Hong Kong is a humid, awesome, Asian version of NYC. Arrived here yesterday with a knot of excitement in my stomach in anticipation of seeing Steph. She picked me up at the airport and there is no way I can express just how amazing it was to see her. She was even more beautiful than I remembered and stood calmly in the scrum of families waiting to pick up loved ones as I passed through customs and picked up my bag. Taking the new train into the city, we began our much needed reconnection. I was so totally happy to be with her again.

As I was checking in to the hotel, she said something to the front desk clerk in Cantonese and next thing I knew, I had been upgraded to a harborview room. It's tiny, almost humorously so, but clean and modern with a KILLER view of Kowloon. After, uh, ahem, you know, we went out for dinner to a fabulous sushi restaurant. Without doubt, this was the best sushi I have ever had. In fact, it is quite possible that the hundreds of other times in my life when I thought I was eating sushi was in fact something else entirely because the food last night was so totally superior. Holy crap, that was amazing fish. Wow. After dinner we went to the Excelsior Hotel and watched the house band for a few hours while we cuddled up on a swank couch in a dim corner. It was a fabulous and much needed reunion.

Today she picked me up at my hotel around 10:00 (she's staying at her dad's place nearby) and took a long trip to see the Big Buddha somehere, uh, out there. It was a foggy, cloudy day (as apparently everyday here has been for weeks) and the giant Buddha sculpture kept appearing and disappearing in the mist. Made for some beautiful photographs, actually. We arrived back downtown just in time to get changed and go for dinner with her father, Ricky, and his wife. Ricky is a very sweet man and because he works in the music industry, he knows more about Pop music than just about anyone I've ever met. Dinner was in a steak restaurant and Steph paid as it was her birthday present to her dad. Good food, good company, good times. I like him and am looking forward to speaking to him more tomorrow night when the rest of his family here are taking us all out for a traditional Chinese Banquets, 12-course style. Assuming the food tomorrow will be as remarkable as everything else I have eaten here so far, should be amazing.

Gotta get to bed as I am exhausted. Sorry for not writing more in the last couple of days, it was impossible to get to a computer.

Looking forward to seeing everyone back home soon...

R*