HK New Year 2007 @ Dragon Eye

We were in HK with another Russian couple, but didn't know anyone else.
Where to spend New Year?

Fortunately, we'd brought a book of world-renowned restaurants along as a gift for our Russian friend.
There was only one Hong Kong restaurant / club recommendation, called Dragon Eye.
And luckily, at this late date Dragon Eye still had one table left!

We reserved the table, which included a Chinese dinner leading up to midnight, followed by DJs & dancing.
Dragon Eye really is beautifully designed. There's something snake-like about the space's graceful interweaving of tables, walkways and dance floors. We were seated on the outside patio, amid palm trees & heating lamps, while inside were more tables, a bar & dance areas.

The coolest part: bathrooms! These were totally, floor-to-ceiling tiled in steel. That's right, tiny steel tiles that resemble a mesh surface (or the skin of a dragon?). And the doors were so seamless, it was impossible to tell them apart from the rest of the wall.

We were surrounded by beautiful and successful people from all over the world, including a large gang of models. Our neighbors at the nearest table were all wealthy Indians from Bombay. One of the drunker ones bragged to our Russian friend "I'm not FROM India, I AM India! If you have a business, I can invest $10 million in it tomorrow morning!" We got his card.

Unfortunately, the music at Dragon Eye was "hit-parade" cheesy. After saluting the New Year with the generously provided clappers and soundmakers, and tossing back a few drinks, we were ready for the after-party...

A Crowded Metropolis...

I also had my 1st bout of claustrophobia in Hong Kong:
We went into a shopping center on New Year's eve, but this mall wasn't roomy and spacious like the ones we have back home.
The shopping center reminded me more of a packed ant farm: low ceilings, lots of corridors branching off, no windows. And super crowded.
I started feeling very warm, like there wasn't enough fresh air. We began searching for an exit but couldn't find one... that's when I realized what claustrophobia is.
Funny, I always imagined getting claustrophobic in a cave or dungeon, but it happened to me in one of my favorite settings (the city / metropolis).

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a lot like Tokyo, but has a more "market / street vendor" culture going. It is expensive, busy, very urban. I never saw an old or dirty car... people on the streets are pretty stylish. Lots of technology being sold. The skyline is gorgeous at night, surprisingly reminiscent of all the blinking lights along the Playa at BM.

Sometimes I'd get overwhelmed by the blending smells of food cooked right in the street (Chinese delicacies like rotisserie hens, chicken paws, weird sweets, and other totally foreign and unrecognizable grub). The smells were especially a problem when we were hung over from partying too much...

South-East Asia (Part1)

Part 1

Sooo Cambodia...
"Why?" you ask. That seems to be a common question among our friends...
I always compare Cambodia to Goa, India. As in: you're going there to chill on the beach, it's cheap & tropical.

Goa still remains my favorite place in the world to visit. Unfortunately, many people feel the same & it's becoming very touristy.
So our Russian friends suggested Cambodia as an alternative. The tourist trade there is just starting to flourish, and in that sense it's like Goa about 15 years ago...

The best way to get to Cambodia was via Hong Kong, so we decided to stop there for 4 days and celebrate New Year.

Creepy & True: An LA Halloween Story!

Let me start by saying that there are only 2 houses with Halloween decorations on our block - ours, and our neighbor's. In fact, my 9-year-old daughter has a kind of "decoration rivalry" going with the neighbor. Being Russian I am obviously superstitious, and thus a bit uneasy about the death / blood / gore symbolism that we so carelessly display... So bear that in mind.

On Monday night my husband & I were invited to a classical music concert, and we decided to take our daughter along. She didn't really want to go, but for some reason my husband insisted. I was worried that she'd get too fidgety, but it turned out ok because we let her play GameBoy (on mute, of course) and she seemed to enjoy the music.

Then afterwards, at our daughter's request we stopped for Sushi. Though we left the restaurant at around 11pm, strangely neither my hubby nor I were really worried that it was too late for Sasha on a weeknight. We were just kind of taking our time.... And with good reason, as it turns out!

When we pulled up to our block we saw that our street was closed off by the police! They wouldn't let us through, or tell us what happened. But they changed their minds after they saw Sasha in the car, and realized that we needed to get our kid into bed.

One cop told us to park our car and walk with him towards our house, being "very careful not to disturb the evidence." As we approached our home, I saw that our entire front yard was closed off with yellow police tape! They walked us around some marked evidence in our driveway (by this I mean several plastic yellow police "markers" with numbers on them, placed near puddles or other evidence items on our driveway).

When we got to the front door, two officers proceeded to explain that around 8pm that evening some gangster got shot up on our front lawn! Actually, he ran bleeding over our driveway and across the lawn, then hid behind the side of our house. Meanwhile, the perpetrators shot at him from a car in the street right by our driveway!

Our house didn't actually get hit, though there were some marked bullet casings in our driveway. But the neighbor's house did get hit. Thank goodness the guy survived, otherwise I'd seriously be thinking about selling this house! But we've definitely decided to get a fence (or brick wall?) in the front. We still have some bloody stains at the side of our house, but thankfully a fire truck hosed down our drive way when the cops were done...

So here's the weirdest part - the ONLY 2 houses on our block to be involved with this shooting, were also the ONLY 2 houses with blood & gore decorations.

Oh, and we left our automated pirate / skeleton prop on that evening. I can just imagine the shots, the guy running and bleeding past, as the prate skeleton shouts out, "Aye, who goes there! I'm waiting for youuuuuuu!"