Hong Kong April 19, 2013

Hong Kong April 19, 2013

We enjoyed some satays downtown with Roger until about 9 p.m. and then headed back to our hotel.  We were up until about 11 p.m. getting everything packed up.  We set our alarm clock for 4:15 a.m. so we could get up and get checked out and take a taxi to the airport for our 7:30 a.m. flight to Singapore.

The flight from Singapore to Hong Kong was approximately 3 hours and went by very quickly.  After we landed and got to passport control there was a pretty good line, but it actually moved fairly fast.  As soon as we got through, our bags were on the carousel in the baggage claim area and we grabbed them and were out the door to find a taxi.  

I had not really done much research on how to get around in Hong Kong as we were only going to be here for a day, so we figured a taxi was the best way to get to our hotel.  Eric said the taxis they are using now are the same ones they were using 30 years ago.  We had three large bags, two smaller carry-one size bags and then our camera backpacks.  When the guy got out and opened the trunk of the car I wondered how we were going to fit it all in.  Only one bag would actually fit all the way in the trunk.  However, we managed to wedge three bags in the trunk, each hanging out slightly, and he tied the trunk lid down.  The rest of the bags we put in the front seat.

The taxi charge starts out at $20 (Hong Kong) and then mileage, standby time, tolls, and baggage are additional charges on top of that.  I watched the meter amount go higher and higher as we were driving along bouncing up and down (the car needed some new shocks), wondering if our luggage was going to bounce out of the trunk.  By the time we finally arrived at our hotel the taxi fare was HK$267.50 (About $45 US).  Luckily we had exchanged our money to Hong Kong dollars before we left Singapore, as the taxis here only appear to take cash.  

We checked in at the hotel a little early and they said our room would not be ready for a couple hours.  As it was lunch time we left our bags at the hotel and decided to go out and wander the city looking for food.  The hotel had a shuttle that stopped at the Peninsula and the Star Ferry terminal, so we rode it to the Peninsula Hotel and wandered through and back out onto the street.  We were trying to make our way back to a street where we had seen several bar and grills.  We finally got back to that street and had lunch at a English pub called Bulldogs.  

After lunch we made our way back to the hotel in time to officially check in.  Our room is on the 21st floor and is very nice with a pretty good view of the city skyline.  After we rested for a bit, I took a bath while Eric decided what we were going to do this afternoon.  We finally decided we would head down to the night market.  So we wandered down to the MTR station and bought a couple one day Tourist Passes and hopped on the subway.  

Unfortunately, we decided to head out about 5:30, which was obviously rush hour.  The subway was packed with people and much noisier and much more hectic than Singapore, but we eventually managed to find our way to where we wanted to go.  

We wandered around the night market for a while until I started getting tired and then we headed back toward the hotel as it was starting to rain.  We got turned around a couple times, but finally managed to find our way back about 7:30 p.m.  By that time we were pretty tired, so we kicked back and relaxed in our hotel room.

We are hoping the weather will be nice tomorrow so we can take the Tram to the top of Victoria Peak.