Our Hong Kong Trip (Day 1)

3 Feb 2011 23:00

We said bye to my parents and relatives while leaving the house.

Because I know that it'll be 5 days later before I will see them again! My sister drove us back to your house, where we made final preparations for the trip. Chargers, clothes, cameras, toiletries.. all set! We were to play on the Wii until time to leave the house, but we were no match for fatigue and went to bed at about 1am.

4 Feb 2011 03:30

I was awaken by the bright light and voices outside the room. The lights were on and you were already up and preparing yourself. Groggyly I turn the other side and continued to sleep, finally only waking up when you said that we are about to leave soon. After a 10 min teeth brushing and change of clothes, we're off to the taxi.

Taxi was an uneventful ride. Everyone was quiet. I was looking at the scenery, trying to find out how close we were to the airport. It'll be my first time taking the plane. I've always been skeptical about taking the plane after hearing so many crashing stories, but I reckon I won't be that "lucky". After getting off the taxi, we head over the the berth where we were supposed to enter. After some confusion we finally found a representative from Chan Brothers who gave us instructions on where to go next. Following his instructions, we checked in our luggage and proceed to the boarding area.

As usual, you were unable to use the automated gates since you shape-shifted from the time when you created your passport. I went through the auto gate while you went through the manual customs. The time was 5:40am, and we figured we had some time to chill at Starbucks before boarding the 6:20 flight. After the Cappucino and Latte, we headed for the plane.

The inside of the United Airlines plane was smaller than I thought. I've played the de_747 map in Counterstrike as well as Ghost Squad's 2nd stage. The planes in those games were more spacious than this one. Maybe those are jumbo planes. Irunno. We walked to our seats where I was disappointed to find out that our seats are nowhere near the windows. Shortly after we sat down, the plane's engine begun to roar. I feel the plane driving off on its wheel. We were moving further and further away from the airport. Suddenly, with a roar of the engine, the plane accelerated rapidly, tilted 45 degrees upwards and - we were in the air. For someone taking a plane for the first time in his life, it's an exhilarating experience. I can see the lights slowly getting dimmer and dimmer. By then it was already dawn. I can see also see the buildings getting smaller and smaller - reminds me of Google Maps.

By 15 minutes the novelty wore off. All I see outside the window at the side of the plane were clouds. More and more clouds. Meh, I can't do any computing with them (Unfunny joke intended). Since we were actually not supposed to use our electronic devices on flight, I thought I should catch some sleep as the activities will begin as soon as we touch down at Hong Kong. In between flights, I woke up to see what's happening around me. Breakfast of juice and bread were served. I don't have appetite for those. You were having trouble falling asleep with all the activities onboard. I can somewhat sympathise but I'm grateful for my ability to sleep through even quakes.

4 Feb 2011 11:00

Finally, there was a change in the uneventful cloud passing journey. We've arrived at our destination - Hong Kong. Information about the weather was made thorugh the annoucement service. The plane starts to descend. It felt like a downward ride on the rollercoaster. I feel it was fun, but it's probably not as fun for you from the expression on your face. With a bump from the wheels touching down the runway, we've arrived at foreign soil. We walked out of the berth to get our luggage. My luggage came damn slow. The zips are also half-opened. Someone might have opened up and take a look. I checked the bag and verified that I'm not missing anything important. After that we headed for the exit and found our guide waiting for us. Once everyone from the tour group arrived, we embarked on our trip to our first stop - Disneyland!

The guide introduced herself as Queenie. Quite a common name for a Hongkie lady. She gave us some administrative instructions before introducing the country and scenery. This part of Hong Kong near the airport is full of hills. Throughout the road we haven't seen any man-made buildings at all. The bus was travelling straight for most of the journey until it made a turn into disneyland. This is the first time I tasted Hong Kong air. According to guides, Early February is the coldest month in Hong Kong. The 18 degree temperature reinforces that fact. I was surprised that I got used to the temperature pretty well. Your mom was feeling very cold and had to wear a jacket to feel comfortable. Our first destination after getting through the gates is surprising not any of the rides, but the restaurant. We are famished from the puny breakfast (and in my case, non-existent) we had on the plane. The Dim Sum restaurant served good warm meals. After the sumptous breakfast, we are ready to go for rides!

Or so we thought. After walking around the park we realised that there were no thrill rides! Borringggg! At about 2pm we were already hoping that we could get out of the park. Disneyland is like Universal Studios. A less interesting one. Most of the attractions in the park are shops and kiddy rides which neither your parents nor us could take without the world laughing on us. Your parents wanted to take a rest, so we splitted into 2 groups, promising to meet at 8:30pm at entrance if we should get separated. We did. After we parted we didn't get to see your parents until exactly 8:30pm. During this time we took most of the less kiddy rides, saw a carnival and ate at a restaurant serving western food. The chicken wing was good, although I wonder what's with the orange juice and corn in almost all the restaurants we saw. We also had the chance to take the best ride in the park - Space Mountain. Admittedly, it's not as fun as the one at Universal Studios. There were 2 seats in each car - just nice for us. The rollercoaster took in potential energy as it creaked up the slope and then began running downslope as high speeds. There were no surprises - we were going in circles around the perimeter. There was no fire and no acclerating upslope. It was quite dark and the lightings were beautiful. Still, I had better coaster rides.

The chanted day ended with fireworks at the Small World Castle. We took photos and videos of it before we rendezvous with your scared-stiff mom. Hah! She should have trusted my instincts and sense of direction! By that time the evening temperature had dropped to 14 degrees. Even your dad started to shiver. We took the bus and headed for Pacific World Hotel. There, the tour agency made a blunder and had a group of 7 splitted to 2 different sides of the hotel. Not a problem for us. We got to the hotel room, took some photos, pack luggage, and rest up in preparation for our trip the next day to different landmarks on the Island and to Zhuhai.