Fantastic frog figurine from the Hong Kong Museum of Art | Photo by Lauren Girardin

The Ratings Explained:

• YEH – Like a hot, fresh baked egg tart. YEHs are as good as you can get, especially for your backpacker buck, although sometimes a YEH is only relative to the other worse options in town.
• MEH – Like lukewarm pork fat (lukewarm or not, it's still pork). An intense level of indifference best describes a MEH experience. Got time to kill? Hong Kong dollars to burn? Checked your email? Sure, fine, do it. Whatever.
• NAH – Like cold, leftover chicken feet. NAHs are worth avoiding at all costs. Likely to cause aggravation, frustration, or a need for Cipro.

Read on for the YEH-MEH-NAHs, our travel tips of where to (and not to) eat, drink, sleep, and visit in Hong Kong.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to read the travel tips from Hong Kong)

Dinner time at Day of the Dead | Photo by Lauren Girardin

Though we returned from our round-the-world trip several months ago, Todd and I are still updating Ephemerratic with stories and images from the global road—

"Yeah, right," you harrumph.

Gah! We're caught! The real world has sunk its sharp little teeth into our haunches and is gnawing away at our muscles.

We've both been fortunate to find full time work in a crappy economy: Todd's back to substitute teaching and I'm consulting on marketing and communications. Between earning money and our extroverted tendency to never say no to a good party, we're having trouble making time for Ephemerratic.

Hidden San Francisco park | Photo by Lauren Girardin

It's also been wonderful to be back in San Francisco. We're going on Bike Posse rides around the city, hanging out with much-missed friends, eating burritos—

"Excuses are for wimps!" you holler. "Give us more travel stories! What about China? The Philippines? South Korea? Bali?"

We hollaback: "Damn, Reader. That's some tough love."

If we looked hard at our schedules, we have plenty of time most days to spend on Ephemerratic-related whatnots. I'm still struggling with the physical limitations – it's literally painful to get on the computer to write after spending 50 or more hours a week at the same keyboard to get my consulting projects done. I know I am supposed to suffer for my art, but I'd prefer an existential crisis to carpal tunnel.

So, with that confession, we hope you'll still keep reading when we manage to eek out a post.

Oh, look! The sun's come out in our backyard. Why don't I go hang out there for a while instead of in front of this computer...

Our distracting backyard | Photo by Lauren Girardin