The Hong Kong skyline is always a spectacular sight at night.

Hello Everybody -

Today I'm in Bangkok. I arrived here last night after 4 days in Hong Kong and one day in Macau. My apologies for not writing sooner but I've been a bit under the weather. Today I'm feeling much better.

My flight from New York was very long. 6 hours from NY to Vancouver, British Columbia and then another 13 to Hong Kong. We had a 1 hour layover in Vancouver but we had to stay on the plane for whatever reason I don't know. It would have been nice to be able to get out and walk around a bit. At least there weren't any screaming babies on this flight.

I had this American guy and his beautiful Indonesian girlfriend sitting next to me the whole flight. They were very nice. And then she sneezed - and sneezed again. I got a bad feeling about that sneeze. Sure enough, by the time I got to Hong Kong, I felt like total crap. My worst fears were confirmed when I went through the infrared sensors at the airport. I got pulled out of the line because my body temperature wasn't normal. They took my temperature and told me I had a slight fever and that I should get some rest and drink lots of fluids. Amazing - I just got through working in some pretty miserable extreme weather (sub-zero temps, snow, freezing rain) without getting sick once and now I get a dose of the flu from somebody on the plane. I wasn't ready for that. So, between the jetlag and the flu, my first few days here in Asia were pretty miserable. Spent a lot of time sleeping. I did manage to get out and take a few pictures and see a few things but it was rough. It was also very cold - although not as cold as New Jersey, the dampness just cut like a knife!

Now I'm in Bangkok, it's 80 degrees and I feel like a million bucks today!

While I was in Hong Kong I took a train out to a town called Sai Kung which is a little fishing village about 45 minutes outside of HK. My friend Jay's son owns a pub there and I promised her I would go there and visit. I found the place, but he wasn't there - he was in Thailand visiting his mother. So I hung out for awhile and had some lunch and ended up hanging out with these 4 women - 3 British, 1 Chinese. It was a great time. After about 4 hours I decided it was time to head back before the rush hour began. That was a nice place - I'll go back there again.

I didn't get to see much of Macau, because I was still feeling pretty crappy and it seemed to be a little colder there. So, I just spent the night and moved on. I'll be heading back through Macau, so I'll have a better look then. Macau is a fromer Portuguese colony which was just returned to China a few years ago. You can see the Portuguese influence everywhere. It's pretty strange to hear Chinese people speaking Portuguese.

Well - it's almost time for breakfast, and then it will be time for exploring. I'm staying in a different part of this huge city this time so I can see some different places this time. I'm not sure, but I think this town is larger than New York. There are definitely more people!

Tha's all for now - I'll have some photos ready soon.



later.............





George