Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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Wow!! that food looked amazing...ive always wanted to try out the clubhouse stuff they offer but I never thought that any of them would be as nice as yours was!!!! That is a really long flight...i hope you werent to jet lagged. I can't wait to hear about hong kong.....with never traveling much farther than mexico and the US....I am always excited to hear about others adventures!!
Hey, just curious - are you planning on writing a trip report on Berlin, too? If so, I better choose my wardrobe carefully, huh? Considering how many pictures you guys tend to take Can't wait to meet up with you!
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No wonder the upper class tickets are so expensive! The lounge looked grander than many of the hotels I've seen. Glad you were able to spend some time there. Looking forward to the next installment.
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Sharon - Kitty and me
2013 Scrapbook pages count: 631 / 350
2014 Scrapbook pages count: 60 / 250
Hey, just curious - are you planning on writing a trip report on Berlin, too? If so, I better choose my wardrobe carefully, huh? Considering how many pictures you guys tend to take Can't wait to meet up with you!
I am planning on doing a TR for Berlin and of course I'll be sharing photos of our PP meet there.
Friday 15 February – part one: touchdown in Hong Kong – the next day!
We were served breakfast, but it wasn’t anything special. I had a vegetarian omelette, which just wasn’t nice and the cereal and yoghurt wasn’t much better either. Still, at least there was some fruit with it, so I wasn’t going to starve.
However, I did overheat, a problem I don’t usually have on planes. Usually I’m cold. A quick walk around and I was fine. A word here about the seats. We were on one of Virgin Atlantic’s new Airbus planes and they come with bigger and more comfortable seats in Premium Economy, a very nice improvement. Let’s hope that in the future we get on these new planes with the bigger seats.
Enjoying the space! The view up the rest of Premium Economy Our entertainment screens
Although I thought that it would be a bit of pain not to have a window seat and being near the toilets, it wasn’t too bad at all for me, although I know that Mark, who was seating on the aisle, right by the toilets, wasn’t too keen on it, as people going to the restrooms regularly woke him up. At least there was no-one behind us kicking our seats, so that was one thing in favour for those seats.
We landed at around 5.40 Hong Kong time and were quickly off the plane and into the airport. It’s brand new, having only been opened a couple of years earlier and it’s a stunning place. The architecture is beautiful and they really did put every amenity in here. Mark later looked at a model of the airport and there’s even a cinema here!
Some of the views from the main terminal
We took the train service to the main terminal, where we quickly cleared immigration. They seemed to have a good system in place and you didn’t have to wait very long. When you got to the front of the line, they direct you to which person to go to. Much better than the free for all you get when you land at Orlando. Once through, we only waited a couple of minutes for our cases and then it was off to our ground transfers. Because we don’t usually book a package, this is something I’m not used to and after a false start, we found the right place to check in and were then directed to an area to wait for someone to come and take us to the bus. Well, he took us to where the bus would arrive and then we had another couple of minutes to wait. Fair play though, we were on the bus and off from the airport less than an hour after getting off the plane, which I thought was pretty impressive.
We moved along quickly enough for the first half hour or so and then we hit what I guess was the tail end of the rush hour in Hong Kong and just crawled along. Still, it gave us the opportunity to see the scenery and from what we could see, it looked like a stunning city at night, very much like New York with all the neon signs everywhere.
We were lucky and were the first ones to be dropped off at our hotel. I couldn’t believe that, it never usually happens to us like that. It looked like a nice enough place with a beautiful lobby.
We checked in and had a minor scare when I was convinced that I had lost the passports. The girl told me that she had given them back to me, but I couldn’t find them anywhere in my bag. At last I found them in another compartment. Close call.
We were on the twelfth floor in an upgraded room (that was part of the deal with our vacation, if there was an upgraded room available, we would get one) and nice as it was, it reminded us of the hotel we stayed in in New York, in that the room was tiny and the bathroom can definitely only have one person in it at one time and there were a few facilities missing. While it was nice to have tea and coffee making facilities, I would have preferred to have a clock of some kind as well. There was nothing like that, which was a bit weird. Even weirder was the view outside. We seemed o be completely surrounded by apartment blocks and I mean surrounded. They really do cram them in here. It’s not the sort of thing I’d like to live in. : You’ll see photos of the view in daylight in the next few instalments, but here’s what the room looked like:
We were both getting hungry, so we decided to go and get dinner at the Garden Café on the first floor, as they had a buffet there. We didn’t really know what to expect, but what you get is cuisine from all over the world, mainly Japan, China and America, but also some French and Italian dishes. It was a bit surreal to find shrimp fettucine for example. Still, it was all very nice and I tried a few unusual dishes, most of which were fine, although one or two weren’t me, but you find out by trying things. The bill came to HK$690 (about £42) for the two of us, which for the quality and range of food on offer, wasn’t bad at all.
We headed back to the room and went straight to bed, not so much because we were tired, but more because the room was freezing and it was the only way to warm up!
Today we walked 3.31 miles. The weather today was in the mid 50’s and dry. The best thing today was arriving in Hong Kong. The worst thing today was the traffic on the way from the airport. Today we tried travelling to Hong Kong And the result was it was a pleasant flight, but very surreal to arrive in the evening, after having left the evening before. The most magical moment today was seeing the Hong Kong skyline at night.
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Bet you're glad you went for that option 
Now that's traveling in style 
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Even weirder was the view outside. We seemed o be completely surrounded by apartment blocks and I mean surrounded. They really do cram them in here. It’s not the sort of thing I’d like to live in. 
: You’ll see photos of the view in daylight in the next few instalments, but here’s what the room looked like: 
Still, it was all very nice and I tried a few unusual dishes, most of which were fine, although one or two weren’t me, but you find out by trying things. The bill came to HK$690 (about £42) for the two of us, which for the quality and range of food on offer, wasn’t bad at all. 
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