The Vertical City

What a whirlwind the last two and a half days have been! Left SFO Thursday for a 16 hour flight and landed in HKG Friday night. (Lost a day somewhere in that) Said see you on Monday to Sakai, who was going home to unpack his winter gear after being with us in the USA for three weeks, do laundry and repack for warmer climates. 

Once we cleared customs and got our luggage, we were met by a friend from high school who was relocated there 8 years ago for work. Ken and Erika took us by train to our hotel downtown, even though they live the opposite direction. They were prepared with a local cell phone for us to use and MTR (the train system) cards WITH money on them! Who does that?? Seriously, the warmest welcome from a friend I haven’t seen in 30 years! We were trying to remember their instructions for the morning. I remember hoping Marc was getting it all. All I heard was Whamp whamp whamp (think the teacher in Peanuts cartoons). They said good night right after we checked in and said they’d see us in the morning. They had the next two days planned out for us to see their city with their family. Ken is a pilot for FedEx and arranged his schedule so that he could be in town for when we were here. Again, WHO DOES THAT? So appreciative we were!! 

After we checked in and got up to our room on the 30th floor, we realized we had a corner room that overlooked the entire Harbor. SCORE! We went downstairs to grab a bite to eat. We were so tired, that I couldn’t even tell you what we had. Went up to sleep, which we couldn’t. I think we finally fell asleep around 4 am? But I don’t know if it was 4 am where we were or back home. When we saw daylight, Ari pushed the buttons to open the drapes, and we were amazed by the view. Just amazed! 

Took the train to Ken and Erika’s out in Discovery Bay. Met their three beautiful daughters, their dog Buster, and their Nanny Bernadette. Then we walked down to the ferry and caught up on all the gossip over the past 30 years….took a ferry to a neighboring fishing village Peng Chau for some delicious local Dim Sum. Not a tourist in sight. Walked around the tiny island, and then caught another ferry back to Hong Kong. Then we walked all over the city. And when I say all over, I mean alllllll over. Took a bus up to Victoria Peak- the highest peak in HKG, were amazed by the views. Had many a bathroom stop. OMG, those cues were so long. In fact, there were cues everywhere we went. You’ve never seen so many people. Being Chinese New Year meant even more people in HKG. The line to take the tram down was over an hour so we decided to walk. What? More walking? Hadn’t we done enough already the kids were asking. We told them that it was all downhill, and we were going to a Whiskey Bar when we got to the bottom. The kids were not happy. They just couldn’t appreciate our motivation to get to the bottom. Add in darkness AND now it was raining. No one was prepared for the weather. But we laughed and made our way down the slippery road to the bottom of the escalators. Which, btw, only go up…we heard all about these escalators and all we got were stairs…
Warmed up with some really good whiskey and kobe burgers and walked even more back to the train to take us back to our hotel. We walked 22,000+ steps!!! I couldn’t believe what a trooper Ari was all day. He maybe got 6 hours of sleep in 48 hours and he just pushed forward. I hope he continues to push forward for the rest of the trip!! 
Sunday morning we were sent instructions to our burner phone on how to meet up with the Dubinskys again. We were becoming pros on the MTR. We were off to Kowloon. To Fuk Wing and Fuk Wah. The sights, the sounds, the smells….Trying to take it all in. It was electric. Your senses were on fire. We just love this city. Walked all over Kowloon, the markets, the anime shops, everywhere. And along the way, our friends surprised us with treats iconic to HKG; egg custard pastries and fresh mango in glutenous rice buns. Delish! Went to the Ladies Market, where you can find all the Kata Espada (Kate Spade) and LW (Louis Vuitton) knock offs. Apparently, the hottest thing to buy are those rings for the back of your cell phone. They were everywhere. Along with all the other things you could buy. Each stall trying to get you to buy from them. We took it all in, ending the day taking the Star Ferry back to HKG. Still amazed they gave us their entire weekend! So fun being together. The kids had a blast! Ari is going to miss Jordyn, Ava, and Addison! He is already asking when we can go back to HKG! 
We would definitely consider moving to Hong Kong for a few years. Let’s see if we can make that happen! It’s the most efficient and clean city. Expensive as hell, but so are Honolulu and London, the other places we are looking into…. It’s all relative. 
On the plane now headed to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to meet up with Sakai and begin the next part of our adventure. Good thing Ari and I got new sneakers this morning, were gonna need them. We’ve got a lot more walking ahead of us for the next 6+ weeks carrying backpacks. 

Until next time!