Day 1 - the flight. Neither of us are exactly sure what everybody is talking about Cathay Pacific being a cut above the rest. The service staff could be rather abrupt at times. The seats weren't any more comfortable than Westjet. We had a special meal plan, so it was nice to have our meals delivered to us in advance of everybody else. We were in row 69, but get your head out of the gutter, that did not lead to any kind of special clubs, particularly the mile high club! The flight was VERY long. I'm so glad we decided to take a layover in Hong Kong. I'm even more concerned about the 40 hours of travel ahead of us for our journey home. But, let's not think about that now. We were both so exhausted, I think that contributed to our inability to sleep. Two adavan, and a sleeping pill led to very little sleep for me, while Cam had the intermittent bit of sleep waking to his own snore/snort! Half way through the trip, my back was killing me, I took a Robax, and finally got a few bits of sleep. Arriving in Hong Kong, we both looked back and thought, "that flight wasn't so bad", but I think that was us just trying to be positive and looking forward to the journey ahead.
It was neat to be greeted at the airport by Alan (we won't hold the name against him), with a sign saying Mr. Holland and Mr. Nygard. He quickly set us up with an airport shuttle service to take us to our hotel, The Cosmo Hotel, and explained that he would pick us up from the lobby the following morning at 8:40 for our Hong Kong tour. We quickly checked into the hotel. However, our early arrival request was unavailable, it was 10am, and we had to wait until 2pm to check in. Fortunately, the hotel has a free shuttle to 15 locations in the city, including Times Square, yes, I said Times Square. We'll upload photos later. It was much like a mini Times Square in New York. Essentially it was a 9 story shopping mall full of American stores. It never ceases to amaze me how hard it is to escape the American influence. We might as well have been in New York, except the average height of most of the shoppers was 5'2, so yes, Cam felt like a giant! (Tee hee). We really weren't in the mood to shop, not to mention have no space in our luggage, so we quickly browsed around, then wanted to find somewhere to eat. Nothing was open so we ended up at McDonalds - sad I know. We had an egg mcmuffin with no bun, and no cheese! Blah! Not much else to do here so we made our way back to the hotel by foot. Cam never doubts my directional capabilities, even in a foreign land, surrounded by sky scrapers. We were back at our hotel in no time. It was only about noon, so I'm sure you can guess what we did...yup, wine on a patio! 4 glasses later, we were safe to check in. It's tiny, but cute! And, they have a free breakfast, and a free coffee bar...pic attached. (Yes, I look terrible...I still haven't slept much!)
We rested for a bit, and then headed over to Kowloon. What a adventure that was. They completely bombard you to shop for suits, and shirts, and ties, and something for your wife. Just 5 minutes sir, you will love me. Okay, that was cool for the first 5 seconds and then became beyond annoying. So annoying that we needed to find a break to get away from it, so you guessed it, more wine! We ducked into an Irish bar for some chicken wings (toasted Mike), and a couple glasses of wine. Then headed back out into the wilderness of Kowloon! We were waiting for our dinner reservations at a funky Italian place on the 29th floor of a building that was sure to give us a perfect view of the cityscape of Hong Kong and their nightly laser show. WOW! The view was spectacular! Absolute magnificent! (Will try to post pic later). We had a very long meal over three hours, and enjoyed the magical laser show at 8pm. It was a perfect first meal to the beginning of our amazing holiday! We made our way home by underground transit (something I'm sure would have freaked you out Candy...much more adventurous than our New York transit experience). It was a piece of cake. And, it always makes us feel so neat to make our way around a city like one of the locals, even if we do stand out like a sore thumb. It was a fabulous evening! We came home, had a quick sip of wine, and curled up to sleep by 9:30 pm. Woke up this morning, enjoyed our free breakfast buffet, and now just waiting on the 5th floor patio, updating our blog and checking out what's ahead of us today. We're doing a half day tour of Hong Kong and the peak with Alan today. Can't wait to see what the day will bring!
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