This post and the following I wrote in Word this morning...
It’s 4:15am, I’m awake typing in the dark, on a computer for which I forgot to bring a plug adapter… oops! The rooms here all seem to have sort of master light switch so when that’s off, then I can’t even turn on the lights to the bathroom…
Ok, so… Our flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was a short and sweet 1 hr 45 min, and we were STILL served a meal- in coach! It was delicious, minced pork and rice, with vegetables, and a “Delicious Cake”\” that really was pretty good- no complaints here! Jordan fells asleep on the flight as did I, so it went fast…
We landed in Hong Kong to the scenery of water and mountains outside of our plane- they actually built all of the land the airport and landing strips are on- really amazing!
Jordan quickly discovered that riding on the luggage carts was the way to travel through the airport- except of course when it came time to get through immigration. No issues there (of course everything that COULD happen to you flashes through your mind as you stand there waiting for that stamp to enter Hong Kong), and now my clean, pristine passport has some stamps in it (ok, well, I guess it wasn’t pristine once they put the visa in it,… but you get the drift). Caroline had done all the research, so once we picked up our luggage off the carousel (after immigration- and YES! All the luggage made it intact!) We got tickets on the Airport Express train, which was smooth and amazing and took us quite a distance towards Hong Kong proper, where we got off at Kowloon station. We then took the Airport Express Shuttle (included in the cost) to get to the Kowloon Hotel,
We checked in at the Kowloon Hotel- which has bellhops in full service and folks ready to handle heavy luggage (yea!) and found that our rooms were- and now I know there is Santa Claus- ready even at 11am, and no early check in fee, Can we say S-H-O-W-E-R?
Hot, wonderful water (that of course we didn’t get in our eyes or mouth) and clean hair, clean body, no more plane stink, and best of all- yes, clean underwear, Bliss!!!!! The rooms were teensy with two single beds that had maybe 4” between them, and just enough room to walk around them, but they were actually very nice, and their beds were comfier than most hotel beds in the US that I’ve been in. Soft clean bottom sheet, and- like the European style- no top sheet, just a soft white down comforter.
After cleaning up, food was the order of the day; we decided to suck it up and eat at the hotel (ouch on the budget- about $3O US a person!)- it was a buffet of huge proportions- I ate an Indian vegetable curry with steamed rice, samosa, sushi (all cooked or veggie), I tried Japanese style chilled tofu with roe in soba sauce (not liking that so much), some amazing medium rare duck breast slices, fried rice with duck and salmon in it, some out of this world pineapple and watermelon, and a selection of desserts- semisweet chocolate cake, mango napoleon, lemon custard thing, bread pudding with vanilla sauce. YUM!
Naps were next on the agenda and Caroline made us promise to be up by 4:30pm. Mutti was the only one successful at that… I dragged myself up shortly thereafter… and when Mutti called Caroline, she was still sleeping! We all convinced ourselves we needed to get out though, so went out and walked down Nathan St and near Kowloon Park to see what was what. We did discover a 7-11 and a Starbuck’s, of course! The lights were just beautiful, but of course I had decided not to take my camera- alas! We headed back after a bit and made a stop at the 7-11 to buy bottled water and some chips for Jordan that promised to be hot and spicy (but just tasted like barbecue- we didn’t even try the wide selection of prawn flavored chips that appear to e popular)) and mosied back to the hotel… we were still so tired and frankly full from all of the meals we’d eaten on the planes and from lunch that we skipped dinner. I went down for the count at 7:30 pm.
I started waking up at 3am, tried to sleep for about 2 more hours, and about 5am knew it wasn’t going to happen. After reading in the bathroom for about 19 minutes, and then on the floor by the nightlight for about 5, I discovered my mom was awake too, and we ended up talking in bed til 6am, at which point we deemed it acceptable to turn on the light. Surely Starbuck’s must be opening, right?!?!? We called Caroline’s room and found Jordan had been up since 3am too, so we all leisurely started to get ready. We found one of my sister’s travel buddies literally had the room across from hours- Jordan had knocked on our door and I opened it to find the person across from me was M. with her little C. too! We all chatted for a while, and decided to finally get ready and find food. We had seen a DeliFrance the night before, and it served croissants and pastries, which sounded great.
About 7am we headed out… and Starbuck’s wasn’t open, and neither was DeliFrance. Luckily the latter opened at 7:30am so we hung out on the sidewalk and watched Jordan and C. plays for 15 minutes, and then proceeded in. For about $6 US I ate a scramble with cheese, cherry tomatoes, and bacon mixed in (SO GOOD), a huge almond croissant that topped any I’d eaten in the US in
a long time, orange juice and an Orangina. I was stuffed, and I was happy! We started back after a leisurely breakfast, and stopped in at Starbuck’s on the way back- café mocha was 3x as good as it is in the states… maybe it’s traveling, but you all know I like some coffee with my sugar, and I didn’t have to add any at all to this… and the mocha part tasted even chocolatier than usual, Hmmm… I was tempted by the city mug that Stbx sells- maybe some of you have seen them? You can only buy the mug that says “Charlotte” In Charlotte, “Atlanta” in ATL… and in front of me is the “Hong Kong” mug… but I resisted (so far) although the temptation was great. We went back to the hotel, checked out (they were kind enough to whole all of our luggage for the day- we were switching that night to the Regal Kowloon which is where the agency travel groups were all straying) and we took the metro to HONG KONG DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!
