fantastic woman whom i've yet to meet, my aunt alicia's cousin, jean (my new auntie jean) is letting us stay with her for a week or so until we find an apartment. good night. or morning. it's 6 am now.
