April 5th through the 13th I went to Hong Kong!!!! I only decided to go about a week and a half before I was going to go.. and I didn’t have a passport (and my ticket was cheaper than my Dad’s ticket).
The Adventure of getting my passport… Friday March 30th I drove (at 4:00am) to the San Francisco (a 4 hour drive!) passport office. I had an appointment at 10:00am (which it turned out didn’t really matter). When I arrived in San Francisco (2 hours early) I went to Starbucks for MORE coffee and some breakfast and to wait for my appointment. I went to my appointment and had to wait for an hour in line to get a NUMBER to be seen by a passport agent, it was like Disneyland without the fun ride at the end. Then I had to sit and wait (like at the DMV) for my number to be called which was another half an hour. Once all my documentation was verified I asked the person helping me if she could overnight it to me so I could have it by Monday.. she said “you don’t want to pick it up today?” I was SHOCKED!! you can get a passport in one day?!? yes you can if you are traveling in less than 2 weeks (and you have proof) :D I had to wait around San Francisco until 3:00pm (luckily I got the early bird special in the garage I parked at and it was $20 all day to park there instead of 2.50 every 15 minutes). I ended up spending the day at the mall. When I went to pick up my passport I waited in another LONG line (this one did move faster than the first line) but they didn’t start handing out the passports until 3:15 or 3:20… On the way home I hit EVERY single city’s rush hour traffic :( and I got home around 8:30pm.
April 5th (Thursday) I left for Hong Kong while Casey was nice enough to stay home and watch the puppies… One short flight to San Francisco (one hour) and one LONG flight (where they serve you 2 meals several drinks and a snack, 14 hours and 23 minutes, which was delayed) and I was in Hong Kong!! I arrived on April 6th at 6pm local time (which was April 6th at 3am US time). After going through immigration and getting my bag I had to wait for my Dad, brother, sister in law, and niece for about 10 minutes at the baggage claim and then we were good to go to our hotel!
We went to a light show buildings every night on both sides of the harbor participate. The buildings light up in tune to music.
We went to the Avenue of Stars (which is kind of like the Hollywood walk of stars)
We went to Fish Tail Rock which is a very famous rock (according to my dad)
This is in the park with fish tail rock
While in Hong Kong we visited Victoria’s Peak (we took a tram/trolley up to the top) It was amazing!
We met up with some family members for lunch (and Maia liked it so much she wanted to eat there again)
We went to ladies street and temple street where you negotiate prices on knock off EVERYTHING LOL (one vender told my dad (in Cantonese)) if I was there by myself she wouldn’t have given me a good deal on the stuff we bought but since they were Hong Kong people they have to take care of each other (I totally understood it all but didn’t say anything to her but did to my dad)
The Big Buddha on Lantau Island… we rode a glass bottom gondola up to the top it was fun!! (Maia didn’t feel well that day though)
some glass bottom gondola fun!
Smart dogs at the temple…
right before our 268 stairs began… and by far the hottest day of the trip so far lol…
surrounding Buddha
Temple
inside the temple
Pogo stick competition taking place in the village on the way to the Buddha
by the end of the trip Maia felt better (we dosed her drink and “gelato” with medication) but she is convinced Buddha made her better!
more gondola fun.. if not for glare this picture would have been perfect!!!
Ocean Park was so much fun!! they have Pandas and monkeys and rides (so it is a combo of Disneyland and Seaworld combined) We went to a dolphin show and saw jelly fish and the Chinese sturgeon.
SO HEAVY!!!!
So strong!!
Not as strong as Maia LOL
looked amazingly real!
While we were burning the money for him (to send it to him in the afterlife) Ben and Maia were walking up a path and a lady started yelling in Chinese not to go up that path because there are wild monkeys in the forest… There was a pond that had some frogs there too.
Hong Kong only tried to kill me once by feeding me mushrooms :) other than that it was great! we had a great time there!!! we rode the MTR every day and we went shopping a lot! It was amazing! We rode double decker buses a lot (Maia’s favorite) my advice… NEVER ride on the top up front of a double decker bus! All I could think about was Harry Potter… Getting used to Hong Kong’s time was easier than getting back to Reno time… some reason I can’t get used to going to sleep at normal time anymore..
The trip back on the plane was a trip too… the flight home was 12 hours and my second meal was either mushroom eggs or mushroom noodles. I had one hour to get to my plane to Reno… I had to get my checked bag which was one of the last bags off the plane, get through immigration, get through a second immigration (because I had food), recheck my bag, get through security, and run to my gate… I was scared I wasn’t going to make my flight! rechecking my bag was easy though and the guys got on their bullhorn told me good luck it was funny! The second flight from San Francisco was only 32 minutes..awesome!!
Until next time,
Jennie
Looks like fun! I'm glad you were able to go, my brother Jarod is going to China this summer to teach english, and I think he's going to Hong Kong, I'll have to tell him to get on your blog and look at the fun pictures:)
ReplyDeleteHong Kong is great! most people speak English, tell him to be prepared to get STARED at ALOT!!! but to have a lot of fun and to be prepared for the fast pace!
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