Humid Hong Kong

Monday 23rd June 2014

Blog post by the mother

So this is it, the beginning of the end of the grand adventure (for now at least).  The flight to Hong Kong on Cathay was ... fine. Nothing amazing and definitely less comfy seats than Air NZ.  Miss 9 wailed and complained "I can't sleep on these stupid planes!", the father and I listened, reflected her feelings, cajoled, threatened and finally snapped that she could stay awake all night if she wanted to.  Miss 9 stayed awake for almost the entire flight and watched way too many movies - but was not sick (one bonus).
Suffice to say that by the time we arrived in Hong Kong at 6.30 in the morning we were all rather frazzled and immediately hit by the stifling humidity.  The kids managed to make it out to the van for the one hour drive into the city and then all passed out.

On arrival at our sweet little apartment the kidlets made it up the lift to the 14th floor, claimed their beds and then sleep took over again.

The father and I allowed ourselves one hour of shut eye and then tried to get up and get moving before we all slept the day away.  The kids took some coercing to wake up and get moving but around lunchtime we did manage to get them all out of the apartment and out onto the streets.

This is the view from our bedroom down to the busy streets of Sheung Wan below.  What you cannot see from the photo is the incredible humidity and the range of smells and sounds that are so different to what we have become used to in Europe.  We dragged the somewhat reluctant children out amongst it all and, after a bit of walking, they started to perk up a bit.  We went to visit an ancient temple dedicated to scholarship (should have lit some incense and prayed for Mr 14's upcoming exams!) and then went up the mid-town escalators to the very top.  There were some protests that I made them go all the way up - but what's the point of only going to half way?!

A stop for gelato on the way back down helped to revive everyone for a little while at least.  Not quite the same as Italian gelato but it did the trick.  At the bottom of the escalators we went into the IFC Mall to enjoy their aircon and get a view out over the harbour. There was plenty to look at but most of the shops were out of our price range - think Armani and Prada.
Went to buy our Hong Kong Octopus cards for public transport and had a very late lunch at Overseas Dragon.  The father loves it when we can find somewhere to eat that is full of locals rather than tourists and Overseas Dragon fit the bill perfectly.  Once we worked out the ordering system it was all very straightforward.  No frills, minimal service but great food at very reasonable prices.  The dumplings and noodle soup are highly recommended!

Home on the MTR, a quick visit to the supermarket to stock up for breakfast and then time for some homework - how much work actually got done is very questionable at this point!

Dragged the children away from their technology and headed off to find some dinner.  Hilariously right downstairs from our apartment we have Monsieur Chatte - a French bakery and deli. Tempting though it was, we bypassed M. Chatte and went to another local hangout for dinner.  It was all a bit odd - starting with the lady who took our orders who was wearing what looked like a 1960's airhostess uniform complete with woollen hat.  Moral of the story is that it is better to eat the local specialities than the local version of a European dish because things often get lost in translation.

A rather full on day to begin our Hong Kong adventure but we will all sleep well tonight!