September 25 (Hong Kong, SAR (Special Admin. Region) of PRC)

I'm an uncle!!!!! I received word the other day that my nephew, Garrett Xavier Moore, was born on Friday September 20, 2002 at 6:24pm (EST) and is a healthy 7lb. 11.5oz. 20" long baby. I am sooo excited!!! When I was in Shanghai on the 21st - 12 hours ahead of home so it was still the 20th there - I was thinking of Garrett and wondering if he'd arrived yet so I bought him a present not knowing that he was born not more than 10hrs. prior. I bought him a framed picture that has a Chinese phrase on it that means "Grow up to be a useful person." It's very nice and I think it will look great wherever the new mom and dad decide to put it. Pictures of Garrett can be seen at www.danmoore.com/garrett shortly. In the days between Shanghai and Hong Kong the 100, or so, students and staff that didn't go to Beijing basically watched movies, sunbathed, read, and were treated to 2 sit-down dinners complete with 4-5 courses and Filet Mingnon as the main dish. And I must say, it was perhaps the most tender piece of meat I've had in a very long time. Hong Kong is a great city. Like Kobe, it's quite modern and Westernized - obviously because of the former British presence here. Today was spent on Lantau Island - the largest island in Hong Kong. It is very much an "old world" area. Though it now has a fairly modern airport on one end, the majority of the island is mountainous and green and full of little fishing villages and monastaries. We visited the Po Lin Monastary, which is the home of the world's tallest, seated outdoor bronze Buddha statue. It sits high atop a hill overlooking the entire area, with quite the impressive view. With the smell of incense still on my clothes from the grounds of the monastary I walked up the 200-some-odd steps to see the Buddha. It is an awe-inspiring sight, indeed. The stillness and grandeur of the place is amazing. It will surely be remembered as one of my favorite places.


September 26 (Still in Hong Kong)

Last night I went to the Night Market here in Hong Kong. From 7:30pm till after midnight sometime dozens and dozens of shops are set up along a single street offering only about a 5 foot aisle down which to walk. The shops offer almost anything you could want from purses to watches to clothes to electronics to toys to almost anything else. Haggling is a must. Regardless of how fair you think the price is you are expected to at least try to get it cheaper. My "best buy" was a royal blue traditional-style Chinese shirt with silvery dragons and things on it. The shopkeeper wanted 185 Hong Kong Dollars for it and I got him down to 130 (basically from about $23.84(USD) down to $16.75). I am planning on wearing it to the Ambassador's Ball (our big dance in Nov. sometime) and you can see pictures of me in it then. For now, I'll just keep you in suspense.

Today I slept in. I've pretty much just been bumming around the ship and relaxing since I did a lot of walking yesterday. Tomorrow classes begin again for the 2 days before Vietnam. So I think it's a good time to get some rest in before my big trip to Cambodia next Monday through Wednesday. That trip is the one I've been looking most forward to and I'm sure it will be one of the most memorable experiences of this voyage. If you want to have an idea of where I'll be in Cambodia, check out nationalgeographic.com <http://www.nationalgeographic.com> and look at the article for the Temples of Angkor from the August 2000 issue or the outside view of a large temple surrounded by water about 2/3 of the way through "Tomb Raider." I will, of course, send pictures along sometime afterwards so you can see what I've seen.