Are We There Yet?: Somebody Took Too Many Big Buddah Pictures

. . . among others. Hong Kong was wonderful: not love-at-first-sight wonderful, but a slow-revelation wonderful. It took me a couple of days, but I ended up not wanting to leave.

Our trip started with a random upgrade to first class. I never thought this would happen. I had hoped that maybe on our honeymoon or something like that, but no, we were always economy schmoes. We booked our tickets with Hong Kong Express Airways and had absolutely no expectations. I was just hoping for a real jet and not a prop. We checked in rather early on our departure day and sat in a comatose state in the waiting area. Our rows were called and we made our way to the man who would scan our boarding passes. Instead of running our tickets through the machine, he pulls us aside and places our tickets on the counter. I felt a moment of sheer panic. My heart dropped and my eyes opened wide. In half a second, every potentially horrible situation played in my head, when suddenly, I have two tickets in my hand again. The man smiled and said something that I didn't quite catch (I think my heart was beating too loudly for me to hear him : ) I said thank you and proceeded to make my way onto the plane. Denis and I stared at each other as we moved past that last checkpoint. We are pretty good at talking to one another with using words, so there was a lot of eye opening and pointing until one of us said the words out loud "do you think we were actually upgraded to first class?" And we were. Now this was not hard-core first class, but I am not picky. The seat was huge and cushion-y. I had an absurd amount of leg room. There was this fun console between our seats that I could lay my books and iPod on. I was happy.

I was even happier when we were delayed an hour and a half, and I spent that time reclining in my large chair (with NO ONE behind me--no kicking!), dozing sometimes, reading occasionally, looking at Denis and laughing at our good luck.

Once we got in the air, the ride was quite fast--just under two hours from Shanghai. Toward the end of the flight, out of the window I could see all of these rocky islands spotting the sun glittered sea. Again, I was a happy girl.

And then we landed. It was like landing into anti-Shanghai. Don't get me wrong. I love living in Shanghai, and plan to do so for at least two more years, but sometimes it just beats a person down. Hong Kong was so easy. English everywhere. No pushing, except for the mainlanders visiting. No spitting. No getting screamed at in Mandarin. And really great tasting Diet Coke.

We took the AirTrain to the station and then picked up a free shuttle bus that dropped us off directly in front of our hotel, which was amazing. The Harbor Plaza Metropolis was beautiful. After a short nap (literally about five minutes) Denis's aunt and uncle called our room and we went down to the lobby to talk with them. It was so nice to see family again. While we waited for Denis's mom and brother to arrive, we took a walk on the promenade outside of our hotel.

We were at a loss of what to do that night. I think we were still a little dazed from our 4:00AM wake-up. We started the evening with a Thai banquet--this was the first night of an absurd amount of food . . .

Denis's Aunt Fanny and Uncle Kenny

Denis doesn't like Thai that much. I think he was skeptical.

But he contributed heartily to wrecking the food

Denis and Ben

Still being at a loss of what to do, we happily agreed when Denis's aunt suggested that we go to the Peak. Unfortunately getting to the Peak was not an easy process. No cab wanted to take us there. I am still not quite sure why, but it was universal. Then we thought about taking the ferry, which was located near our hotel. The last one had already sailed--the gates were locked and the lights off. Hmmm. No buses were in the area. As I am writing this, it doesn't sound that bad, but it was comical while it was happening. We just kept walking around in (large) circles. Finally it was decided that we would take the hotel shuttle to the subway. Once we got to the station, figuring out where actually enter the subway was another debacle. Then Denis's mom's metro card wouldn't work, and she kept getting stuck in the turnstile. Once we were finally on the train, things started looking up for us. We got cabs from the subway stop to the Peak tram. The tram itself is actually a funicular--very fun with great views. It takes you up to the observation platform, which, of course, houses a mall.