Travel "Hump Day"

Today we hit a travel wall. As with most "hump days" things just didn't go the way they were planned. First,we planned on visiting a few local malls to partake in the a favorite past time of Hk'ers, shopping. Unfortunately, it was Sunday morning. And while the mall common space was open, none of the stores were. The one bonus in the situation was that one of the closed malls had a Batman exhibition on, and we got to see both the modern and retro Batmobiles up close. We snapped some pics and moved onto the next item on our list, the mid-level escalators. 

Built by the British to improve the traffic flow of workers, down the hill from the residential to commercial areas the escalators span almost a kilometre. At 800 metres long, the building of the escalators ran 300% over budget. It also failed to improve traffic flow, as people still preferred to drive their car to work, as a illustration of their status and success. The escalators run downhill in the morning, and uphill in the afternoon and evenings. We arrived at the escalators in the morning- which meant we had to climb the steps up, to take the escalators down. And it was +30. And it was raining. And it was like 100% humidity. Blergh.

After this early morning sweat session, we decided to head to the nearest air conditioned Starbucks to regroup and replan the rest of the day. As we made our way to the Starbucks we noticed quite a lot of women randomly sitting in the streets, overpasses, and common spaces. They were sitting on cardboard, and had spread cardboard out to "mark more territory". We knew that the many Phillipino and Indonesian maids of HK had Sunday as their day off- so we put two and two together. It turns out that HK is home to over 300 000 foreign housekeepers. Many of the maids are not allowed to stay in their employers house during their day off, so they take to the streets for the day, where they give each other pedicures, gossip, play games, and call home to their families. Sitting on the streets means they are exposed to the heat, so some of the large skyscrapers open their lobbies (and air conditioning) to the maids. We unintentionally stumbled into one of these lobbies just before it opened, and it was CHAOS!! Hundreds of women, all lugging flats of cardboard, and over sized duffel bags. It had the feeling of Boxing Day chaos, and look of evacuating refugees! We dashed down a nearby subway entrance, and saw waves of women pouring off the subways, up to the streets. 

Our next plan was to take the subway, and head out to the Big Buddha. When we arrived, we realized we had to walk through an outlet mall to get to the cable car base that would take is up to the Big Buddha. I wandered into a few stores like Coach, Kate Spade. But found the sale items quiet picked over, so we continued on to the cable car. 

Here's were we learned a bit more about working life in HK. Many HK'ers work half days on Saturday, so Sunday is the only full day off with their families. And it's the only  day they have to travel, to places like the Big Buddha. This meant that the line to get into buy tickets was about 35 minutes long, and line to get onto the cable car was about the same. The 5.7 km journey up to the Buddha by Cable car was well worth it though. Once we arrived at the top we saw two things that beckoned us: the Buddha and a Subway. We ducked into the Subway for a little taste of home. We viewed the Buddha, and strolled into some souvenir shops. It might've been the Big Buddha, or the little Buddhas and Zen music in the gift shops, or even the familiar taste of home from Subway, but it didn't take long for our stress to melt away. The crowds and heat disappeared for a few moments and we stopped to marvel, and be thankful for where we were. A few drops of rain started to fall, so we headed towards the cable car down, which had virtually no line. I guess when you are peaceful, you attract peaceful. 

We returned to the hotel to shower, nap, and eventually head out to the waterfront to watch the Symphony of Lights. 

 

I would argue that the light show in my kitchen at home is more impressive, but I did get the chance to see an authentic Junk boat up close, and the view of the HK skyline is always impressive, light show or not. 

Tomorrow is our last day in HK- and forebetter or worse, we're headed into Disney. 

Hong Kong Island

We decided to book a half day tour into HK Island. We are usually pretty independent travellers, but opted for a bus tour this morning just to try it out. Given our short visit here, we thought an organized bus tour might pack more sights into one day. First stop was the Peak tram, the world's steepest funicular, up to Victoria Peak. The view from the top was beautiful! Plus the height gave us a lovely breeze, a welcome break from the stifling heat of the city. 

This is the funicular we rode to the peak.

These are the many escalators that carried us up to the Sky Terrace.

A view of some of the 7700+ skyscrapers in Hong Kong.

We left our mark at the peak!

While the views at the peak where spectacular, we weren't expecting the mall that was there! We found a great little store the sold DC comic themed items. We managed to find a souvenir t-shirt for one lucky nephew! 

