Days 194-196: Hong Kong

We spent the weekend in Hong Kong with Zach. Our flight on Friday, fortunately, was pretty drama-free. Right away when we arrived in Hong Kong, we noticed how nice and polite everyone seemed in the airport. For example, they have us a little slip of paper to show us the estimate of what the cost would be for our ride. And they had people to translate for us, so we had no trouble getting to the hotel. The staff at the Hotel Stage were EXTREMELY nice and friendly, answering all of our questions. We had lunch in the hotel (Kerry and I split a Napoli pizza), and then we decided to walk around a bit. There was a small temple near our hotel that we briefly explored; it was part of a park. We also went over to a Jade Market, but the salesladies were WAY too high pressure and we were turned off. So we decided to follow Zach to the Bruce Lee statue he wanted to see. However, we got a bit lost--and our feet got tired--walking around, so Kerry and I went back and Zach kept walking. On the way back, I found a beautiful red flower blossom that came from a tree just sitting on a ledge--I decided to save it because it was so beautiful. Kerry and I rested for a while and waited for Zach to return. Fortunately, I found TCM in our hotel and was mesmerized by all the Joan Crawford movies they were showing: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Susan and God, Ice Follies of 1939, Hollywood Canteen....near the end of the evening, I saw the whole thing of Grand Hotel, with Greta Garbo. When Zach returned, we went to Tai Ping Koon Restaurant, a couple blocks from our hotel. I was feeling very experimental and got a set menu: bird's nest with cream of chicken soup, a whole pigeon, Portuguese-style chicken with rice, and a Napoleon. It was pretty good overall. Kerry got a steak and Zach just got noodles. Afterwards, he was tired, but Kerry and I wandered around the Night Market nearby--we got some good stuff, including a jade lion and a peacock fan! I enjoyed it!

Some Friday pics:

Pretty red flower I picked up from our walk.

Zach eating noodles at Tai Ping Koon.

The pigeon was I served, Tai Ping Koon.

Night market in Hong Kong, near our hotel.

Saturday we did a Big Bus Tour of Hong Kong most of the day. We began with a really nice breakfast in the hotel: they served eggs, bacon, hash browns, and a sausage and the let us choose salad, fruit and pastries on the side. Nice! We missed the 10:35 start time--Zach led us on a wrong turn--but soon enough, another bus came along at the Temple Street stop, where we were supposed to be. We rode around on the top of a double decker bus for a bit, on the "Blue Line" in Kowloon, but we had to get an actual paper ticket at one point, so we had to stop to get off and do that. Then we got onto a ferry to go to the other side of Hong Kong, where we rode the "Red Line" for awhile. Mostly, we saw a lot of skyscrapers--not a lot of monuments. We stopped for lunch around 2, at this western place--I had steak, fries, tomato mozzarella salad, and chocolate mousse. Quite good!  Soon, we had to take the ferry back to Kowloon, where we eventually took the "Blue Line" to the Sky 100 tower, where we had an AMAZING view of Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong in general, This was a highlight for me. Zach didn't want to come, so he rode around without us. We had to wait a LONG time for the bus to come back, and then it stopped after....but the woman said we could take the night tour to the Temple Street Area. That took awhile, so we didn't get back to our hotel until almost 8 pm. We had a very late dinner in the hotel with Zach (I had linguini with clams--not very saucy), and then we went and explored the market some more. Got a box of UNO cards, some more fans, some beautiful cards with pop-up designs, and a panda scroll. Kerry even got some luggage. It's fun to haggle as well!

Some Saturday pics:

View from our hotel window, morning.

Kerry with a cat mural.

View of Hong Kong's skyscrapers, from the Big Bus.

View from the ferry.

Zach and me, post-lunch selfie.

View from our window at night.

View from the sky100 building.

Sunday we had breakfast in the hotel, and soon we were off to the airport. We saw Zach off, and then waited around until they announced which gate we had to go to in order to check in. When we got there, it was quite a long line--about a 25 minute wait. Still, things went smoothly--they didn't even use the wand on us at security!  They had a "e-customs" thing, where the passport didn't scan all that well, but we eventually got through. We had Popeye's chicken for lunch--because we NEVER find it in Shanghai! The flight home was very weird: I slept the first hour, but there was an OBNOXIOUS little child in front of us, constantly talking and screaming, and even playing with the seat in front of him. He wasn't buckled him, and his mother goaded him on. When he turned around and said "Hi" to me, I replied, "You need to turn around."  He was about three or so. The father was no help at all. What an obnoxious, hyperactive little brat! Thank goodness they served Haagen-Dazs ice cream on the flight. Unfortunately, I dropped mine, but they gave me another one (vanilla). I found the one I dropped, but it was already kind of melty, so I let Kerry have most of it.

And.....a couple Sunday pics, for good measure:

One last view from our room.

Breakfast at Savvy, the Hotel Stage restaurant.

Finally, we picked up our bags, got in a taxi (the roads were good), and made it home. I did some packing for our trip tomorrow.  Out on the road again...to Bangkok!