So...Hong Kong. It was fantastic! I never in a million years thought I would set foot in Japan...well, I never in a million and ONE years thought I would set foot in Hong Kong. (I wonder what country a million and two years will bring me to?!?!)
The flights from Okinawa to Hong Kong were short and pleasant. We flew China Airlines (not Chinese as we first thought, but a Taiwanese airline) from Naha (Okinawa)-Taipei-Hong Kong. Each leg of our flight was about an hour and 20 minutes-nice and easy! And...we got food, meals!!- on each flight! Amazing!
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| In the Taipei airport during our layover. |
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| This way to customs! Woo-hoo, we're in Hong Kong! |
We laughed at the "American" things we saw-things we hadn't seen in quite awhile...7Eleven, Circle K and others that we see on base/locally in Oki-Subway, Burger King, Starbucks...
(Although, interesting enough, upon googling, it turns out that 7Eleven is a Japanese company...who knew?!?! We don't have them in Oki however. )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven
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| Haven't seen a 7Eleven since we lived in the States... |
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| Our happy travelers....the boys love seeing new things! |
We opted to take a bus-and while more expensive than the train, it was an nice option-we got to ride in a comfy tour-bus seat and take in some of the city while making our way to the hotel.
We were amazed...we thought Okinawa was rather urban-Hong Kong was urban on steroids! The sheer number of skyscrapers (admittedly missing from Oki) was staggering...building after high rise building of offices and apartments. Traffic was pretty crazy- people obeyed the traffic lights and signals, but it was utterly crowded and if the light turned green-you'd better not be in the crosswalk! It reminded me of the traffic in Rome-though there were actual crosswalks with lights.
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| Car, people and signs everywhere! |
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| This is actually nothing for skyscrapers... |
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| so tall, I couldn't see the top out the window of the bus! |
Our hotel was a very pleasant surprise! Although we were hoping it would be nice, you never know how it really is until you get there. Online reviews were mostly positive (and the bad ones were for stupid things, like the staff not smiling enough at check-in) but still....it's a bit of a risk. Luckily, we picked a very nice hotel-and would stay there again in a heartbeat! We stayed on the premier level, which meant our own check-in desk, lounge with free cocktails (!) and afternoon snacks-and the best part-a delicious, FREE, buffet breakfast. We filled up so much at breakfast every day that we rarely had to buy lunch-even for the kids! I have never seen them eat so much at one sitting!
Our hotel was right off of Nathan Road-a big tourist area loaded with markets, shops, and best of all, very close to the MTR (subway)-meaning easy access to all the sights. Travel around Hong Kong is best done by subway-it's quick, fairly cheap, and convenient to most of the things we wanted to see.
Our first night, after checking in and sampling a few of the free apptizers, we decided to head out and just check out the area. I loaded Kieran into the Ergo (our baby carrier), put some water bottles for us in the backpack-Jason wore that- grabbed Brendan's hand and off we went! The Temple Street Market was literally a couple of blocks away, so we headed that way just to see what it was all about. That reminded me a bit of being in Mexico-lots of stalls selling all sorts of things, from jewelry to clothing to toys to electronics-and everyone haggling over prices, salesmen trying to get you to stop and look, restaurants becokning you to sit at their tables....it was somewhat of a madhouse-and I loved it! We got a donor kebob to eat while we walked-okay, so yes, we traveled to Hong Kong and our first meal was a Turkish one-and just took in the sights. After a short stint at the market, we headed back to the hotel to get to sleep-we had big plans for our first full day!
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