Trip to Hong Kong

After the CRAZY month of March, we decided that for Danny's spring break we would head down to Hong Kong for a long weekend (April 7-11). As I was completely fed up with the lack of etiquette and manners of many in Shanghai, we a stay at Disneyland, for obvious reasons...they are trained in their friendliness and at the hotel we stayed in when Dustin was getting the work visa paperwork done last year. They are also fantastic in their kindness and care. We headed off and of course there was an immediate two hour delay from the airport. We fly into Shenzen, which is directly across from Hong Kong still on the Mainland. It is by far cheaper to fly here, but it is also plagued with delays.

We arrived in Shenzen and while we waited for Dustin to check about a car to take us across the border to Hong Kong (yes, Hong Kong is a part of China now, but it still has its border checks. People in Hong Kong have much greater freedoms than the mainland Chinese), a lady--clearly Chinese by her complete lack of awareness of anyone else--nearly took out Joshua in his stroller with her suitcase. What always shocks me about these encounters is that rather than taking two more steps to go around us completely to reach the counter, she picks the 6 inches that were between Danny and Josh to barge her way to the counter. I do not think I will ever truly understand this and how they view the world. As I was already teetering at keeping my cool around rude Chinese people, this was just the end. I started muttering and crying all at the same time. Poor Danny and Dustin, who did not witness, nor could probably understand what I was saying, were a little bewildered by my ranting. By the time we got to the McDonalds downstairs in the airport, I had composed myself and apologized for the outburst. I was though so glad to be heading to Hong Kong!

We hired a car and took the trip with another family into Hong Kong. It was a great drive and actually faster than I expected. We were dropped off at Disneyland and then hoped on their bus to take us to the hotel. We were all excited, but obviously the boys were over joyed to be staying at Mickey's hotel. :)

We ate dinner at the restaurant that contained a huge buffet. The boys enjoyed the dessert part the best with Mickey shaped cookies and ice cream sundaes. We went back to the room and watched a Mickey Mouse clubhouse show until the fireworks show. This began and we were able to see almost all of it out the window.

Early the next morning we headed out to the park. It was drizzling and called for this the whole day. It did not dampen our excitement though as we had packed our rain gear and we were all set. The boys decided to start with the Dumbo ride and this time we let Josh go on it. He loved it! It was by far his favorite ride. We were quite blessed the whole day in that every time it really rained hard we were in the shows. We saw Lion King and the boys really had fun.

We made it an early evening and headed to the other restaurant in the hotel and ate. They play a movie each evening and we got to see Dinosaur. It was a big hit with the boys and Dustin and I were able to enjoy our meal while the boy watched the show. We headed back to the room and again got to see the fireworks before bed.

The following day we went to the park again, as they had a promo of 2nd day free with the hotel stay. So we hit all the rides we wanted to see again and stood and took pictures with Mickey and his friends. Donald was Josh's favorite and Mickey is still Danny's favorite. So cute to see the boys interact with them. We didn't stay the whole day, but instead headed back in the afternoon and took a taxi to our other hotel.

After unloading at the new hotel we headed out to view the Peak, which is a famous spot in Hong Kong to view the city and Victoria Harbor. Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day, but we enjoyed the tram ride up and down the steep hillside. We finished the night off with eating at Dustin's favorite Italian Restaurant in Hong Kong--Fat Angelo's. It has good food at a great price and has fun things for kids.

The next day we headed down to Stanley, a famous beach and marketplace. It is also where most of the expatriates live. We took a double decker bus and Danny just loved this so much. The views were absolutely amazing of the city and then the coast. It took about an hour to get there by bus. It was raining again, but we were able to duck in for lunch during the heaviest part of the rain. We enjoyed sitting and looking at the ocean while eating our pizza and listening to all the British expatriates with their own families around us. If you did not know you were in Hong Kong you would have sworn you were in England for the rain and the accents of everyone.

That evening we just grabbed burgers in the mall attached to our hotel and looked at some of the shops. It was great to just see some store names we recognized.

The next day we hoped on the plane home, greatly refreshed from our trip and ready to make it through the last two months before heading home to the US for the summer.