Ken’s comments:
4/17 into 4/18
The trip over to Hong Kong was blissfully uneventful. We got
on the plane and it looked like the aisle seat beside Pat was going to be
empty. They had said the flight was full so we were surprised. At the last
moment, a 300 pound man came hurriedly onto the plane and sat there, spilling
over into Pat’s seat, try as he might not to. He was a reasonable passenger for
us, not too chatty etc. but just consumed space we would have otherwise had to
ourselves.
Regardless, 16 hours of nonstop flight is just brutal. We’re
not looking forward to the 6 hours from Hong Kong to Mumbai on Friday, nor the
15 hour return flight on May 7. Pat wants mentioned that she was able to endure
the trip using the restroom only two times!
We met Kinsey at the Metro train station near our apartment
and took a cab the last leg to avoid carrying luggage this last 6 blocks, all
uphill. When we exited the cab, I wasn’t careful enough getting out on the
traffic side and I opened my car door into traffic. An immediate tire
screeching and honking from the cab that barely swerved enough to avoid taking
off the car door. Now THAT would have been an awful start to the vacation!
4/19
Somehow jet lag didn’t hit early for either Pat or me. We
met Kinsey for breakfast, then started touring different areas.
Walking around, we saw about 8 young women wearing red
berets and camo pants, carrying plastic replicas of AK47s, practicing a
synchronized dance routine. No idea what was going on or why.
We saw a large number of (probably Indonesian) women (maybe
300) sitting along the edge of a fence wrapped around a city park, on top of
cardboard as seats. They were eating food brought from home, and just
socializing. We came to the conclusion that on Sundays when all the domestic
help has the day off, their entertainment is this inexpensive activity.
Later that evening, we saw another larger group of Philippino
women, sitting in a completely different area, playing the same dance music
loop for quite a while (we were stopped there to watch a light show across the
harbor). A small section of them were dancing, with one woman teaching the
others dance steps. Again, probably domestic helpers enjoying their day off.
Pat’s observations:
One surprising element for me has been the lack of police,
fire or EMS sirens. Or car honking (except when Ken opened the car door). Given
that we’re in a large, heavily populated city with narrow, steep streets, I
find this perplexing.
One factor might be the overall civility and degree of courteousness.
I saw one younger gal budge into a line, but she probably didn’t realize there
was a queue. Other than that, people defer to one another, give up seats for
elders graciously, make every effort to pass one another in crowded situations
without lots of jostling. India should be a real dose of reality!
The airport is the nicest one I’ve ever experienced. You
have smiling faces directing you every step of the way, and processing is fast,
efficient, and pleasant. Even better, the public transportation here, the MTR
(or subway system) is remarkable! We’ve been all over the city. It’s easy to
navigate, clean, comfortable, fast and
heavily used. Almost makes me want to live here.
We can’t blog without sharing a Wadsworth bathroom story (Note
to Bices: Pat’s side of the family, the Wadsworths, ALWAYS have such a story).
On Day 1, we received an email from our hosts notifying us that they’re sorry
for the inconvenience regarding the toilet not flushing properly. Turns out a
pipe burst in one of the city districts, which caused toilet water to turn off
in quite a bit of the city. Toilet water is from the sea (salt water), so it’s
not the same as the fresh water for drinking and showering. They asked us to
use the shower head from the shower to fill the toilet tank and flush until the
problem is resolved. So far it hasn’t been much of a problem as we’re suffering
from the typical traveler issue of constipation!
For those counting, we walked over 20,000 steps on Day 1. We’re
up to 5 miles on Day 2, but the pedometer doesn’t add in all the stairs we
climbed, and Boy! did we ever climb a lot of stairs. We took a tram up to see
the big Buddha; it was probably about 12 miles up the mountain, about a 30-minute
ride. We’ve been to several beautiful parks and gardens, as well as the
University of Hong Kong campus.
Tomorrow will be another long day, but we’ll cap it off with
a ferry ride and a nighttime light show with coordinated music displayed across
the downtown skyscrapers.
So far, I would say Hong Kong has a lot of eye candy. It’s
visually stunning and pleasing. Definitely a nice start to our trip!
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