It’s 4:15am, I’m awake typing in the dark, on a computer for which I forgot to bring a plug adapter… oops! The rooms here all seem to have sort of master light switch so when that’s off, then I can’t even turn on the lights to the bathroom…
Ok, so… Our flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was a short and sweet 1 hr 45 min, and we were STILL served a meal- in coach! It was delicious, minced pork and rice, with vegetables, and a “Delicious Cake”\” that really was pretty good- no complaints here! Jordan fells asleep on the flight as did I, so it went fast…We landed in Hong Kong to the scenery of water and mountains outside of our plane- they actually built all of the land the airport and landing strips are on- really amazing!
Jordan quickly discovered that riding on the luggage carts was the way to travel through the airport- except of course when it came time to get through immigration. No issues there (of course everything that COULD happen to you flashes through your mind as you stand there waiting for that stamp to enter Hong Kong), and now my clean, pristine passport has some stamps in it (ok, well, I guess it wasn’t pristine once they put the visa in it,… but you get the drift). Caroline had done all the research, so once we picked up our luggage off the carousel (after immigration- and YES! All the luggage made it intact!) We got tickets on the Airport Express train, which was smooth and amazing and took us quite a distance towards Hong Kong proper, where we got off at Kowloon station. We then took the Airport Express Shuttle (included in the cost) to get to the Kowloon Hotel,We checked in at the Kowloon Hotel- which has bellhops in full service and folks ready to handle heavy luggage (yea!) and found that our rooms were- and now I know there is Santa Claus- ready even at 11am, and no early check in fee, Can we say S-H-O-W-E-R?
Hot, wonderful water (that of course we didn’t get in our eyes or mouth) and clean hair, clean body, no more plane stink, and best of all- yes, clean underwear, Bliss!!!!! The rooms were teensy with two single beds that had maybe 4” between them, and just enough room to walk around them, but they were actually very nice, and their beds were comfier than most hotel beds in the US that I’ve been in. Soft clean bottom sheet, and- like the European style- no top sheet, just a soft white down comforter.After cleaning up, food was the order of the day; we decided to suck it up and eat at the hotel (ouch on the budget- about $3O US a person!)- it was a buffet of huge proportions- I ate an Indian vegetable curry with steamed rice, samosa, sushi (all cooked or veggie), I tried Japanese style chilled tofu with roe in soba sauce (not liking that so much), some amazing medium rare duck breast slices, fried rice with duck and salmon in it, some out of this world pineapple and watermelon, and a selection of desserts- semisweet chocolate cake, mango napoleon, lemon custard thing, bread pudding with vanilla sauce. YUM!
Naps were next on the agenda and Caroline made us promise to be up by 4:30pm. Mutti was the only one successful at that… I dragged myself up shortly thereafter… and when Mutti called Caroline, she was still sleeping! We all convinced ourselves we needed to get out though, so went out and walked down Nathan St and near Kowloon Park to see what was what. We did discover a 7-11 and a Starbuck’s, of course! The lights were just beautiful, but of course I had decided not to take my camera- alas! We headed back after a bit and made a stop at the 7-11 to buy bottled water and some chips for Jordan that promised to be hot and spicy (but just tasted like barbecue- we didn’t even try the wide selection of prawn flavored chips that appear to e popular)) and mosied back to the hotel… we were still so tired and frankly full from all of the meals we’d eaten on the planes and from lunch that we skipped dinner. I went down for the count at 7:30 pm.
I started waking up at 3am, tried to sleep for about 2 more hours, and about 5am knew it wasn’t going to happen. After reading in the bathroom for about 19 minutes, and then on the floor by the nightlight for about 5, I discovered my mom was awake too, and we ended up talking in bed til 6am, at which point we deemed it acceptable to turn on the light. Surely Starbuck’s must be opening, right?!?!? We called Caroline’s room and found Jordan had been up since 3am too, so we all leisurely started to get ready. We found one of my sister’s travel buddies literally had the room across from hours- Jordan had knocked on our door and I opened it to find the person across from me was M. with her little C. too! We all chatted for a while, and decided to finally get ready and find food. We had seen a DeliFrance the night before, and it served croissants and pastries, which sounded great.
About 7am we headed out… and Starbuck’s wasn’t open, and neither was DeliFrance. Luckily the latter opened at 7:30am so we hung out on the sidewalk and watched Jordan and C. plays for 15 minutes, and then proceeded in. For about $6 US I ate a scramble with cheese, cherry tomatoes, and bacon mixed in (SO GOOD), a huge almond croissant that topped any I’d eaten in the US in
a long time, orange juice and an Orangina. I was stuffed, and I was happy! We started back after a leisurely breakfast, and stopped in at Starbuck’s on the way back- café mocha was 3x as good as it is in the states… maybe it’s traveling, but you all know I like some coffee with my sugar, and I didn’t have to add any at all to this… and the mocha part tasted even chocolatier than usual, Hmmm… I was tempted by the city mug that Stbx sells- maybe some of you have seen them? You can only buy the mug that says “Charlotte” In Charlotte, “Atlanta” in ATL… and in front of me is the “Hong Kong” mug… but I resisted (so far) although the temptation was great. We went back to the hotel, checked out (they were kind enough to whole all of our luggage for the day- we were switching that night to the Regal Kowloon which is where the agency travel groups were all straying) and we took the metro to HONG KONG DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!
(I love you Dad!!!!!!!!! Mutti says "I love you HBH!!!")
Part 2 to follow soon...
1 comment:
Thanks, Elizabeth! I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your page and seeing the pics. Keep it up.
Lots of love,
Daddy
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