squiding

a few weeks ago i got a chance to try my hand at squidding! we went on a school trip to Sai Keng and the town was so charming. right on the sea, there were tons of great seafood restaurants, people walking their dogs, and fishermen pulling up to the side of the dock to sell their freshly caught fish right off their boats.

i didn't catch any squid but i had the best time trying (even though i got horribly sea sick). the trick is to yank the line up and down quickly. the squid are drawn to the boat lights and can be seen jumping out of the water like dolphins! when you pull them up, the squirt ink and writhe on the line. the boat lady even cooked some of our catch, after i got a chance to touch it and feel the strength of their suckers.

malaysia

my malaysia blog is now done, and cambodia is coming soon.

http://aisley-malaysia.blogspot.com/

vietnam

My Vietnam blog is up..It is a little rough around the edges.

http://aisley-vietnam.blogspot.com/

TRAVY HK DAY 7!

Sadly it was t-rad's last day. We headed over to the Macau ferry terminal to take a day trip there but I forgot my passport so we couldn't go. Instead we picked an island in the guide book and found a boat to take us there instead! It was Lamma, one of the biggest.

There are two villages on the island (and a power plant) and connecting them is a long, mountainous trail. I had the bright idea that we should rent bikes, but since it is so touristed we couldn't ride more than a few feet without stopping, not to mention that the steep incline would have meant we would have been pushing the bikes all the way up the mountain. We tried for an hour and then gave up. We saw a lot of other tourists doing the same.

We made it half way before the sun was setting and we decided to head back.

TRAV HK DAY 6!

We took a trip to the space museum and it was really cool. I tried to see if I could build an alien to survive in various environments and travy played on this and tried his hand at moon walking.

Next I took him to one of my favorite places in the city..

Trav searching for crabs:

TRAV HK DAY 5!

The next day we ran around trying to find the Museum of Medical History in the rain. We finally made it and it was great! It is housed in an old plague hospital and chronicles the spread of plague in Hong Kong and how it influenced the widespread acceptance of Western medicine in Hong Kong.

Trav loved it too!

Then we headed down the hill to one of the oldest temples in Hong Kong-Man Mo.


Then we wandered over to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and checked out Chunking Mansions, the Peninsula Hotel, and the star walk before getting ready for Trav's favorite-the laser show!



space museum!

TRAV HK DAY 4!

Day 3 was sacraficed to Dongguan, so onto Day 4!

After school Trav and I headed to see the 10,000 Buddha's Monastery. Instead of walking up the touristed path we walked through the village. I took him to some of my favorite enclaves.

We headed up to the top and Trav was pleased to find a monkey. He creeped on it until the monkey growled and barred its fangs. Unperturbed, trav continued his approach and the monkey charged. Trav kicked it and it retreated but my heart almost stopped.




We creeped over to the back of the building I knew to be under construction and were able to peek in at the new Buddhas they're building.


On the way down I took him to my favorite bee farm. But travis is a baby and was scared.
Next we headed to Sha Tin Wei for some hot pot with my friends (yeah, friends!) Moss and John. It is my favorite place to eat in Hong Kong and Trav liked some of it too.

We got him to try cow stomach and coagulated blood. He is really loving the cow stomach here..
Here John is teaching Trav to massage the Phi Phi in order to break it's shell off to eat. Everytime I did it the Phi Phi's back broke and I had to pick at it.
Next was my turn for some new foods (not always easy to come by anymore). Chicken testicles.. I was a little disturbed by the smell but I popped it in my mouth. To my great surprise a cooked "only boys have it" (as John continually referred to it as) is much like a balloon and when you bite it it pops in your mouth. This was my first reaction to that sensation:
Otherwise though it just has a strong chicken flavor.
I don't know what night this goes with..BUT we made a visit to Temple Street Night Market and grabbed Trav some cool rock souvenirs.