Up next we visited the Aberdeen Fishing Village. While it wasn't what I was expected- it was very enlightening. We got a chance to ride a sampan, and see the famous Jumbo floating restaurant.

It was shocking to see the contrast between the simple fishing vessels, and and the million dollar yachts that where docked virtually side by side. Another contrast was the amount of garbage we saw floating in the water, at one point I saw a local walk up to the water and toss a pop can in. But, a few minutes later we also saw a fishing boat, rigged with a cage on the front that was designed to scoop up the floating garbage. 

We had a "tour" of a jewellery factory, which turned our to be the jewelry equivalent of a time share, sort of disappointing. We have noticed a plethora of jewelry shops all over HK- each manned with at least 10 salespeople. It turns out that jewellery is a popular item to purchase while in HK, as there is no sales tax here. During the factory tour we noticed a lovely peridot ring, and salesperson has quick to convert the price to Canadian dollars for us, only $2100! Lol, not happening! We smiled, said no thank you, and went to collect our "free" beverage from the mini bar.

We once again boarded the bus, and headed up to Stanley Market, which seemed to be a beach front market area. On the way up we passed multi million dollar properties, a ferari dealership, and a million dollar McLaren car parked haphazardly on the side walk. Our tour guide pointed out one particular house that was owned by a very rich local man. She stated that 4 out of every 10 dollars spent in HK went into this man's pocket. That is a striking contrast to the lifestyle of our tour guide who lives outside the island in the new territories. She travels over an hour to work each day, and lives in a 600 square foot apartment with her parents and brother. The apartment is valued at $250 000 USD. She knows she will never "own" her own home. 

We arrived at the Stanley Market, and it was here that I felt the full force of the heat in HK. For the last couple of days it's been hot, but not particularly sunny. When we reached Stanely, the sun was out, and it was beyond broiling! We bought some cold drinks, and a can of Pringles, and camped out in the shade until it was time to leave. 

We got back to the hotel by mid afternoon, and settled in for a nap. Our plan was to get up for around 5pm to have dinner, and then catch the Subway out to the pier to watch the light show. But, once agin we slept though the night. It's almost our third full day in HK, and we haven't been awake to eat dinner yet! Thank goodness our hotel has a fabulous breakfast buffet- it's the only meal we've eaten consistently since we arrived! Up tomorrow? Another trip to HK island to do some shopping! Outlet mall- here I come!

Travel "Pro"

We arrived in Hong Kong at 10:30pm on Thursday, July 10. I find it hard to sleep on planes so needless to say I was quite delusional by the time we arrived in Hong Kong. The bus ride in give us a great tour of both Hong Kong Island (all lit up) and the seaports and the docks. Liam and I had never been in a city that was so tall and so vast, and we've been in both London and Paris. The difference is both London and Paris have building height restrictions Hong Kong clearly did not- the buildings just got taller and taller and taller.    

After a much-needed nights rest we headed out into Hong Kong to see the city during to day. What we didn't realize that Hong Kong is a night city and stays open quite late. This means it doesn't open in the morning till about 10 or 11 o'clock. We walked along the pier to take a look at the skyline during the daylight. 

We also wandered down the Avenue of Stars, which saluted many famous Chinese actors and actresses. 

It was during this early morning exclusion, where I was often trailing behind my husband, that I realized my husband has an "unique" talent- he sweats in unusual patterns. What do you see when you look into this sweat blot?

Although it was 9:30am- it was "too early" to do much around town, so we headed back to the hotel for a bit. I decided to have a quick nap and then woke up eight hours later so I guess I was tired or still on Winnipeg time. Waking up at 6:30 PM meant that we had lots of time to wander of into the city and watch the night markets start up.

It was at the night market that we started to experience our first "TravelPro" moments; the heat (drops down to a balmy  30°C at night) the crowds, the buildings and the traffic- Yowza!! Two of our more memorable stops included sneaker street- an entire two blocks devoted to sneakers of any style size and color- 

And of course the Starbucks where we indulged in strawberry cheesecake Frapuccinos, yum! 

After spending two hours exploring the night markets we headed back to the hotel to have our second showers of the day - gotta love that heat!

Up tomorrow- an organized tour to Hong Kong Island to ride the Peak Tram, see the sky Terrace, a "fishing" village and the Stanley market. 

