China Trip Part 1

Back to our Vacation adventures. As mentioned in our post before, we had a wonderful vacation. It started with a relaxing Saturday to pack and get to the airport. We decided to take a rickshaw to the airport. Note: this is the first time we have left Bandra on our own. In the past we have always had someone with us who was taking us or knew what they were doing. So the first rick we saw we waved down. We asked if he could take us to the international airport and he say yes, for 200 rupees. Now the rickshaws here all work on meters, but being in my pre-vacation stress mode, we just agreed and got in. We proceeded to drive two blocks and stop, where the rickshaw driver said we needed to wait for 5 minute. Again, being stressed out, I tried arguing with him, saying we needed to go, but he just kept saying 5 minutes. So we sat, stuffed in a rickshaw with our bags, waiting. We soon realized we didn't mind so much as they began to replace the break line. Five minutes later we were off again, new break line and all. The drive to the airport was pretty quick and we got there right on time. As we arrived, I noticed the meter said we owed 100 rupees. In my head I was debating if I should go with what I agreed to, or see if we could just pay the 100. So as we got out I pointed to the meter and said 100? He said no 200. In all reality, 200 rupees is not that much, so I gave him the 200 and said happy Diwali. That gave him a huge smile and I think we both understood. Yes, he may have ripped us off, but no I didn't care. It was all in the spirit of the holiday.

Once there, we got through security, which can actually take a while because they check and recheck our tickets stamping them 2 or 3 times, as well waiting in line for security, walking through the metal detectors and then getting wanded as well. (The metal detectors don't do a whole lot here, everyone walks through, everyone beeps and everyone gets wanded). As I was waiting for Kevin (since there is a different security line for women which goes much faster as there are less women traveling) I noticed one of the female security guards had a Sari uniform. I think it was the first I had seen something like that, so it stuck out to me. Same color fabric, but more silky and made into a Sari, then she just pinned the patch on the top of her shoulder like the other guards with their uniforms. I kind of wish I had a picture, but that would have been awkward to take. Our flight to Hong Kong went alright, beside the fact that I think the plane was older then me, something broke, so we had to stay on the tarmac for two hours in Delhi while they fixed it and then they woke everyone up and insisted we eat dinner at 2:30 in the morning.

So, Sunday morning we made it to Hong Kong and our real vacation challenges began. A few weeks ago, we realized this is our first big international trip that either of us have taken that was not completely organized for us. In other words, we have always been chauffeured around, given places to stay and food to eat by someone local. The first thing we had to do was get to our hotel. After talking to a tourist desk, and checking out the subway, we ended up booking a ride on a hotel express shuttle, which took us straight to our hotel for just a few more dollars. Once we checked in to our very nice but small hotel and freshened up, we were off. The first day we spent walking around the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, shopping. Mostly we were looking for a new camera, which we did eventually buy along with a few other miscellaneous items. After stopping by our hotel, we headed out to eat dinner (a very expensive dinner :-( I think water cost us $8), then stopped by to leave a note for Chris and Caitlin. I only mention this, because when we asked to leave a note, they asked for the guests name. We said "Chris Roberts, who should be checking in later this evening". Well, they only had one Christopher Roberts and they said he had already checked in with a Thai women...??? What? Well, we left the note anyway which they did get later that night when they arrived. I guess Caitlin's dad checked in for them earlier and the hotel people assumed his wife was Thai. Strange yet funny. Then we headed down to the waterfront to watch the nightly light show. There were lots of people hanging out, taking pictures. There were a lot of vendors there who were offering to take pictures as well. We found a nice spot on the water and waited for the show. The audio was in Mandarin, but I don't think we missed much other then "the show is starting" or something to that affect as the rest of it was set to music. Basically, the buildings across the water all light up and have lazers on their roofs that they make a show of. It was a lot of fun and very pretty. It was a nice way to end our evening.

The next day we were able to meet up with Chris and Caitlin (who so nicely brought us a few things from the states,( including 72oz Costco sized bag of chocolate chips! Yum!!) and her dad and brother and we walked around Hong Kong some more. We rode the worlds longest covered escalator and had lunch, and then Kevin and I wondered around the Zoological and Botanical Garden, which was so nice! We miss open green spaces. You don't find that much in Mumbai. We also thought it was interesting as we walked around how much Halloween stuff was for sale and up in different stores and restaurants. That afternoon, we did some more shopping and then when up on the Peak Tram to see the city from up high. It was a little cloudy, so it was kind of disappointing, but fun to see the city from that view point. We also happened to be up there when the light show was happening, which you couldn't really see much of from this angle, so we were glad we caught it the night before. We had dinner with a view and headed back to get a good nights sleep before heading off to Beijing in the morning.

To Be Continued...
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K&E