Day 4 Our last day in Hong Kong/Travel to Guangzhou

This post is several days late, day 4 is December 19, 2010. We slept until 3am today, yeah!  Our night manager (we see him a lot since we are either touring or asleep during the day) recommended a restaurant that is close, cheap and serves American breakfast.  We had French toast, eggs, chicken hot dogs and ramen in broth.  Noodles and rice porridge (congee) are incredibly common for breakfast. 

We visited Victoria Peak.  The #1 attraction in Hong Kong according to Fordor’s.  We rode the tram up to the peak which offered a spectacular view of Hong Kong, Kowloon, and Victoria Harbor.

Afterwards we took a taxi to Mo Man Temple.  It was so interesting!   

The haze is from all the incense smoke!

 Spirals of incense constantly burning!

Offerings of incense, fruit and meat are made.  The temple was full of locals praying and offering.

We walked the streets and stumbled upon a local market.

The produce is amazing, huge and robust.  I’ve never seen produce like this at HEB.  Note the meat just hanging, especially the goat in the  background.  Tons of fresh and dried fish, shellfish, octopus etc.

Yeah, they love their suckling pig here!

We then rode the escalators up (terrain is steep like San Fran) the escalators give everyone much better access to the steeper streets/shops.

We transported ourselves to the train station via 2 taxi’s.  Went through Hong Kong  customs and boarded the train which was similar to herding cattle on the train when headed to market.  Crazy!  We had all our luggage because we didn’t understand that luggage consignment meant check your bags!  After going through Chinese customs again with body to body crowds, our guide Helen (may I add St. Helen) met us at the airport with a hotel shuttle.  She ordered Papa John’s pizza for us which tasted just like home!  She gave us a briefing of our schedule for tomorrow and got us checked in our hotel.   We get Maggie in less than 24 hrs!

 

Day 3 Touring Hong Kong

The time change has been pretty crazy for us.  At 1am we’ve found ourselves wide awake.  We putzed around our room for a while then got ready to take the first metro over to Hong Kong Island.  Its Saturday here and everything is much more crowded.

We had breakfast at a Chinese fast food restaurant but couldn’t quite eat everything.  (seaweed as a garnish over eggs, cauliflower served with eggs etc.)  Texture, temperature and seasonings are different.  Thank goodness we brought nuts and power bars!

We took the bus to Aberdeen which is a floating village.  We got a ride on one of their water taxi’s which takes the people back and forth to the mainland.

It's such a contrast.  These people live on their boats, fishing from the front end and living in the back end.  All the while in the background are huge apartment buildings.  

This floating restaurant is a major tourist attraction and cool to look at but we didn't eat there.

Next we took a bus to Stanley market for some great shopping.  We had lunch at a restaurant which served Dim Sun and tea!

This is my dessert.  It was called Mango pudding.  Its basically Mango gelatin.  All their pudding is actually jello, buyer beware!

So far we have ridden in a plane, metro, double decker bus and a boat. 

2 Days until we get Maggie!

Day 2: Touring Hong Kong

Today we left our hotel and walked the streets in search of breakfast.  Hotel food is just as expensive as in the US.  We found a tiny restaurant that served poached egg over toast and coffee/hot chocolate.  We noticed that the streets are not so full of people in the morning.

Next we exchanged money again at a Chinese bank and got a much better exchange rate.  We then hopped on the metro and went to see the flower, bird, and goldfish markets. 

We tried asking for Orchid seeds but the shopkeepers didn’t understand what we were asking for.










It is good to be a cat in Hong Kong as many flower shops have 
one in residence.





The bird market was interesting!  Not only are there tons of birds for sale in little cages, but also bags of crickets and meal worms for them. 

The bird market is also a park.  Older men wander around holding their bird in cages chatting with each other and looking at their birds.  They will set them in the sun or move them to the shade and just be with them.  No cats in the bird market!

 This woman was roasting chestnuts, yams and eggs on the street.