Travel Lite

We flew out of Calgary in the wee hours (6 am) of July 9th. Our flight to Seattle took abou 2 hours, but we had an 8 hour layover before boarding our next flight (to Japan). We decided to take advantage of the layover, and take the train into Seattle to see the sights. First stop- finding some Starbucks of course! With latte in hand, we took the monorail out to see the Seattle space needle.  Both the monorail and the Space needle were built for the 1962 World's Fair.  As such the monorail is beautiful little piece of mid century design. 

Clearly I'm very excited to be in Seattle, or on a monorail, or drinking a Starbucks.

Seattle is a very beatiful, lush, green city- this photo doesn't accurately describe it. At the bottom of the needle there is a amazing glass museum, but our early flight in meant it hadn't opened yet. So we headed on and put it on our "come back and visit list". 

Next up was the famous Seattle fishmarket Pikes Place- and apparent home of the first ever Starbucks. But we didn't know that so we didn't stop there, can you believe it?! The fishmarket had a variety of smells: fresh seafood, fresh flowers, and  fresh baking. 

We did a quick tour of the fishmarket, bought some giant cookies and headed back on the train to the airport. By the time we boarded our flight to Japan we'd been awake 13 hours and still had a 10-hour flight ahead of us, followed by a 4 hour plane ride to China. All in all, we weren't even halfway through a 30 hour travel day. Liam and I joked that our stops in both Calgary and Seattle were on the "travel lite" side of our journey. Hong Kong, however, was what we were anticipating to be "travel pro" territory.

P.S. Here is a photo my husband made me post. It showcases the exquisite amount of legroom we were afforded on a simple $43 dollar plane fare. You are welcome Muffy.

Here we go again!

So, Delta had a computer error. And we ended up buying tickets to Hong Kong for cheap. Real cheap. Like $43 dollars cheap. Our flight departed out of Calgary, so Liam and I left Winnipeg on Sunday, July 6th, and headed to Regina. After a quick, overnight, visit with family drove on to Calgary. We thought that maybe we'd stop in Medicine Hat for the evening of the 7th, but instead continued forward to Calgary. Little did we know that thousands of our closest cowboy friends were headed to Cow-town too! Yahoo- the Calgary Stempede had rolled into town just ahead of us! 

It took a little searching, but the lovely girl at the Info centre helped us located an available (and just slightly overpriced) hotel room. 

We took at tour of the Calgary Tower- and stood in the glass room, suspended high above the busy streets of downtown Clagary. Very scary! My brain couldn't compute why I'd want to do such an unsafe thing! As long as I looked out, I was fine. But looking down? Eeeek! 

After a short walking tour of downtown, we headed to the hotel to crash.

The following morning, July 8th, we headed out to the Calgary Zoo. But was waylaid by a quick stop at the home of the Canadian Pickers, Double S Antiques and collectables:

At the Zoo we saw penguins, hippos, giraffes and more.

When we stepped into the humid and hot butterfly sanctuary, we joked that we were training for the upcoming onslaught on heat in HK. And sadly it didn't take long for Liam to brew up a sweaty forehead, while I sprouted a very unlady-like sweat-stache. 

In typical McLauchlan travel fashion we jetted through the zoo in less than 2 hours (did I mention we "did" DisneyWorld in 2 days?) on the way out we snapped this pick of Liam doing his best Grishna impersonation:

For lunch we visited Jelly Modern Doughnut- winner of "The Donut Showdown"! I had an egg salad sandwich on a doughnut- a delish balance on doughnut fluffiness and egg salad creaminess. 

And finished up with an beautiful Coconut donut. Much like my sandwich it was fluffy and creamy and yummy! 

As per usual, I posted Instagram photos of our experiences. I often push myInstagram  photos over to my Twitter feed. Within minutes of posting both our Calagary Zoo and Jelly Modern doughnut photos, I had responses and re- tweets from both the Zoo and Jelly! #thatweirdmomentwhenyourvacationrespondsback 

**Update- just got a RT from Calgrary Tower too! 

With lunch in our bellies we decided to check into our next hotel, located closer to the airport to rest and relax. Our flight to HK leaves at 4 am on July 9 - with an eight hour layover in Seattle, and a shorter layover in Tokyo. All in all we have a 30 hour travel day ahead of us!! Post again once we are in HK!