Thursday and Friday Update

Thursday, January 27, 2011

 

We departed the Victory Hotel in Guangzhou at 7am.  Helen and Mr Chu, our driver, took us to the airport and got us checked in.  We hated to say goodbye to them, but we are looking forward to a couple days in Hong Kong where enough people speak english you can do your own thing like in europe much easier.  

We flew Dragonair, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, to Hong Kong, with an Australian pilot.  We were glad we had already gotten flights over the fast train, because Chinese New Year or Spring Festival travel has already began big time in China, resulting in a extremely packed Guangzhou train station as many workers leave there for other parts of China.  Even our flight was slow to take off.  

Zoe meant to sit by mom but we had two pairs of seats in front of each other and Haifeng sit by her.  Zoe dropped an instant tear, but by takeoff, she was encouraging Haifeng, who was on her first flight, with "I love you" in Chinese.  

When we got to Hong Kong, we knew where to go to catch the hotel shuttle from our experience on the 16th, so it was a quick transit.  Both of them watched cartoons together Thursday night after we had dinner.

 

Friday, January 28, 2011

 

We started out the day apprehensive that Haifeng would go anywhere and I can't think of a city I would hate staying in the hotel room more than Hong Kong.  

Well, we first strolled into the Citygate Outlet Mall, adjacent to the Novotel Hotel and they got a few things.  There was a big grocery store there called 'Taste'.   Haifeng and Zoe picked out some snacks they wanted and that seemed to pave the way for going to the cable car for a neat excursion just outside the mall.   We didn't plan it that way but it worked out great.  

It's called "Ngong Ping 360".  It's a cable car ride across the bay and up over the very steep mountains above Lantau island.  We took the cable car and she rode it just fine.  Meanwhile, Zoe's mouth is nonstop, she jaws about the incredible scenery with her classic, "oh my God" and the chinese family with us in the cable car, laughed and repeated her phrase "oh my God", just like Helen our Guangzhou guide did for the last 10 days.  

When we got off the cable car, we walked through Ngong Ping Village, the souvenir shops, and on to the Tian Tan Buddha, supposedly the largest free standing buddha in the world.  Both girls got cotton candy walking back through the village.  Yes they had cotton candy.  

Back at the hotel, we got Zoe her McDonalds and Haifeng got wonton soup from room service.  I had a nice hour run around the bay by the hotel.  

Tonight we'll make one more trip into the outlet mall.  We are ecstatic our "guideless time" in Hong Kong has went off so well.  Hong Kong is such a neat, international city.  We had for tv the BBC, France24, russian, chinese, portuguese, espn asia, just about everything.  There were hong kong school kids in plad skirts, perhaps residual evidence of the British system. 

Tomorrow we endure the long flight to Detroit, then the more reasonable flight to Jacksonville.  

We'll get pictures posted in the next few days.  We have plenty.