Hong Kong

Day 1, 7 Jul 2006
On our way! Flight to LA is at 7:15 AM, so of course Darlene made us get up at 3:00 and drive to the airport. She didn’t want to miss our flight…no chance that’s going to happen.

Now in L.A. waiting for our connecting flight on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Our plane is a new 747. We leave at 1:00 PM and get there by 7:00 PM, yet because we are chasing the time zones it really is about a 13-hour flight.

(Note from Darlene: We are sitting in the VIP lounge thanks to Keith’s frequent business flying…we are really racking up the mile’s on this trip! They have free food and drink in here…. I personally didn’t even know these existed! I told Keith that VIP stands for “Very Important Parents!” We exchanged $150 dollars for $1000 Hong Kong dollars while still in L.A.)

The flight from LA to Hong Kong was a LONG flight. The Cathay Pacific 747 had little TV screens on the back of each seat. I think I went through every movie they had, but after in those cramped seats without room to stretch out, Hong Kong was a welcome site to see. Landed at 7:00pm and was hit with a wave of hot humid air. Went through Immigration and Customs w/o a hitch. Bought tickets and took the Airport Express train to Kowloon station, then a shuttle bus to one of the Marco Polo hotels. I was glad we already had Hong Kong money, (Thanks Roberto for the advice) that saved us some time and effort. It did not go all the way to our Marco Polo Hong Kong hotel, so we went to the closest one then had to hoof it with our entire luggage. Darlene was not amused. While stopping to wipe the sweat off and search a map for where the heck we were, we found we were right in front of it. Checked in were told we were a day late. Seems we had lost a day in the time zone change. Finished checking in then walked down the busy, neon lit Hong Kong streets and found a 7-eleven to load up on bottled water.

(Note from Darlene: As Keith pointed out, I was not amused with walking the 5 blocks to the Marco Polo Hong Kong hotel in the sweltering heat. I did notice that there is no handicap access on the sidewalks so we had to pull the luggage up onto them every time we crossed a road. Also, downtown Hong Kong on a Saturday is bustling with lot’s of people of all ages and lot’s of bright lights…kind of what I would suspect a New York night might look like on a busy weekend night. We send all of our love to our family and friend’s back home.)

We'll add photo's ASAP. :o)