We started out Monday afternoon with an exciting trip to the Naha airport (the airport in Okinawa). We had to go through several checkpoints, even though the airport was about the size of our apartment. Maybe a little bigger. Fortunately, I came prepared with every single document that identifies and legitimizes us. I still had my maiden name passport, which called for extra identification and paperwork, but thankfully created no problems. A tip to anyone traveling with their maiden-name passport: bring your wedding license...just in case. I probably would have been retained in some travelers jail if I didn't have it.
Here we are at the Naha airport, ready to take on Asia! Life would be so much easier if all airports were this small and navigatible (is that a word?). The Hong Kong airport, not so much. But I'll share about that in Hong Kong part 26. We loved our little flight on the Hong Kong Express. Most of the flight crew was Asian, but they spoke great English. With a British accent. Perfect! And the fed us...thank goodness! Dim Sum with noodles or pork with rice? I got dim sum (which are dumpling-type things) and Zac loved his pork with rice.
A picture of our meal. Because who doesn't love a picture of airline food?
It was good though! Or maybe we just didn't know it was bad because we are Asian food amateurs. Either way, it was about all the food we were going to get for few hours, so we ate it. Then they came around with coffee and tea. I loved the coffee. Even though it was probably instant. I'm becoming quite a coffee lover.
Who doesn't love to watch the sun set from the sky. Always amazing.
We landed in Hong Kong about 6. By the time we made it through the (humongous) Hong Kong airport going through customs/immigration, grabbing luggage, changing money, and getting train tickets, it was getting late. We took the Airport Express to Hong Kong station, where our hotel was supposed to have a free shuttle. We arrived at 7:20; the last shuttle was at 7. Oh well. We got a cab, which ended up being like $5, to the hotel. I wish I had some hotel pictures. It felt swanky, even though we booked it on easyclicktravelcheaphotel.com (or something like that). We even got excited b/c our room was on the "executive level." Well, our room must have been the leftover 5x5 space they had after they made the executive suites, because it was tiny, bed and all.
And we're standing at the door to take this picture. All your missing is the tiny closet of a bathroom. No problem, because we weren't planning on spending much time there anyway. And it was clean. Although our long legs hung over the edge of the bed. We felt like Vince Vaughn in Fred Clause or Will Farrell in Elf in their tiny elf beds. Maybe not that bad, but almost. Needless to say, our queen sized bed back at home felt heavenly and spacious.
That night, we went to the "hip, bar area" Lan Kwai Fong (?) to grab a late dinner and a drink or two. After finally finding the subway, aka MTR, took it one stop down, and found the area, we found Al's Diner for some good food.
{Side story: What we would call the subway or train in any other city is ONLY referred to as the MTR in Hong Kong. If you asked anyone where the subway/train station was, they would reply with a puzzled face, "You mean MTR?" And we didn't realize until about day 3 that some crazy symbol showed you where the MTR was. It looks like the lines on a basketball court. This particular expedition to the MTR station was particularly tricky, being our first time. We were slightly lost, so we finally asked a British couple where the station was.They were carrying bags of toilet paper, so I assume they lived there. And we finally found it. Knowing the symbol would've been very helpful at that point.}
Yes, we ate hamburgers in Hong Kong, but we don't get those here, so we got them when we could! And yes, the juicy burger and cajun fries (yes, cajun has made it all the way to Hong Kong), were heavenly.
Lan Kwai Fong is basically a street block lined with bars and is just a party in the street. Quite the social scene. We settled sitting in an empty bar right across the street from a very crowded bar with a cover band to listen to the cover band. With so many places to visit, we knew we'd have to come back!
The whole group
We figured out on the way home that our hotel was in walking distance (i.e. closer to walk to than walk to a from the MTR), so we went back to rest up for the week ahead of us!
Whew! And that was just the travel day. This will be quite the saga.
Blair and I were definitely baffled by the fact that "subway" and the MTR were not the same thing, too! We kept following signs that said "subway" and didn't understand why they didn't end in ground transportation!
ReplyDeleteIs Lan Kwai Fong like Bourbon Street? Glad you all had fun! Love you!
ReplyDeleteHurry, I need to hear the rest of the story!
ReplyDelete