Wednesday, November 01, 2006

hong kong... (part one)

Hello all,

I am back. It was an amazing trip with me papa. We stayed at some pretty fancy shmancy hotels, and had a grand ol' time. Bear with me as I update you all on my travels. The days were action packed and I'm not known for being consise... so here I go.

Addendum: After writing only the first night of my trip, I've decided to post the trip in installments. Otherwise, you may not hear from me until I'm home for Christmas. So enjoy installment one.

It was Friday afternoon, and I was dancing on the pavement because OCTOBER BREAK was finally here! We began our break on route to Khao San road because Jeff had to pick up his Vietnamese Visa. Lisa and I wandered around and found an awesome and cheap Indian restaurant to have dinner at. A bunch of us had some good food and said our goodbyes before we all left on our respective adventures. The end of the night took us to this bar called the club... where there was a life Thai band rocking out. They were pretty good, if only I know what they were saying. We sat beside this big group of Thai boys, who were really into the band, dancing, singing, having a grand old time. I tried to ask one of the boys the name of the band, or if they were singing cover songs... but with a combination of the volume in the club and his lack of English and my lack of Thai, the answers to these questions were unfufilled.

The next morning, I awoke... bright (well dark) and early to catch a cab to the airport. I was pumped at first, because my place is rediculously close to the airport so I thought it would be a short and cheap voyage over. But no such luck, because although it only took me about 10 minutes to reach the airport, you have to drive in circles, for about another 20 minutes and 300 baht before the cab can actually let you out. However, I made it, checked in... and wasted time wandering around a very fancy airport. Oh by the way, small world... when I was in line waiting to go through customs, I met a couple who taught at a school in Bangna... who are from Peterborough and went to Trent. Crazy huh?

So I made it on to the plane, for a short 45 minute ride to my first stop, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I chatted with my neighbor, who was Cambodian and visiting family, but had lived the last 12 years in Australia. Nice girl. Once the plane landed, I had to figure out where to go to transfer to Hong Kong. So I followed the signs, and foundd myself in an empty section of the airport, with no one manning the desk. So I spoke with a lady in a uniform and showed her my ticket and my passport. She said I can't check in here. So she has to take my passport and ticket from me, and check in for me in another section of the airport. So I very aprehensively hand her everything I have that proves my identity and gets me to any other place that is not the Phnom Penh airport. She tells me not to worry, and runs off. Over the next 45 minutes I grew increasingly paniced and daydream about this Cambodian lady selling my Passport on the black market, and me having to spend the rest of my life dusting off airport waiting area seats for small change. Luckily, she returned, and I was able to get onto the next plane to Hong Kong.

YAY! My plane landed! I anxiously pushed my way through the plane aisle and the hoards of people (normally I'm really patient and not a jerk... I swear!) and rush through customs, and power walk to the baggage claim area, where my dad is waiting for me! YAY! Family! It was so wonderful to see him. And to be in Hong Kong, and to have a week off school, ahhh the adrenilene was uncontrollable. We decided to take a cab to our hotel. The hotel was awesome, really convienent location, beautifully decorated. And the room was a decent size, and the bathroom was immaculate. Amazing. However, dad needed to sleep, granted it was 2am for him. So I wandered around on my own... tried to figure out the metro system...



Sidebar - Hong Kong's metro system I'm pretty sure, is the best in the world. You buy this card, called the Octopus card, which is a refillable money card that works EVERYWHERE - the trains, the subway, busses, ferries... I even saw a pharmacy that accepted this card. Amazing. And then everything is so well labeled, that even I had trouble getting lost... however, that was a challenge that I was willing to take - I did make many wrong turns and misread maps... I mean I know I'm in a new country, but I still gotta be me!

Once dad woke completely on his own accord, and by his own accord I mean me jumping on his bed whining about being bored, he got up... and we hopped on the subway to look for a place to eat. These streets were CRAZY. Filled with shop people asking you to come into thier shops to buy knock off products. We tried to follow our lonely planet's instructions on how to find a restauant. After walking in circles, we ended up finding the really great street, which seemed to be restaurant district. We went into a place called the Red Ant Restaurant. We ordered some delicious Cantonese dishes.

After dinner, we decided to call it a night. We walked back to the hotel along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. This was a walkway along the harbour in Kowloon, that looks onto the Hong Kong Island Skyline. It was amazingly lit up. There were fishermen all lined up along the edge, and young teenage couples making out, and tourists walking along the sidewalk. It was quite a breathtaking view. However, we were not entirely convinced that we were walking to the hotel, or how far the hotel would be. So dad asked this one random lady sweeping the path where our hotel was. She looked at him in confusion, and pointed at a random building that clearly was NOT our hotel. So we kept walking, and he found another lady that he asked. She thought long and hard, and pointed to another builing, that was not our hotel. So at this point we came to the conclusion... that when you ask someone for directions, they always give you a response... it may not be right... but saying I don't know is not an option. Eventually, we stumbled upon the right spot. And went home to bed.

1 Comments:

At 11:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So good to hear that you had an amazing trip!
It sounds awesome so far.. Can't wait to hear parts 2, 3, 4, and 5... =)

More pictures!!

 

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