(I'm in the first row second person in from the right)

Everyone, in our group of 6, was given a white cane to help us get around on our journey through darkness, we also had a tour guide who was blind. Our guide was Susan and we were first introduced to her right after entering the dark so we had no visual image of what she looked like. It was amazing how vulnerable it felt to not have the use of one of my main senses. I found myself clinging to Susan's voice as if she was my anchor in a sea of black.

At the end of the experience we finally walked back into the light which was incredibly disorienting. I had vertigo and my depth perception was off for a good 10 minutes! The best part was having the chance to see Susan for the first time. She was a tiny beautiful older Chinese woman. Susan also shared her story with us. She was born with vision but at age 3 became very sick and lost her vision. But that has not stopped her in any way. She got married, had 2 children who she raised at home by herself while her husband worked! That part was especially amazing to consider. How does someone take care of 2 children without vision??! Susan's kids are now grown and out of the house so she now works part time at Dialogue in the Dark.

I'm still trying to process everything I encountered and learned but overall it was an incredible experience that I highly recommend.

Hong Kong Park - Lock Chau tea house was recommended to my by my friend Gulay who was recently in Hong Kong. They do a small tea ceremony at the table when you order and also serve amazing vegetarian dim sum. Kingsley ordered the "colorful tea" and I ordered a jasmine green tea. Both very modest selections as there were cups of tea on the menu for HK $10,000!

By the time we got to the top of the never-ending stairs to the Buddha the clouds had cleared and it warmed up considerably. Overall a very cool experience that I would highly recommend.

Along with the amazing shopping on Nathan Street and at least one qualified barber, the Kowloon area of Hong Kong has some amazing street markets that we (mostly me) enjoyed exploring.

Flower Market - I'm sure this was Kingsley's favorite spot :) Its a street full of flower shops that spill onto the road making it impossible for cars to drive down and almost impossible for people to walk down! For the record, Kingsley did offer to buy me flowers that day but I just couldn't justify it since we were in Hong Kong for such a short time. (can I have a rain check Kingsley?)

Bird Park/Market - This was a cool spot where thousands of different kinds of birds were for sale and also displayed in these beautiful wooden cages.

Fish Market - there is another street that is completely devoted to selling all things related to fish. Every imaginable kind of pet fish was for sale along with an amazing variety of aquariums.

Ladies Market - our last stop of the day and I'm sure another highlight for Kingsley :) This market is full of all the things girls love to buy. Clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry ect. Lots of the things were knock-off brands some were good imitations and some were pretty bad. For example Coach purses were Goach purses. Prada was Pada. Didn't buy anything but it was fun to look around.

So far he has hair hacked...I mean cut in:

Singapore

Vietnam

Nepal

And now he can add Hong Kong to the list.

Knowing that Kingsley was at least two weeks overdue for a haircut we kept an eye out for the twirly barber sign while wandering around temple street looking for a spot to have lunch. It took a few blocks and several false alarms but we finally found a spot that Kingsley was actually willing to walk into AND as an added bonus it was a guy who cut his hair! However, the barber did have points deducted for not speaking english and handing Kingsley a hairstyle magazine with some pretty crazy Asian hair styles asking him to point to what he wanted. When I saw Kingsley actually flipping through the book studying the pictures trying to find a similar hairstyle I knew I had to intervene to prevent a complete disaster. It took some creative communication but in the end it all worked out and we were able to get "hair cut in Hong Kong" checked off Kingsleys wish list!

View from our room

Day two we explored Victoria Harbor on the Star Ferry. Its such a beautiful area, they day was slightly overcast but it was a warm spring day. What more could you ask for?

The ferry dropped us on the other side of the harbor in an area of Hong Kong called Kowloon which has a magical little place called Nathan Street (AKA -shoppers paradise)! We (and by that I mean me shopping & Kingsley playing games on iphone) spent quite some time exploring the shopping scene and Kingsley very patiently waited for me outside countless stores.

However he is still working on not saying things like:

"you call that fashion?"

"I cant believe anyone would pay money for that"

"why do you need another dress when you already have several?"

You cant win them all! But you gotta love the guy who spots a $200,000 diamond encrusted iphone cover. At least he is consistent in his passions for all things gadget focused!

Kingsley and I were a bit out of our league when it came to queuing up for the Tram (the Chinese are ruthless) so we ended up one of the few people who didn't get seats on the Tram, which was okay since we had an un-obstructed view on the way up and had lots of opportunity to photograph all the line cutters!

We then headed about 15 min southeast to a little town called Shek O where there is a paragliding site off a mountain called dragons back. Kingsley brought his gear with the hopes of flying since the weather was perfect but there was no one around, probably because it was a thursday and everyone was at work. Even so, we decided to check out the LZ which is a tiny patch of beachfront in-between a golf course and a bunch of homes. After a though-rough investigation Kingsley deemed the site an excellent location to fly! So we made plans to return over the weekend to see if we could meet up with some other pilots. Sadly the weather on the weekend was not good for flying so Kingsley was pretty disappointed. But on the bright side that means we will have to go back to Hong Kong soon!

A Japanese household goods fair in the pavilion of one of the local malls provided an evening f entertainment for Kingsley and I yesterday. In my limited experience the kind of inventions the Japanese create are about 70% brilliant and 30% totally bizarre.

Can you guess if these items fall in the brilliant or bizzare category ?

Well fitted under arm sweat pad

Breath control tool - weight loss

"Use deep breathing way to consume the calories"

"when humidity below the other side of the red pointer will point to the cold area."