This is the view at night from the Lobby Lounge at the Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong.

You can sit there and watch the nightly laser light show against the buildings on the Hong Kong side, across the water.

Yes, it is divine (and their gin and tonic is none too shabby, either.)

It is my hands-down pick for “Scenic at Night” and my contribution to Highlights, a new feature on the location-based checkin service Gowalla.

Like Facebook Places and Foursquare, Gowalla lets you check in to venues such as restaurants, shops or museums, find places like House of Pies using your smartphone’s GPS, and leave comments, photos and tips.

From their Gowalla blog post announcing Highlights….

“Highlights are like little rewards you can give to places that are important to your life. Some are quite straightforward and practical like Best Cup (of Coffee). Some are a bit more esoteric or inspirational like My Happy Place and Scenic-At-Night. Regardless, they’re all fun. We’ve launched the feature with 18 unique Highlights and more will be added—hopefully inspired by your suggestions!”

Now that I’ve had a chance to see Shanghai, I have to admit that it’s pretty amazing at night, too, but compact Hong Kong harbor still wins my sentiments.

What’s your favorite scene at night?

My favorite beer these days can only be found in Oklahoma.

Fortunately, my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray lives in Oklahoma AND runs Allen’s Retail Liquor in Alva, OK.

Life is good!

Becky brought some Choc Beer when she stayed at my house for SXSWi (the South by Southwest Interactive tech conference) the first time; back in 2008. I’d never heard of Choc, but as you know from my adoration of locally-brewed Dutch Alfa beer, I am always up for the good stuff.

First brewed and sold in 1919 by Pietro “Pete” Piegari, it’s an American Wheat ale that’s unfiltered, delicious and still served in the southeastern Oklahoma coal-mining town where it all started, at Pete’s Place Italian restaurant in Krebs, OK.

It was a homebrew that came from Indian Territory; the Choc is short for Choctaw. Here is more choc beer background info from the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Are you kidding? Hand-crafted beer, that’s yummy, that can only be found in one place, that has a really interesting history….this is perfection.

The only drawback is that I have to wait each year for Becky to bring it across the Red River into Texas.

Which, of course, is part of the thrill.

Welcome to the August 25, 2010 edition of the Carnival of Cities, where we tour the world in a single blog post.

Thanks go out to the host for the previous edition, Travel with Teens, and greetings to our next host on September 8 at Let’s Do Something Different.

If you’d like to host on your blog, please contact me at Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Off we go….

Cities in Africa

Kampala, Uganda Mark Jordahl presents 5 Things I Love About Kampala…but probably shouldn’t posted at Wild Thoughts from Uganda.

Cities in Asia

Manila, the Philippines Ryan Murphy presents Smogtown baby posted at Eleven Degrees North, saying, “This is an blog article I wrote about Manila, the capital of the Philippines.”

Macau, China Ignatius presents Macau Day 3 posted at Self Drive Tours.

Cities in the Americas

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Bill Church presents Mazeroski Gets His Statue posted at The Listening Post.

Seattle, Washington, USA Mary-Alice Pomputius presents Two more Seattle street trucks: Bring your dog! posted at Dog Jaunt.

Topeka, Kansas, USA Shalyn Marsh presents Confessions of a pizza addict posted at Visit Topeka.

New York, New York, USA mick presents 5 New York City Apartments We All Know and Love posted at PadBlog.

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Bonnie Way presents Explore: Beacon Hill Park, Victoria posted at The Koala Bear Writer, saying, “We just moved to Victoria, BC and have been exploring the city, so I thought I’d share some of our explorations with my blog readers.”

Buffalo, New York, USA Andy Hayes presents Buffalo Sightseeing posted at Sharing Travel Experiences, saying, “Think Buffalo is dull and drab? Think again!”

Galveston, Texas, USA Lee Block presents Galveston Island – Eaters Beware posted at The Travel Connoisseurs, saying, “Restaurants to dine at and to avoid in Galveston Island, Texas.”

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Christian Carollo presents ben franklin: dressed for the occasion posted at Picture Philly, saying, “The Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia showing off its Fourth of July colors.”

East Hampton, New York, USA Jennifer Miner presents Cheap East Hampton Vacation Attractions posted at The Vacation Gals, saying, “In many ways, East Hampton deserves its reputation regarding the upscale travelers that come every summer and change the small town atmosphere. But like all vacation destinations, there are alternatives to the luxury stores and activities; travel experiences here can be richer with a visit to one of these cheap or free East Hampton attractions.” (more…)

It’s summer.

It’s hot.

Unfortunately, I am not living anywhere near those magnificent Japanese vending machines, with their insane variety of chilled coffees and other drinks.

The wide availability of Starbucks frappuccinos in any dinky US convenience store is a step in the right direction, but it still isn’t like having a bunch of Georgia coffees to choose from (about every 10 feet in Japan.)

Yes, I know that “Georgia” is an odd name for cans of coffee, but the Japanese don’t seem to know that, or care if they do know it.

Here, feast your eyes: a whole set of Japanese coffee can photos on Flickr, and a photo group called Coffee Cans of the World.

Discoveries like that make my InterWebz world go ’round….:)

The gentle squeaking and pumping sounds tell you that the windmill is doing its job; harnessing the relentlessly blowing wind to bring water up from the far depths of the earth, for all the thirsty livestock.

There is a whole field of them whirring around at the American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, Texas (including a giant 164-foot white Vestas wind turbine that powers the museum) plus a building crammed with over 100 historic windmills that you can walk around and read about.

I was struck by the engineering creativity and craftsmanship of these machines. I learned, for example, that the weird-looking windmill with the blades folded like a closed flower was actually a regular windmill that is folded like that when it is shut down.

There were absolutely enormous windmills that used to pull up enough water to service steam railroad engines.  There were small metal devices that perhaps brought up just enough water for some chickens, displayed right next to elaborate professionally manufactured windmills and then further down, some simple wooden handmade ones that would make MacGyver proud.

The museum also supports a WindSmith Academy:  a two-day school covering basic tenets of wind power.  Those who are interested in working in this growing profession (which is more and more important to the economy of western Texas) can check it out ahead of time through this course, and even climb up the tower of a 50 meter wind turbine at the end of class.

If you’re ever in Lubbock, this museum is well worth a stop. I truly enjoyed it.