We were heading to Hong Kong! Our visa trip.
Turns out, we didn’t have to teach at all on Friday. Which
was a huge bummer, let me explain in a minute… Anyways, we got up decently
early to shower and pack our bags [not that we had to put very much in there at
all!], then we watched some Modern Family season 1, before finally heading to
the school.
We wrote out emails to our missionaries seeing as we probably
wouldn’t have time for them later or anything, so we did that. During that
time, some of my grade 5 students came in, ready to take me to class especially
since it was the day I promised we’d do our Halloween!
I know. I had to write down in basics and then try to
explain I was leaving for Hong Kong, and we’d have to push it back to next
Tuesday. It was ridiculous, and I feel so bad! They were confused but
eventually got the clue- at least one of them did, and she explained it to
everyone. So we’ll do some fun, movie and candy with them in their next class.
Katie and I joined Nicole for a quick lunch, before meeting
Abby and Greg at the steps to head to the airport! It was about 11:30 then and
our plane didn’t leave until 2:40 I think it was. We hitched a ride in the school van which
dropped us off at the domestic departures- and we finally realized Hong Kong is
international, haha so we walked around and finally found international
departures. We filled out cards, showed our passports to receive our tickets,
waved goodbye to Nicole, and headed in. Super easy security although the guards
take a good while checking out our passports.
Then we sat down for a good while. Turns out our flight
ended up getting delayed, which was a bit annoying, but eventually we got on
and headed out! I love the feeling of planes taking off, it’s great!
They served water in little container cups and had these
weird bread sandwiches with some kind of funky meat in the middle, or it looked
like a roll. It smelled good, but the quality wasn’t great- all the same, we
still ate them, they weren’t too terrible. After that, I pretty much passed out
until we about landed.
Hong Kong! It was about five pm getting out of there.
Customs was easy again, and already we were seeing a ton
more white people. It was almost like being back in America! Hong Kong is a
tiny bit like China, but very culturalized, we found. It was pretty weird. Oh
and the money transition is better, and the money is cool [lots of dollar coins
and such], but everything is super pricey.
There was an airport express subway. It cost us 100 HK to
get out of there. That’s ridiculous! Anyways, we landed onto Hong Kong island
and spent a long time wandering around in the night humidity to find Victoria’s
Peak. It was super tricky and I had no idea what was going on or where we were
going! Lots of bridgeways, slanted sidewalks and more. And we walked through a
ton of fancy malls that I wouldn’t even walk through in the states…
Eventually Katie found us the right spot to buy tickets! We
took the trolley up, 28 per adult. That was crowded getting on so Katie and I
had to stand. Which was super funny because it goes up the mountain well but
it’s very slanted and Katie slipped back a bit, and so did I- very funny!
Anyways we got off, wandered for a minute before we decided
we wanted milkshakes or something. So we crossed next store to the mall and on
the third floor “second” because they are British-like and our first floor is
their Ground floor, and grabbed delicious stuff from McDonalds. Abby and Greg
had rainbow cones and Katie and I grabbed milkshakes. It was amazing!
Then we walked around [fast because Katie doesn’t have a
slow button unfortunately], and up to the hill to really explore Victoria’s
Peak. It was great seeing the city that way! Such an incredible view! I loved
it. There’s something about seeing the city lights that just does it for me. I
don’t always like being between them, but seeing them from a distance, it’s
great. I love it!
Eventually we headed back and found out how to get to the
bus back. That was about $10 [yes they use the dollar symbol. Crazy right?], on
their double decker bus but we were just on the bottom sitting as we got
through town.
Finally we made it through to our street, and eventually
found the C ‘Mansion’ which is pretty darn sketchy. Tons of men from India
trying to sell things, and then you step inside and they are there as well,
selling Indian food and stuff. Which we ended up getting some later on, but
anyways… super sketchy garage like place. There were like 5 different elevator
halls and we finally found D where we went up and checked in with our Hostel.
Indian owned, and super freaking awesome. The Budget Hotel, I think it was
called. The guy was very friendly and nice, and led us through this maze and
two different doors to get to our hostel room. He showed us a faster way to get
to our room, thank goodness, gave us a key and wished us a good night.
We had a room with two beds and it was the smallest
hostel/hotel room I have ever been in! It was awesome, cramped, and cool. The
beds against the walls, a tiny nightstand with a mini fridge squished between
and a tiny bathroom to the side. Together, it was about the size of my bedroom
in Guiyang, except it would be four of us plus a bathroom. Haha…
Anyways, we got ready for bed, talked for a while, and
finally decided that yes Katie and I would be going to Disneyland and then they
lent us the money that we really needed. Katie brought about 700 and I brought
600 but everything was twice as expensive as we had expected so we together
borrowed 700 from Abby and Greg. So freaking nice of them! They were so sweet
about it, seriously, I don’t know what we would have done without their help.
Finally, tired out of our heads, we went to bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment