Hong Kong Hotels
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Hong Kong Island and Bad Weather
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5-21-07 Hong Kong Island and more bad weather
Jose: This morning we woke up bright early at noon. The alarm was set for 8am, however, somehow it never went off. I tossed and turned all morning thinking it was the middle of the night since we have no windows and thus no daylight enters our room. It kind of reminds me of cruise ship cabins. Anyways, we were awakened by the banging on our door and even though we said "hello?" and "don't come in!", they proceeded to open the door.... Luckily I slammed the door closed before it opened and once I got dressed and opened the door, the owner/receptionist (whatever she was ), just said sorry as if everything was normal. So that's when we figured out it was noon...and not 2 or 3 in the morning as we'd expected. We got dressed and ready for the day and excited to visit Hong Kong island to do some sightseeing of the surrounding areas. That plan was thwarted the moment we exited our building. The rain was INTENSE and unending. The sky was black with clouds. So we decided to run for cover and pick up some lunch to see if we could wait out the rain. We headed over to the local Pizza Hut, which looked like anything but a Pizza Hut at home. It was a really nice, upscale restaurant serving all sorts of gourmet-type dishes and the only sign of pizza was on the last page of the menu. They only had three different types of pizza toppings! What kind of Pizza Hut is this, we thought. So we ordered to of their lunch special dishes and Andrea ordered the most difficult drink known to man - Chinese milk tea. Yes, the local, and I mean LOCAL, iced milk tea. It took 3 waiters and a good half an hour before Andrea received her iced milk tea. They brought over HOT milk tea, twice, and one iced lemon tea. I had already been served my entrée, soup, and drink, before she received her drink. She was not happy.
In the end, the food was good, the service on the other hand was rather questionable. This just goes to show that 16 year olds just do not make good waiters. Our waiter in particular was running around like a chicken without a head and he only had three tables to deal with. He would FREAK OUT over any question or request and would instantly go ask another waiter before proceeding. He spent most of his time running around the restaurant carrying dishes into the kitchen and looking very lost. We almost started to feel bad for him by the end of it. After lunch, we headed to the surface (the restaurant was underground) only to find the rain had gotten even worse. It was unwalkable outsidc. And of course, we had forgotten out trusty ponchos in the other backpack....
Oops. So we decided to head over back to the Ladies Market to see if the shopkeepers were more willing to bargain given the heavy rain. No such luck. They were still complete jerks. I did buy three long sleeved shirts, two Nautica's and one Boss, only to discover as soon as I got home that the Nautica shirts had a stick on label over the tag. They were in fact Boss shirts. My favorite part though was that when I opened the shirt completely up, the pocket had "boss" embroidered on it. So I had a Nautica tag, Boss pocket shirt. Interesting, huh??? After dealing with the unreasonable shopkeepers, we headed home because it was the only place we wouldn't be pestered to buy "copy" anything. We watched "Reservoir Dogs" on DVD on the laptop and took a much needed nap. Later we decided to brave the rain and visit Hong Kong Island. There is supposed to be a great light show at 8pm, and there is a tram that takes you to a huge Peak on the island where you can overlook all of Hong Kong. So we took the Star Ferry over to the Island. The Star Ferry company has been operating since the 1800's. The fare to the other side was only about $0.25 cents US. I have no idea how that company makes any money!
Anyways, once on the island, we quickly found out this is the business side of Hong Kong. Almost everyone was in suits and there wasn't much else other than high rise buildings and a couple of high end malls inside the high rises. We made our way to the tram (still raining), and once we got to the top, we could see NOTHING. See pictures attached. We were in the middle of a huge cloud and as soon as we stepped outside to overlook the beautiful Victoria Harbor, we were drenched in humidity. It was almost like walking into a mist machine. So it only took us about 20 seconds to decide to head back down to the Harbor. We had about 20 minutes before the light show, and we figured the Harbor would be the best place to enjoy the show, since we couldn't see any lights of ANY building from the peak. Promptly at 8pm, a few buildings started flashing some lights and we quickly realized it was the saddest excuse for a light show we've ever seen. That was the hallmark of our Hong Kong experience.
Anyways, after another ferry ride back over to Kowloon, and some tasty and cheap McDonalds for dinner, we found an internet café and spent the evening surfing and talking on the web. We're sure that Hong Kong must be a little more fun when it is sunny outside, but given the circumstances, we are ready to move on to Thailand. Love, Jose and Andrea More thumbnails ...
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