The goldfish market was really a section of the street that had fish/aquarium shops on both sides. 

 Typical street with signage hanging out over the street advertising.  Its confusing to a suburbanite like me.  Some of the business are on the ground floor, some in a basement, some on the second floor.  The rest of the floors of the buildings are apartments.  Often laundry hanging out the window or balcony.

There are many restaurants on the streets that sell all sorts of duck, fish, pork, noodle and rice dishes.  They do have a boiling fishy smell wafting out of them which can make one queasy.  We decided to lunch at McDonalds as we were all sleep deprived and feeling a little queasy/dizzy.  At one point Matthew whispered in my ear “Mom, Hong Kong is kind of stinky.”  Too funny!  I wonder if the locals think we are stinky?

Heading back to the hotel via the metro.  Crowds are like Fiesta Texas on the 4th of July all the time here.

We returned to the hotel for a nap, intending to get up and go to some of the night markets.  However, we slept too long and awoke in the middle of the night.  We needed it I’m sure and we’ll just get up early tomorrow!

3 more days until we get Maggie!

Day 1: Travel from San Antonio to Hong Kong

We left our home Dec. 15 @6am Texas time (thank you Tammy for driving us) and arrived in Hong Kong @ 4:33am Dec. 16 Texas time.  Local Hong Kong time is 6:30pm.  We crossed 10 different time zones and the international date line.

We exchanged American dollars for Hong Kong dollars in the international terminal in SF.

The flights went off without a hitch, but it was full and long!

From San Fran to Hong Kong we were served 3 meals.   They showed 4 movies (Get Low, The Switch, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, & Despicable Me) plus various episodes of TV shows in between.  All movies had Mandarine subtitles.  The boys were awesome on the flight but we were more than ready to get off the plane.  The signage in Hong Kong is excellent!  Understanding broken English from the locals has proven to be a challenge!

At the airport we had our first meal in Hong Kong.  Noodles Yum!  They served us hot tea in glass cups.

Then we took a shuttle bus to our Hotel.  Everyone drives on the opposite side of the road from us and the steering wheels of cars are opposite ours also.  Hong Kong is decorated for Christmas.  Many shop workers are wearing Santa hats! We ran across to the 7-11 to get some bottled water then we crashed! 

We are 4 days away from getting Maggie!    

Hows the Weather there?

This is the forecast for Hong Kong.  Guangzhou is very similar being a short distance away:
Looks like it will be great.  Thank you to everyone who has given hugs,  a note or an e-mail of encouragement.  Your sweet words go with us! Thank you!  Thank you!

Today Dec 15		Showers	68°/52°	60 %
Thu Dec 16		Showers	52°/48°	60 %
Fri Dec 17		Sunny	61°/37°	0 %
Sat Dec 18		Partly Cloudy	67°/41°	0 %
Sun Dec 19		Partly Cloudy	71°/51°	10 %
Mon Dec 20		Mostly Sunny	72°/53°	10 %
Tue Dec 21		Sunny	73°/53°	0 %
Wed Dec 22		Partly Cloudy	73°/53°	20 %
Thu Dec 23		Mostly Sunny	73°/53°	10 %
Fri Dec 24		Partly Cloudy	70°/53°

New Friends

Our new friends Long and Ming came over for dinner tonight.  They made greens in a wok with garlic and ginger and they were delicious!  Ming has a cousin in Goungzhou and called her tonight so we could ask questions.  We will get together with her cousin when we arrive in Goungzhou and eat dinner with her.

Long and Ming brought us a little gift which is so cute!  Its a wine bottle dressed up!

Ming also made me some cards with translations in English and Canton.  The most important one is pictured here!

We are very excited about our trip and almost packed!  We had a wonderful evening!  Thank you Long and Ming!

Gotcha Day is Dec. 20th

We just got our finalized intra China itinerary and our Gotcha Day is Dec. 20th.
This is the day we will get Maggie. Since China is 16hrs ahead of the States
this will actually be 10:30pm on Dec. 19th, Texas time.