Hong Kong

After a 24 hour (total) journey that included one 15 hour flight, we made it to Hong Kong.  Billy and I originally did not have seats together on the long flight, but a nice lady sitting by Billy gave up her isle seat so we could be together.  So much nicer to lean on someone you know while sleeping than someone you don’t.

We crashed at our hotel(I’m pretty sure this is the world’s smallest hotel room) and got an early start the next morning.  First we went to The Peak.  There were no lines which I thought was unusual for a big Chinese city.  But apparently the early bird gets the proverbial worm.  Later in the day we passed by it again and the lines were so LONG.  Actually beyond long.  Crazy!

The city of Hong Kong is on an island and the land just goes straight up from the water.  The Peak tram takes you up the mountain side to an observation area from which you can see the whole island.  It is so weird to be going up the mountain at such a steep angle.  The buildings look like they’re leaning over.  We took some pictures from the top, but unfortunately it was an overcast day and the visibility was limited.

When we came back down the mountain, there were people selling tickets for The  Big Bus Tour.  Since we didn’t know where we were going and wanted to see most of the city, we decided to go for it.  The double-decker bus takes you around the city and you can hop on and off wherever you want – to go shopping or eat or just look around.

We stopped at Stanley Road Market and looked around at the shops but didn’t buy anything.  We decided to get lunch at a little hamburger place (yes, I know we’re in China but I don’t like squid and weird stuff like that).  When we sat down, a man and his son – Americans – sat at the table beside us.  We could tell from their conversation they lived in HK and that they were Christians.  He asked us where we were from and what we were doing in HK, etc.  They were from Michigan but were living in HK for a while. We chatted for a couple minutes.  They left after they finished their meal.  A little bit later, we finished and went to go pay.  The owner came out and told us that the guy sitting next to us had paid for our lunch.  The owner thought we were together.  We told him we had never met each other before today.  That was such an amazing thing!  We have never had that happen to us before.

After that, we toured more of the city (including a Sampan boat ride) and then came back to the hotel, exhausted.  The jet lag and walking caught up with us.  We are now eating room service and watching Chinese television. (And trying to type a somewhat coherent post.)

Tomorrow, we’ll take a train to Guangzhou.  On Monday, we meet Tommy!!!!!

Here are some pictures from our day.