Hey Everybody -
Wow - we have ended our trip with another FULL day. We left the hotel this morning and crossed the harbor to go to Hong Kong Island. What a different world. We came out into a beautiful huge mall full of upscale stores, restaurants, etc. It was huge in size and impressive. the girls, who didn't seem to be thrilled at a day of sightseeing, lit up like Christmas trees. We spent some time shopping in the Zara store, a European chain that only has a store in New York City in the states. They were having some good sales so the girls each got a couple of things after trying on about a billion things each. From there, we managed to find our way to an area called the mid-level esculators (after asking many people which way to go.) This series of covered walkways and escalators takes you from the water level to high on one of the hills over Hong Kong. There were lots of little shops and restaurants on the way. Much nicer than over on the Kowloon side of the harbor where we are staying we thought. When we were trying to find our way we passed a couple eating an egg tart...,. our favorite treat from our first day back in Macau - which seems eons ago to us now. They told us which escalator to get off at to buy some...., and they were terrific. We stopped in a starbucks (yeah, there's a million of them here) to have a drink and eat our egg tarts. While we were there the ladies had a special little moment for me where they presented a card signed by all of our traveling group, and a wonderful starfish necklace purchased in Phnom Penh. Those of you who have looked at the Send Rice Send Love website know the significance of that starfish. I was very touched and honored that they showed their love for me in this way. I will treasure that necklace always.
The card was a perfect Asia card. It had glitter on the front, and a verse that read "Best Wishes: I wish you step in the flower like season." Very nice sentiment, isn't it?? I love you guys!!!!
We continued out way up the escalators (and of course the series nearest the top was out of order so we had to mountain climb) and at the top set out to follow the street that should have led us to the peak incline station. As has been our experience over and over again here, the map didn't make sense and we were soon lost. After going up and down many more stairways and streets, we finally hopped in a cab and this time the guy understood and got us there quickly. We rode the tram, much like the Pittsburgh incline up a HUGE hill and beheld what must be the most beautiful cityscape anywhere in the world. It was a bit cloudy today but still a breathtaking view. We poked around in some shops that were of course at the top of the peak and then went to a Japanese restaurant so that some of us could have a drink and Leanne could have the sushi she's been hankering for.
The map that I was using of Hong Kong Island looked like the area was pretty small, so instead of taking the tram back down the mountain we hopped in a cab and asked to go to Stanley, an oceanside village on the island. This was about 4:30. At 6 pm we had dinner reservations at the Jumbo Restaurant, a floating restaurant that is world famous and sits off the coast of Aberdeen, another small village on the island. On the map these looked very close together but since time was getting short we asked the driver if we could just go to Aberdeen. He started yelling at us in Chinese and got very agitated. I had a map on my lap and was sitting in the front seat with him, and he barked at me and motioned to put the map away. Confused, I complied. Half hour and about a $15 cab fare (expensive for here) we were delivered to the Stanley market area. Talk about a weird experience. For the first time since getting to Hong Kong there were lots of people who looked like the the white Americans in our group, but they all had british accents. Seems that this little village is quite a seaside vacation place for the brits. It looked a bit like a small village on the French riviera so I can see where it would be an attraction. It was very interesting seeing this very different area of Hong Kong. Since we weren't sure how to get to Aberdeen, we decided to abandon our dinner plans and just eat in Stanley. We wandered around for a while and finally ended up in a Chinese place (unusual among the British pubs in this village.) It was our last night so we figured we should eat Chinese. Kaley and I are a bit picky about what we eat, and everything on the menu had fish or other weird ingredients in it. For example, one dish was fried noodles with seafood. I asked if she could just get plain fried noodles, without the seafood. No. OK.... why? Not on the menu. We thought about leaving and going elsewhere but since we were already drinking an expensive bottle of water we figured we'd stick it out. She managed to pick the pork our of some pork fried noodles and I had some bean curd with vegetables. Not the best food I've ever eaten, but I'm not sure anything would have tasted that good. We're ready for some good old American Chinese food, which isn't really at all like Chinese food!
After dinner it was time to try to find our way back, so we took another taxi back to the mall where we had begun our day. Marcy & Deb left us there to go look for a foot massage back by the hotel, and the girls and I did a bit more shopping. We road the MTR train to the stop near the night market where we were last night and picked up just a couple more things before coming back to the hotel. It was a long day, with lots of frustrations over not being able to communicate or read maps, but in the end it was quite an adventure (as it always seems to be.)
We're all packing up now preparing to leave the hotel at 7 am tomorrow morning. I think we're all glad to be heading home. The girls miss their friends, we all miss our families, we miss predictable foods, good toilet paper, and the English language. Once we get home, I suspect we will miss each other. Deb flies on to Korea for work, Leanne flies as far as Newark with us before returning to Chicago. We have a tight connection in Newark but if we make it we'll be home by 5. If not, well, who knows when we'll get home.
Once home, and with a few hours of sleep under my belt, I'll write some final reflections. Thanks for reading along and for the prayers that have sustained us.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew
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