Birthday, Baos, and Beautiful light shows

The rest of Karin's visit was really great. We had one week left in Hong Kong and made the most of it.

Notably, we celebrated my birthday together. As much I really like my new friends in HK, it was nice to have some family around on my birthday. It was a pretty relaxed day but filled with great things including little gifts, good laughs, good drinks and a good time. Overall pretty nice and relaxing day, if you consider going to dinner and getting drinks til 1am on a Monday night relaxed. :) The wives didn't. After that, they started calling my friends "party animals" hehehe.

First stop, my favorite, Mexican. Nothing says happy birthday like a plate of nachos and a cool cocktail, am I right?

happy birthday to me!

The next day Karin surprised me with a birthday cake at work. You can imagine my surprise, but you don't have to since we have so many pictures to share! haha.

yay

birthday wishes

The rest of the week was crammed in with movies, dinner, and hang out time. I took them to get the ever famous egg tarts in Hong Kong before they went home. It's a definite must when you visit the city. And they loved them!

Warm and straight from the oven

We also checked the symphony of lights show that happens every night at 8pm. There's a special place to go in TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) which is on the Kowloon side where you can watch all the lights, there's music, and a short narration during the show. It was really beautiful and since we were going there already, I took them to a famous soup dumpling restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It's got a Michelin star and has been written up in the NY Times. It's really famous and they have one in almost all the major cities except for NY. Here are some pics from the restaurant. I think this was def in the top 3 for places that they tried during their trip.

Lots of veggies and baos

Monica mastered chopsticks

Karin

 

 

 

yessssss!

 

outside the restaurant

Here are a few shots from the symphony of lights show. This doesn't do it any justice b/c it's really pretty in person with the music and narration, etc.

Sweaty silly sisters attempting to blot our faces. hehe

We had a great time together and on our last day, Karin and I did a little sisterly bonding in the  morning. We got our hair done. It was fabulous, but Karin says her perm has since then taken a turn for crazyville. I'll post pics if she sends me any.

Moi - shorter, shaggier, shinier :)

someone got a digital perm - doesn't it look great?!

Then we met up with our cousin Alycia who lives in HK now for dinner. The Szetos were once again reunited.

Szetos! Although one is claiming to be a Hsieh these days.

Karin and Alycia

Me and Karin - last night of drinks before her flight

 And you know I had to squeeze in some more food shots while I can. I'm such a foodie - it's sick!

We all started with the french onion soup

Alycia had lobster benedict

Karin had the lobster risotto

And I had the salmon

All of it was great! And you know we couldn't skip dessert so we shared this!

Creme brulee!