Our first few days in HK

Greetings all! It's been a few days since we landed and we are adjusting fairly well.  The flight over was quite long - about 16 hours - but fortunately we got to fly Business Class which takes the sting out a bit!  We were immediately greeted with a glass of champagne and then fed almost non-stop for the next two hours.  The highlight of the food for me was the cheese course with port and then the ice cream sundae with toppings.  I felt like Jerry Seinfeld when he got to fly first class while poor Elaine was stuck in coach. 

I had arranged car service through the hotel they were waiting for us at baggage claim.  A wonderful feature this hotel has is that once they pick you up, they start your check-in process.  This was awesome because we got to the hotel around 10 PM and were whisked off to our room where we were told that since we were staying here so long, they were upgrading our room to a suite at no extra cost.  YAY!!!

We woke up early Saturday, enjoyed our breakfast and headed out to explore.  We walked along the waterfront, up one of the main shopping streets and ended up in Kowloon Park.  It's a beautiful park surrounded by commerce and high-rises.  There is an aviary in there and we saw some really cool birds. We then walked down Nathan Avenue which is like Fifth Avenue in NYC.  All the big designers have stores there and naturally we had to go in the Tommy Hilfiger store.  It was like a little bit of home for me on the other side of the world :)  The crowds in this area were a bit overwhelming at times, but the worst part was these guys hawking "copy watches" and suit tailoring services.  Every two feet some guy is trying to get your attention and they are very persistent!

Oh, by the way, it is really, really hot here.  Like sweat through all your clothes hot. We've been to New Orleans in August so we've experienced some heat and humidity but this is beyond that. Thankfully, our hotel has a very nice pool so we know we can cool off and relax when we are done sightseeing.

On Sunday, we decided to take the Star Ferry over to the Central District on Hong Kong Island.  It's super cheap ($3) and super fast.  The Ferry goes back and forth all day long and runs constantly so you have virtually no waiting time.  Once off the ferry, we tried to navigate what was a very busy area.  There are a lot of covered walkways which are great for beating the heat.  We walked to the Peak Tram which takes you to the highest point on the island.  Unfortunately, many others decided to do the same thing so we were met with a line that was going to mean an hour and a half wait in the sun.  We quickly changed our plan and decided to head to the nearby Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Garden instead.   Much better choice.  This park was even more beautiful than Kowloon Park. The zoo consisted mainly of monkeys, lemurs, a few orangutans and of all things, one raccoon. The raccoon was kind of an odd addition.  This park also had an aviary with an even greater variety of birds.  

 

Tomorrow is my first day at work so wish me luck!