sayhitojohn

We woke up this morning to an email saying that our visas were being processed and we should be on our way by 6:00 pm. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island and made a point to ride the worlds longest (.5 miles) outdoor escalator system. It was interesting how all of the businesses popped up along the route and you saw store fronts that were a few stories off the ground.  In the morning it runs downhill for all the folks heading into work and then at 10:00 it reverses for the day. We always enjoy collecting interesting looking money whenever we see it, providing it is not worth too much.  Here is an HK$10 bill with a clear window though it and strangely enough Riley's teeth.  It is a little surprising that they would make this denomination so unique given its low (USD$1.25) value. This was a day that I once again awoke to a funky stomache so that meant a Pepto tab and some fasting.  The fasting bit is key to the solution as that starves the little monsters while the Pepto

Apart from visa madness we have been making a point to continue seeing what there is to see.  Climbing Victoria Peak was first on our agenda.  The Peak is an 1800 foot rise above sea level and was first home to the non-Chinese colonists and now to the wealthy.  We started the climb and within minutes were dripping with sweat.  We had somewhere come by the false impression that the climb was just a steep grade.  It was more like a 1000 foot staircase.  I decided to turn around and take the kids up the funicular, much to their delight, while Patti forged on.  When we connected with Mom again, she was soaked completely through and wondering why she did not wimp out like us. The rest of our small group was guided over the border to the mainland where they boarded a bus to Yangshuo and we once again hit the streets of Hong Kong.  One of the stranger things you will see in HK is the use of bamboo for construction scaffolding.  These frames appear to be somewhat haphazardly assembled with joi

Special Update - our visa challenges from last night did not end last night, they are in fact not over yet.  So, the arrival cards that were discarded were found, one in our garbage and one in Tara's passport.  Evidently, it is common practicemfor the customs agent to staple this little card into our passports, not this time.  Our guide for Hong Kong stopped by the room last night at midnight to pick up the other 3 arrival cards and connect with her visa man. When we met with her this morning she explained how things were continuing to be sticky.  The visa agent was now requiring that we have birth certificates for the girls.  Our small group is going to continue into the mainland tomorrow and we will catch up once things are sorted out. The next plan was to get to the U.S. Embassy first thing in the morning.  We could not go to embassy today as it is a holiday here in HK.  The embassy website says get there early after holidays as the lines will be extra long.  That was our plan f

Mario Andretti Li - The cabby from the Hong Kong airport and I hit it off instantly.  We both knew enough of the others tongue to say that we did not speak in that language.  Our cabby seemed to enjoy screaming down the mostly desolate 2:00 am  streets.  This guy had a penchant for 40kph over whatever the posted limit was.  When the sign said 50, he did 90 when it said 80, he was doing 120.  Our apeed was 120kph as We approached the lone toll booth for which I assumed he had some sort of auto pass.  The limit dropped to 50 and he barely dropped below 100.  He threaded the toll booth needle faster then anyone would be comfortable with. My airplane food fasting program was successful.  A little hungry this morning but no worse for the wear and had some Chinese stir Friday noodles for lunch. We are staying just a block from Kowloon City Park and we took a walk around this morning.  This was once a den of scum and villainy among some decent folks, and the most densely populated area in the

How do I put this politely...my last report on the plane food deserves a follow-up.  It was not even two hours after landing in Shanghai  that the gastro-intestinal games began.  Is this what I have to look forward to?  I should have eaten that pink thing, maybe it was a Pepto Pastry.  On the 2 hour flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong I passed on the full dinner (hot rolls and all, this would have been a peanut flight in the states) and instead decided to starve the little nasties with water and coagulate. Well, here we are, in our room in Hong Kong, it is 2 AM Sunday here and 11:45 PM Saturday in Colorado, time for some sleep.  We are roaming tomorrow not sure what is on the agenda.  Might have to get my picture taken with the Bruce Lee statue on the Avenue of The Stars if we are anywhere near there.  This is the tiniest room we have ever stayed in. Random Thought of the Day - Of Butt and Blisters - No, this is not a discourse on my backside, but something that occurred to me while on m

We left LAX Friday, April 26th at 1:00 pm and were airborne for 14 hours until the wheels chirped on the Shanghai tarmac at 6:00 pm Saturday , April 27th.  Later tonight we board again and arrive in Hong Kong at 11:30 pm.  Time machine! We flew China Eastern Airlines and so far so good.  We choose this carrier mainly because it was $800 cheaper than the nearest competition.  The complaints were chiefly around the food and entertainment quality.  We brought plenty to read and a few movies on the electronic devices for good measure.  The food was ok apart from the pink gelatinous cube that we suspect was dessert.  The entertainment met the low expectations. Before departing Colorado, I saved web pages to my iPad with information about the cities we were going to be visiting.  I figured I could redeem some commute time by getting to know our destinations.  I found these lines in the wikipedia summary entry for Hong Kong to be particularly interesting. Hong Kong has numerous high internat

Disneyland...really...what about China? That was the response we were met with from Tara when we told the kids we were going to make a surprise stop.  After a few long moments she collected herself and thought it would be pretty cool.  The girls got a kick out of our accommodations, the Castle Inn & Suites.  It's appearance was that of a castle, I bet you guessed that, and it had some castle-ish paraphernalia in the lobby.  It was dirt cheap with a deal Patti found on a last minute travel site and after entering the room one had the feeling that the pauper stayed here rather then the prince.  Oh, and how about Tara's nice duct tape hair bow. Patti and I have showered in a number of places around the world and not even in North Africa were the showers as bad as this one.  Barely a trickle came out of the head.  A number of times I had to ask Patti if she was done as I could hear no water hitting the bottom of the tub.  Instead, she was catching all of the drizzle with her he

Coming Soon... Stay tuned.  I accidentally sent out my spam email too soon, was going to wait until there was something interesting to say. We are all packed up and ready to roll. Brushed my teeth for the last time with a Sonicare brush, going to miss that. Zai jian for now, The Huths