DATELINE: Hong Kong, China 

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Author: Lauren Cohen

After all the time I've spent outside over the past three weeks, leave it to me to get sunburned on my last full day here. This morning I took the ferry from Central to Lamma Island, a quiet, car-less haven from the bustling city. I took the 90 minute walk across the island, winding up at a seafood restaurant on the water for lunch. The scenery rivaled Dali's, and perhaps even exceeded it because I was right in the thick of the lush green fields and small (steep but walkable) mountains. Nowhere near as fun as Dali though - definitely a half-day trip at most, unless you're on some sort of quiet romantic getaway. For lunch I ate poached shrimp, fried sweet-and-sour calimari, garlic scallop with thin noodles, and fried rice. By the time I made it back to Kowloon, it was pouring rain. I decided to head back to the hotel to change out of my sweaty clothes. I also decided to do a load of laundry so that I wouldn't have to go home with a backpack full of smelly clothes. Plus I needed to kill some time to get hungry before heading out to dinner. When laundry was done and I went out, I still felt nowhere near ready to eat again. However, my feet were killing me from hiking across Lamma (or walking - is it hiking if the whole path is made of sidewalk?). I decided to live dangerously and follow a 5-foot tall Indian woman who stopped me on the street asking if I wanted a foot massage. She took me up in one of those elevators that have a door to the 10th floor of a dingy, nondescript building. It was decidedly darker and not as nice as the massage parlors I had visited in Shanghai and Beijing. I said I just wanted a foot massage, but the man in charge persisted in asking me to buy body or neck massages. He came out of his office about halfway through my massage and tried to offer me a discount. Then he came out again a few minutes later and told me that he's a "Chinese doctor" and can tell that my neck and shoulders are tight. I've spent a lot of time carrying around a heavy backpack, so they probably were tight. But from the looks of that place, I figured that my masseuse spent most of her time giving HJs, so there was no way I was letting her touch any part of my body that wasn't my feet. My feet did feel great afterwards, though. I made my way down to Causeway Bay, figuring that I would walk around and find a place for dinner that looked good. I strolled around, unsure, until I saw a shining beacon of hope: a large autographed photo of Anthony Bourdain in the window of the Under Bridge Spicy Crab restaurant. I of course went inside to try their house speciality. Market price for a small crab was listed as $300HK (about $38US - by far my biggest splurge meal of the whole trip). I asked for "Very Spicy" - the second-hottest level of spice listed on the menu (I figured "Super Spicy" was just silly). The waitress tried to talk me out of it, but I insisted I could handle it. The crab showed up on a huge plate ("that's a SMALL one?") covered with a layer of chili flakes and dried chilis about 3 inches deep. I dug in, feeling not shy at all about getting in there and picking apart the crabby bits with my fingers. My lips were soon burning and my nose was running. Even worse, as my nose continued to run it started to secrete chili oil making my face burn. I loved every second of it and finished the whole crab - even extracting the meat out of the legs, which meant sucking on chili-covered shell. The waitress kept coming to check if I was ok. I told her it was great, even though I'm sure I looked like hell. After dinner I went straight to 7-11 for some ice cream. Between dinner and the sunburn, I still feel hot all over. And I can't believe I have to leave tomorrow! waaaaaaaaaah