Day 36/37 - Going out in style
Our Suite
Today we bid a fond farewell to gay Paris and made our way to our final destination: Hong Kong. As we had a late pick-up for the flight, we left all the packing until this morning and then made our way to the local cafe for a last croissant before hitting the road.
We were very nervous at the airport due to the size and number of bags that we had accumulated along the way. However as we were allowed a combined weight of 100kg for checked baggage and 1 carry on piece with either a handbag, camera bag or laptop bag we just scraped through (total weight of checked baggage was 99.2kg). Having again successfully made our way through all the regulatory checks, we boarded the plane and settled in for the 11 and a half hour flight to Hong Kong. To make matters worse, we also lost 6 hours during the flight so we left at 2.10pm and arrived in Hong Kong at 6.50 am. The flight actually went by quite quickly with the only problem being that none of us slept.
We jumped on the transfer bus after negotiating our way through customs (well not really, it was more of a bribe...just kidding) and then headed for our hotel room. We booked for 4 nights although we were only staying for 3 to ensure our room was ready on arrival. We also took up the option of paying a little extra to be upgraded to a suite as it had 2 rooms and 2 queen size beds as opposed to 1 room with 2 doubles. Given the travels to date and the fact that everywhere we stayed except for Disney World we had separate bedrooms to living rooms it was to irresistible to refuse. The extra bonus is the full use of the executive lounge which offers complimentary breakfast, tea and coffee all day and cocktails/alcoholic beverages of an evening.
As soon as we hit the room, Jacqui and the kids crashed and found the closest place to fall asleep (for Zac it was the couch) however as I was feeling okay, I decided to go for a walk to check out the local neighbourhood. As it turns out, the area we are staying in is one of the shopping areas (certainly for the more affluent that is for sure) with genuine Rolex, Cartier, Tissot and every other expensive watch and jewellery merchant you can find with prices exceeding $100k AUD for some items. In amongst this is also the mayhem of tailors who have people on the street constantly trying to drag you into some store for a personalised fitting and some guaranteed wallet weight reduction. Some of these hawkers are quite aggressive and persistent and even a firm: “piss off mate” after 5 minutes of badgering did not get the message across.
Eventually I hit the wall and made my way back to the room for a nanna nap. I eventually rallied the troops around 4.00pm and we all headed out for a look around and for the opportunity for Jacqui, Talia and Zac to experience what I had experienced earlier. At one point, we came to the lights and were ready to cross the street when as soon as the man went green, this guy came racing across the street, made a v-line for me and started to inform me that he could make me a suit and some shirts at the best tailors in town. As it turned out, he saw another hawker heading my way so he sprinted to get to me first. In the end, it was quite funny as he was puffing and panting whilst trying to talk, we could not stop laughing at the stupidity of it all and he did not get a new customer.
After strolling around, we headed to the executive lounge for the free cocktails and then to the pool for a swim and relax. After which we headed to an Italian restaurant within the hotel for dinner.
My first impression of Hong Kong is that it is frantically busy, smoggy, dirty, smelly and every store you walk into you are immediately set upon by a sales person who is ready to do you the deal of a lifetime. I must admit, with the lack of sleep, I did not cope too well today so I will reserve any judgement until after a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we are on a 6 hour tour of Hong Kong including the fishing areas, the mountains, the markets and some craftsman who specialise in hand made jewellery.
We were very nervous at the airport due to the size and number of bags that we had accumulated along the way. However as we were allowed a combined weight of 100kg for checked baggage and 1 carry on piece with either a handbag, camera bag or laptop bag we just scraped through (total weight of checked baggage was 99.2kg). Having again successfully made our way through all the regulatory checks, we boarded the plane and settled in for the 11 and a half hour flight to Hong Kong. To make matters worse, we also lost 6 hours during the flight so we left at 2.10pm and arrived in Hong Kong at 6.50 am. The flight actually went by quite quickly with the only problem being that none of us slept.
We jumped on the transfer bus after negotiating our way through customs (well not really, it was more of a bribe...just kidding) and then headed for our hotel room. We booked for 4 nights although we were only staying for 3 to ensure our room was ready on arrival. We also took up the option of paying a little extra to be upgraded to a suite as it had 2 rooms and 2 queen size beds as opposed to 1 room with 2 doubles. Given the travels to date and the fact that everywhere we stayed except for Disney World we had separate bedrooms to living rooms it was to irresistible to refuse. The extra bonus is the full use of the executive lounge which offers complimentary breakfast, tea and coffee all day and cocktails/alcoholic beverages of an evening.
As soon as we hit the room, Jacqui and the kids crashed and found the closest place to fall asleep (for Zac it was the couch) however as I was feeling okay, I decided to go for a walk to check out the local neighbourhood. As it turns out, the area we are staying in is one of the shopping areas (certainly for the more affluent that is for sure) with genuine Rolex, Cartier, Tissot and every other expensive watch and jewellery merchant you can find with prices exceeding $100k AUD for some items. In amongst this is also the mayhem of tailors who have people on the street constantly trying to drag you into some store for a personalised fitting and some guaranteed wallet weight reduction. Some of these hawkers are quite aggressive and persistent and even a firm: “piss off mate” after 5 minutes of badgering did not get the message across.
Eventually I hit the wall and made my way back to the room for a nanna nap. I eventually rallied the troops around 4.00pm and we all headed out for a look around and for the opportunity for Jacqui, Talia and Zac to experience what I had experienced earlier. At one point, we came to the lights and were ready to cross the street when as soon as the man went green, this guy came racing across the street, made a v-line for me and started to inform me that he could make me a suit and some shirts at the best tailors in town. As it turned out, he saw another hawker heading my way so he sprinted to get to me first. In the end, it was quite funny as he was puffing and panting whilst trying to talk, we could not stop laughing at the stupidity of it all and he did not get a new customer.
After strolling around, we headed to the executive lounge for the free cocktails and then to the pool for a swim and relax. After which we headed to an Italian restaurant within the hotel for dinner.
My first impression of Hong Kong is that it is frantically busy, smoggy, dirty, smelly and every store you walk into you are immediately set upon by a sales person who is ready to do you the deal of a lifetime. I must admit, with the lack of sleep, I did not cope too well today so I will reserve any judgement until after a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we are on a 6 hour tour of Hong Kong including the fishing areas, the mountains, the markets and some craftsman who specialise in hand made jewellery.
