Dragon Boat Training

I'm exhausted so this is going to be short. The dragon boat team met at Stanley pier at 4:45PM. About half of the women are Stanley housewizes (very rich women)! Practice started with some brief explanation of how to paddle while leaning out of the boat. Then we headed out into the water. The conditions as the coach indicated were shitty (in a Bristish accent). It was rainy, dark, and really choppy. We headed out to another cove to find smoothier water to work on drills, but we didn't find smooth water anywhere. We ended up just doing drills out on the open water before heading into shore.

I got a few compliments from the coach, but I did completely soak the lady sitting in front of me. I got smacked by the paddle of the lady behind me though, so I think we are all learning. We paddled for a bit over an hour. My arms are a bit sore, but I am going back next week.

First Class Movie Theaters

I definitely recommend seeing a movie in one of the palace theaters while in Hong Kong. It is like being in first class on an airplane. The palace has 6 seats across in each row. Each seat is a huge leather lazyboy with automatic feet rests that come up and seatbacks that go back. The seats are grouped in twos with a wood and brass console in between. The consoles are complete with call buttons to summon an usher an order popcorn or soda. The only thing that is lacking is a blanket because the theaters are freezing!

Sha Tin Races

Gambling at the School Christmas Party!

Not only did we have alcohol at the Back to School Night, but we went to the horse races and gambled at the Primary school Christmas Party.

This was my first experience at the races, and we were in a fancy box high above the track. The box was complete with tv screens that displayed information about the races, a wall of windows, a serving staff, and doors that opened up to an outside seating area.

We had a few big winners in our group! Sadly, I was not one of them. I won money steadily on the first three races that I bet on and then lost just as steadily on the last three. I only came out about $10 short though.

Next time I will try the Happy Valley races. The track isn't quite as fancy, but you are much closer to the action.