Cross of Death

After an eventful first day in HK, Dave decided to take me wake boarding after only a few hours of sleep. Considering I've never done a board sport before and I'm not the best swimmer, I had other things on my mind besides fatigue. Dave lives along Repulse bay and has an amazing view. You can see his place amongst the group of white buildings in the center of the picture.

The day was pretty overcast and the water choppy. Not the best weather for a first go, but I was confident in Dave's instruction. A few years back he was the HK wake boarding champion, but after a knee accident he's switched to wake skating. Rather than having the board strapped to your feet like wake boarding, in wake skating you ride like a skate board. Your feet are detached, and it seems way harder and more complex.

For those that are interested, Nike SB has a line of wake shoes that are pretty cool.

Here he is attempting a trick.

He ate it pretty hard.


He still looked pretty badass for most of his ride, though.

When it was my turn, Dave gave me some good pointers, and made me quickly realize that I'm not very flexible. Getting my knees up to my chest with the board strapped to my feet kind of hurt. Still, I remembered many drunken nights playing around with my friend Bryan's endo board and had faith.

I averaged about 15 seconds up on the water, but had a few decent runs that lasted longer. It was a lot of fun, and after 30 minutes I was totally exhausted.

After we finished, we headed up to the Peak, which offers a sweet vantage of the bay and the city skyline.


Vinny lives in the the tall building directly center.


Cramped city.


Ice cream was eaten.


Souvenirs were examined.

Also at the peak was a Madam Tussauds. I remember going to one after high school and not having much fun, but this time was different. As you can see from the following pictures, we kind of went crazy with the pictures and the posing.




Vinny being Vinny.






I love Coming to America.


I have no clue who this is, but Vinny really wanted to take a picture with him.


My friends Lauren and Jones once told me that they thought I looked like Bill Clinton. Thoughts? Uh, the wax interpretation definitely makes him look like a zombie.




I wanted this picture to look like Pavarotti was tickling me or something. Don't ask me why.


Dave with the CEO of HK.


This wax figure was the most realistic.


Don't worry, Yao Ming wasn't jumping. He is really skinny.


Vinny really wanted you to know that Yao has armpit hair.


Dave violating David Beckham.


This was a big moment for me. I watched Rumble in the Bronx twice in the theatre.

Next on our schedule was to find a fake rolex for a friend. We headed into one of the major shopping districts where normal HK people shop. Lots of teenagers, street food, and random stores.

The malls in HK are pretty extravagant. Escalators are always very dramatic.

Our final destination was a late dinner at the very touristy Jumbo Floating Restaurant. You need to take a small boat to get to the actual place.



Food was good, but nothing too special.


Really, you go there to take cheesy pictures like this. It looks like we were photoshopped in, right?