A Shameless Day

Here are the shameless things we did today, in order of occurrence.

Shameless Deed #1: We had bacon for breakfast (well, that's only shameful for me, not Charlie).

Then we rode the Peak Tram to Victoria Peak.  Okay, that wasn't shameful at all, but was a major part of our outing today.  It was a freakishly steep ride - I was looking for an angle calculation, because it was definitely more than 45 degrees, but all I found was a maximum steepness of 48%.  According to the internet (because I don't do math) that is an 88 degree incline!

Here is the red trolley approaching from below.


This is the road to our destination, in the direction of "up".


Here is Charlie, demonstrating the incline.  Sorry, he was too close for me not to chop his head off.


I know, I know.  This picture is super crooked.  But if you imagine the buildings being horizontal and then compare it with the line on the window, you will understand just how steep the ride was.  It was only really scary on the way down, when you felt like you were going to nosedive down the track.


When you get to Victoria Peak there is a big shopping mall.  On our way to the observation deck we were pressured into buying this vibrating head massager.  Hey, just by being reluctant about it the price went from $300 HKD for two to $70 for one plus a free cooling eye mask.  How could we resist?  When we got home we realized that we should have bought two because we fought over it as soon as it came out of the package.


We successfully made it to the observation deck without buying any remote control helicopters, where I took this picture.


If you hang your head over the side, it blows your hair around like this:


Shameless Deed #2: We used the super-powered binoculars on the observation deck to try to look into the windows of the rich people who live on Victoria Peak.  They must have gotten wise to that sort of nonsense long ago because all the curtains were drawn.

Shameless Deed #3: Of all the wonderful restaurants to choose from at Victoria Peak, we wandered into Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., a Forrest Gump themed restaurant.  Our excuse is that we love shrimp.  It was embarrassing.  We were the only people there and they played bad '80's pop music.

They also indicated to us that if you want them to come to your table you have to flip this sign over:


... So that you can see this one.


We tried it but it didn't work.  Apparently you have to start walking out of the restaurant for them to pay you any mind after they've given you your food.  The food was pretty tasty, but because it was all fried and salty it didn't make us feel very good... or maybe it was the shame of the experience.

Also, the ping pong paddle on the table is a cocktail and dessert menu.

There wasn't really anything else at the Peak for us so we hopped back on the tram and, after a short pit stop at home, grabbed a taxi down to Graham Street Market.

Shameless Deed #4:  Rather than getting any exercise (Gimme a break! Bum foot!), we rode the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world from bottom to top.  There wasn't much to see along the way that we hadn't already seen.  We disembarked once to look into some antique shops that were way out of our price range and were subsequently accosted by the crazy American woman who owned one of them.  For some reason she felt compelled to go on at length to us about her tax woes.

Then we stopped at this pretty green mosque, known as Jamia Masjid or Shelley Street Mosque.




It was located in a plaza in a residential area and was literally 20 feet from the escalator, which is a major tourist thoroughfare.  I was surprised to only see one other tourist couple leaving the site when we got there.  We wondered if the lack of interest had to do with prejudice.

At the top of the escalator we hopped off and grabbed another taxi back down to where we had started.  As we approached our destination we noticed the sign for the lingerie store in the creepy alley that I blogged about last week.

Thus, our curiosity led us to Shameless Deed #5.  Since we were in broad daylight and there was safety in numbers, we followed the sign down the dark alley.  Then we turned into a creepy stairwell where we were met by an elevator whose functionality was questionable.  We rode the elevator to the second floor and made our way around the corner to the shop door, which was glass, and I could see some of the lingerie selection.  There was a sign telling customers to ring the bell for entry (probably to keep the shop attendant from being harassed by sleazebags) but she must have heard us in the hallway because she came to the door before we had a chance to ring.

She was dressed smartly in a pant suit and the store was all pink and brightly lit.  There were lacy things from floor to ceiling on every wall, except one which was dedicated to... ahem... other things.  It was probably the classiest store of its kind that I have ever seen.  We browsed awkwardly for several minutes and then settled on buying a package of suggestive greeting cards.  We felt sorry for having troubled the woman.

Shameless Deed #6 was my going into a spa and treating myself to a 50-minute foot massage and pedicure.  It was a very comfortable and soothing place and at one point during my massage I think I dozed off.  I awoke to the therapist asking me "Good feeling?"  I smiled and nodded.

Cushy massage chairs, bamboo partitions, sedating music and hot herbal tea.  What more could you ask for?


Relief!


The woman who massaged me seemed to know what she was doing because when she got to my right foot she felt it, frowned, and then worked the hell out of it.  I told her I wanted hard pressure and she appeased me by digging her knuckles into my plantar fascia and occasionally punching the bottom of my foot.

While I was waiting for the pedicure part to begin, three young American men with military haircuts wandered in for massages.  I wondered if they knew this was an actual spa and not a whorehouse.  I think the receptionist was wondering the same thing because she felt compelled to give them a tour of the place to show that it was legit.  After an awkward look around they went ahead and just got regular foot massages like everyone else.

During my shameless self-indulgence, Charlie was off participating in Shameless Deed #7: Visiting Havana Express, the Cuban cigar store, for the 3rd or 4th time since we got here.  He made friends with the tobacconist, hung out in the lounge, and by the time I met up with him again he had a thorough buzz (and a tummy ache) from smoking two exquisite cigars in a row.

It is 10:30 PM now and we just finished having a nice dinner at a wonderful Indian restaurant with some of Tony and Elena's colleagues.  Time for bed!