Hi Everyone!
We are back from our trip to Hong Kong and Japan. Aside from the Hanshin Tigers' game we went to, we both agree that Hong Kong was our favorite place!! I think that is because of all the great ideas and tips all of you contributed to our journey.
First off, we did the Peak, which was amazing. We walked from our hotel thru the park, which evidently is a big wedding hot spot. There were FOUR weddings going on and I can tell you the dresses and gowns were amazing! Believe it or not, we did the tea museum too. Very interesting on how to make some of the pots. Her idea, I swear. Anyway, the Peak was fantastic.
The next day we went to Lantau Island. We were going to do a nice hike, but there was a typhoon warning and the folks at the hotel did not think it would be a good idea, so we ended up doing doing the cable car by the airport over to the island. It was a great view and we saw some of the trails towards the Buhdda. My daughter said those looked great and wished we could have done a little bit of them. Especially since the weather held up, but it was the right move anyway. We really enjoyed the Monastery and even bought a brick. For $25, how can you go wrong?
The next day we went to Kowloon and walked through Kowloon Park, which if you have kids, I highly recommend it. I have over a hundred pictures of the flamingos etc...It was a really nice park, well laid out with a lot of really cool stuff. We caught the ferry back and watched the light show from the Star Ferry. Christep, good call. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the press was better than it was, but we are still glad we saw it.
Monday we pretty much did shopping and walking around Central. Antique Row, Chop shopping (Jeff, dude, GREAT CALL!! They were fantastic!) and pretty much just enjoying the hustle and bustle. The escalator was a lot of fun till we got to the top and then the rain came!!! And came...So we got a little wet. It rained so hard that some of the locals thought it was really raining!!!
We ate SO much good food; we were both quacking like ducks and we never grew tired of Dim Sum. Its amazing how inexpensive good food is in HK compared to Japan!
On the water discussion. We did the bottled water thing for the most part, but there were quite a few times we drank out of fountains. Cailin is 10 and when she saw a fountain and was thirsty, she drank. We did not have any problems at all. On the sanitation side, there was so many people with sanitizer everywhere, there were no germs any where! Airport: Since we got in late, we did the bus to the hotel, outbound we took the train, though the taxi driver tried to talk us into him driving us! We told him we already had tickets...We loved the Octopus Cards and the fact you could use them everywhere. Great setup. Overall, in spite of the weather, we still had a fantastic time. I owe most of it to this community. My daughter had plenty of culture AND fun, which I couldn't have done without your help. Christep, I wish we could have had that beer, sorry that couldn't happen.
I have a ton of pictures, I don't know how to post them here. If anyone can tell me how, I would be happy to do so. Otherwise they are on my Facebook page, which I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say what that is...
Thanks again everyone. You guys are the BOMB!!!
John and Cailin
ahem, I too got married at Hong Kong park.
