In the weeks before our trip though, Thailand experienced a great loss. The King of Thailand, who had reigned for over 70 years, died. The country went into deep mourning, with most Thais wearing all black or a combination of black and white. As foreigners, we were asked to wear muted colors out of respect. Many events were cancelled, because it was inappropriate to celebrate at such a time. This included cancelling Halloween which fell within the initial 30 day mourning period. Even events after the initial 30 days, like the Marine Ball, were cancelled out of consideration to the Thai people. The loss of the King has definitely made for a somber mood in Thailand, so we were ready for a change of scene by the time Vivian's break came around.
Our trip to Hong Kong got off to a good start. We had gotten tickets through Emirates (our new favorite airline), and Jeff got us all into the lounge again. The girls are totally at home there now.
It was a quick flight, and we easily got a taxi to our Airbnb apartment. Hong Kong is made up of a series of islands. The airport is off to the west, then, moving east, is the island Disneyland is on, and then Kowloon island. South of Kowloon is the main Hong Kong island. We decided to stay in Kowloon, since it's in the middle of everything. We were in a fairly residential area, but still near malls and an MTR (not MRT like Bangkok) station. Of course residential in Hong Kong means tons of high rise buildings. Honk Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. This was the night view from our apartment.
The bed in the master bedroom was right up against the window and not for the faint of heart.
The balcony had a nice daytime view too.
We were not the only Bangkok expats who had come to Hong Kong for the fall break, and so we were able to coordinate our trip with a couple other families, which made it a lot more fun. For our first full day, we started by meeting up with our friends who were staying near Kowloon Park. They have two kids about Vivian's age, so a playground was a necessary stop.
I had hoped that Hong Kong at the end of October would be cool, and it was cooler than Bangkok with a nice breeze, but it was still pretty hot in the sun. Vivian was undeterred though and made use of the kiddie workout equipment.
There was plenty for Elena to explore as well.
It was fun for the whole family. Of course, we forgot Elena's blue water cup at the apartment, but, never fear, McDonald's is here, and we got her a cup of water with a straw, so that she could stay hydrated.
After some play time, we were all ready for air conditioning, so we made our way over to the Hong Kong Heritage Center. It was in the park and free, so we figured we should check it out.
Elena cracked me up, because she stood in front of the written introduction and kept talking and gesturing like she was our tour guide.
We had a lot of fun exploring the exhibits. My favorite was the Ming Dynasty room, where they took the hundreds of pieces of pottery they had found and made a cool floor display.
After all our fun at the park, we went back to our friends' apartment and had lunch and a little rest. Then we set out on our big adventure of the day, getting from Kowloon to Victoria Peak on Hong Kong island. Our friends had an Airbnb place on Canton Road, which had stores for every fancy designer brand you can imagine. We walked down it, window shopping, towards the clock tower on Salisbury Road and the Star Ferry pier.
The Star Ferry is the classic way to get across Victoria Harbour from Kowloon to Central. We love boats, so, of course, we were definitely in for a boat trip. I had read another blog that recommended taking the upper deck, so we had to find the upper deck entrance. We didn't end up getting Octopus cards (the Hong Kong public transportation smart card), but it was pretty easy to buy our ferry tokens from a machine at the pier. Then we just waited for the boat to show up and got on. It was a nice ride with lovely views of the harbor. Hong Kong is such a unique city.
We passed several other boats, including other Star Ferries. It was a pretty choppy ride for such a big boat, so not recommended for those that get motion sickness, but we loved it.
We got off at Central, which is the main business hub of Hong Kong. This is where my planning fell through, because I hadn't mapped out the route from the ferry stop to Victoria Peak, and it turned out to be quite a haul. Luckily, everyone had GPS and no one got grouchy, so we trudged along, asking some help, and eventually found our way through skywalks and sidewalks taking in the views of Central as we went.
When we found the tram station, we also found a bunch of other people. We got the combo ticket that included Madame Tussaud's, so we skipped the part of the line that was outside the station, but there were still plenty of people inside.
Luckily, we had a couple big guys in our group, so we did well with the Asian crowd shove routine, and got in the front row of the line and the front of the tram.
There were points in the ride where we were going up the hill so steeply that the Hong Kong skyline was sticking out sideways from the hill. It was quite something. When we got to the top, we went all the way up the Peak Galleria to the viewing platform. They even had audio guides telling you what everything you could see was, so of course Viv was thrilled.
Elena was more concerned about the wind's effect on her hair.
There were some great views, but the clouds and the crowds made taking pictures challenging.
We spent some time up there enjoying ourselves, but then we all agreed that we were hungry. On the way up, we had seen that there was a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. We were all craving some Americana, and we knew they had food the kids would eat. Plus, the restaurant had huge windows with great views over the city, so that's where we ended up for dinner. They were all decked out for Halloween, they had hush puppies for me, a special light up strawberry lemonade for Viv, chicken and ketchup for Elena, and Jeff heartily approved of how they served beer. It was a lot of fun for all of us.
We took our time over dinner and watched the lights come on in the city. After dinner, we made a stop at Madame Tussaud's. The wax figures freaked Elena out. She kept saying, "I no like statues!" I figured it had been a long day for her, so I walked her through quickly, and we waited for everyone else at the exit. Vivian, on the other hand, was in her hammy element. Jeff got lots of great pictures of her.
By that point it was getting late, and we were tired, so instead of waiting in the tram crowd to get back down, we got a taxi to the pier. We got on the ferry back, just as the evening light show was starting. We couldn't hear the music from the water, but the lit up city was beautiful.
It was a wonderful, full day in Hong Kong.
No comments:
Post a Comment