Kirchner Christmas Trip in Hong Kong

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone! The delay this time was due to a long vacation with Karen and Brian over Christmas. They came to visit us in Hong Kong for two weeks. The first week we spent showing them around Hong Kong, while the second week we went to the Philippines to learn scuba diving. What an amazing time! This post will be about their first fews days with us while in Hong Kong.

Despite Hong Kong being a mostly atheist place, Christmas is celebrated with surprising vivacity, probably because it encourages gift giving and shopping, for which Hong Kong is famous. There are more malls here than one can count, and so these malls try to outdo each other by having the biggest, brightest Christmas displays. Some really are quite beautiful, while others don't make a lot of sense. It was rainy and cold the first few days of Brian and Karen's trip, so we did a lot of indoor things, including going to the malls on a decoration scavenger hunt.

The picture below is taken from the display outside of Times Square. There were lots of forest animals, (and cats) celebrating with different musical instruments. This squirrel had a Christmas bell. Yes it's weird, and no it doesn't have a lot to do with Christmas, but it was funny none the less.

Having all of these Christmas decorations about reinforced the stereotype that Asian women of all ages love to have their picture taken in various glamour poses. There would be lines at the Christmas decorations to have a chance to have your picture taken in front of it. And its never the couple together or a mom and her child. It's the girlfriend striking a model pose while her poor boyfriend drags around a huge camera to capture that shot from several angles. It begs the question, what on earth do they do with all of those photos? They can't possibly put ALL of them on Facebook... or do they? Again, it's just a stereotype, meaning it's not true for every Asian lady, but man did it seem like it this Christmas season. The picture below is a great example. You just feel bad for Charlie Brown...

Another mall had a really creative display. It felt like the game Mouse Trap brought to life. There was a conveyor belt lifting colorful bowling balls to the top of a shoot, then the ball would roll down the rails, flipping different levers making other things happen, and changing the path each ball would take. It was mesmerizing, and took up an entire mall's lobby. Quite impressive!

Inside that mall was a store with its own winter scene, complete with penguins, mechanical polar bears, and a snow making machine. This is as close to snow as Hong Kong will ever get, sadly. It never really dropped below 50 degrees the whole time Brian and Karen were here. Granted, it does feel much colder than that, as the apartments don't have heat and most windows are single paned. However, a few blankets and a cup of tea still makes it feel cozy. 

This was an outdoor display that was supposed to look like seeding dandelions. What do dandelions have to do with Christmas, you ask? I have no idea. 

We also did a lot of eating while they were here, but don't worry, there will be a food post soon. These photos were taken at the restaurant called Bloom. While it was in the fancy and expensive area of Soho, it was tasty, especially the oysters! The picture below was hysterical at the time. Somehow the lights were hitting Brian's glasses in a way to create a funny shadow on his face that looked like severe evil cartoon eyebrows. I think this is about as evil as Brian gets. 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!