OK, if any of you are surprised to see me blogging from Hong Kong, you can't be too much more surprised than I am right now to be sitting at my computer at nearly 10:00 p.m. on MONDAY night, with a view of Victoria Harbor.

Cesar Pelli's 2 International Finance Center – at left – looks just like a building he designed in Jersey City, so, out my hotel window, it makes me feel KIND OF close to home.

I won't get into all the details of how this all came about, but let's just say that when opportunity comes knockin', I ain't wastin' any time. I flew out of JFK at 9:00 am on Sunday, and landed here...at 2:30 pm on Monday, by way of the North Pole. It may make me sound a little unseasoned at this point, but yes, this was the longest flight I've ever taken, at 15 hours.

I'd just settled into my hotel room when I decided to dump out the contents of two envelopes that had been left for me at the front desk of my hotel room by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Good thing that bright yellow envelope caught my eye, because I was due for a cocktail party/dinner/fashion show...in 20 minutes! (Ugh...I was really hoping for a shower.)

See, it's basically Fashion Week in Hong Kong. so I'm here to check out the scene. Tonight's event was the Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers' Contest and, judging by what I saw here tonight, New York, Paris and Milan had better all start paying attention.

Most of the evenings offerings were women's wear, with few men's clothes included, but the plethora of ideas and the quality of workmanship was very impressive. I've tossed in a few pictures, but this will never do it justice. I only jotted down one guy's name because I thought his work was so outstanding--and he ended up winning TWO of the evening's six prizes, bringing home a handy $HK 35,000 worth of prize money (Okay, that's less than $5,000 at current exchange, but still...). Keep your eye out for Michael Lam. (And no, those are not horribly disfigured models...just some really funky masks.)

Keep it tuned, folks! Assuming I can sleep tonight, tomorrow promises to be another exciting day!