What a Great Wall

Back in Hong Kong! After an interesting time at a hotel in very rural Shenzen, we decided to come back to Hong Kong sooner than expected. Apparently, tourists were being kidnapped and in some cases killed. Leaving was good for a couple of reasons other than the previous mention, first being that we didn't see much of HK before, but also because we have internet access!! Whooo!! Some more updates can trickle in. Many stories about tea, shopping, getting lost, highway rings, using my Mandarin phrase book (alot), being "tall", having a pretty nose, Elaine, the word salacious and it's overuse, Dave eating with chop sticks, temples, gardens, traffic, speeding, a lot of taxis, randomly broken up roads, ascending to heaven, Chinese people giggling at my Englanese, laughing at printed Chingrish, hair school, lots of back pain, crazy Italians, and much more. For now, on to what you really want to know about. The Great Wall.


And it was huge. The Wall, just as imagined, rolls on the edge of the hills from as far as you can see. Dave and I shot gobs of photos. It was such a nice day. We nearly died on the way there when our driver was speeding (typical in both Shanghai and Beijing) and hit a patch of freshly torn up pavement and we skidded into on coming traffic (namely a bus) and close enough to the edge of the cliff. Our driver let out a near perfect sounding "Sorry!" Followed by nervous laughter. Hilarious.

As we were leaving the Wall, this donkey ran out into the road and stopped just over in our lane. Our driver, speeding again, swerved to avoid hitting the animal. I grabbed this shot out of the heavily tinted window.

Blogger Blocked!

We are in mainland China, in Shanghai and I believe blogspot urls are blocked. This means no photos on the blog and I cannot read comments or check to make sure things are posting correctly. Booooo! The China government is successful and good for its people.

Hong Kong coast

Hong Kong's coast line is stunning. There are so many buildings, so tall and so close together and it is very long. More fog, more pollution.

Aww, we look so American! Yes, we are taller than most people, I don't notice it until we are crossing a street or on the sidewalk with people everywhere. I think Dave notices his towering height more often, I have seen him have to duck for lighting fixtures and even signs hanging on the street.

Since we have have been here, we have seen one wedding and two couples in wedding dress. I thought it was odd since they were not spotted on a weekend, but on Sunday and Monday.

I haven't photographed much food that we have eaten since we have been here since we have been eating at the locals' restaurants. After walking by what seemed like the 6th McDonalds we caved in to see what was on the menu. From the street we saw "Twisty Pasta" and "Crawdad Bisque" on the menu. Dave and I ordered chicken nuggets by pointing to them on the picture menu and said "yes" when asked "Set?" (We decided that "Set" meant "Combo"). About HK$50 (about US$6.70) later this is what we got. I had no problem holding up my camera in a McDonalds, I wasn't worried about offending anyone. We both laughed when I went to the trash to empty the tray into the trash and an employee came over and snatched it from my hand, not sure why, but everyone leaves their trays and trash on the table.

Fire truck, fire truck, fire truck.

Chinese fire truck! Makes a different sound than we are used to, when I heard the siren I knew where it was coming from but looked right past the fire truck at first, mistaking it for one of the many large trucks. Waited for Chinese fire drill, never happened.

Also, we found Mini Jeep and fire truck playsets! So many silly things we have found and would like to bring back, at this point it is too early in our trip to carry around goodies like these.

Kowloon in under fog and smog

Shot the Lumix some more today, seemed easier than carrying an SLR. Too bad there is so much smog and humidity that visibility is decreased. It was warm and about 90% humidity. Dave and I were a bit uncomfortable since it is the first humidity this year for either of us. We watched turtles and koi in a pond in the morning, poor little turtles had a hard time fighting the koi as they swam to get onto the rocks.

View from the bubble elevator (lift) to our room, aside from the little bit of glare that is a true representation of the decreased visibility due to the pollution. You can really feel it in your lungs. Early afternoon we saw a man taking a jog, I can only imagine that running here is an acquired skill, not an activity for people new to the area.

The pool at our hotel, very French inspired area on the roof of the hotel.

We walked through Kowloon and browsed at all the shops, one street over is how I imagined China. This is further down Jordan Street, maybe a mile or so, very geared to foreign tourists.

Near the end of the peninsula we found this building as construction workers where taking down the scaffolding. They moved so fast along the bamboo structure as it weaved back and forth. We watched them work for quite a while. So different than in America. I couldn't help but think about workers comp.

Close up of the construction workers taking down the bamboo scaffolding.

Kowloon and Eaton Hotel

The Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong at night. I hadn't seen any photos of this area at night. I was surprised at all the neon lights.

Our hotel is very nice. We booked it Saturday night/Sunday morning in New York via orbitz.com. For about US$100/night we are staying at the Eaton Hotel. The Eaton sits right in the middle of a shopper's dream. The hotel room is small compared to western hotels, but very nice and very modern.

Due to construction we had to move rooms for our second night. Our floor (12/F) had the water turned off and there was construction dust filling the hallways. We moved up to (17/F), our room is the same but a mirror image layout.

For the price, The Eaton hotel is very posh compared to western hotels in the same range. There is great thought put into the lighting and function of the room layout and lots of amenities both in room and available to guests.

When we got into our room, we were stumped at turning on the lights. Simple task for most, but there is a combination required to turn on not only the lights but the electricity for the room. On the right is a wall mounted spot you put your hotel key into, it only fits a certain way and requires more force than one would think. Once the red light goes away you can flip the giant rocker switches to the left. This took us 5 minutes and thankfully an employee happened to walk by and came to our rescue.

Whooooo! Western toilet in our hotel. Hey people asked what style was in our room. Also, look at all the mini lotions and shampoos and bathroom stuffs. I immediately thought of Sharon.

getting to Kowloon, Hong Kong

Dave and I took the express train and then the K1 bus from the airport in Hong Kong straight to our hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The train was awesome, it took us less than 30 minutes to get to Kowloon, also it was clean and really well lit and comfortable. Sadly, after over 15 hours of flight time, I wasn't in the right head space to switch to a wider lens. I had one goal in mind, shower then snooze.

The buses in Hong Kong are single and double decker buses. The highways and streets really force you to drive in circles. Some of the signs and landmarks we saw from several angles as we rode around to the hotel. We arrived in Hong Kong at about 7:00pm local time. Since it was dark when we came in, I think that getting straight to the hotel was a blessing. Although many signs in Hong Kong are in Chinese and English and many people speak English, you can find yourself in flipped upside down when someone seems like they understand what you are asking and actually have no idea what you are saying or asking. That's fun.

Proof we need showers and sleep.