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China, September 2005 Day 1 After a full day on prep, I rushed home, took a shower and we grabbed our bags and headed on foot to the BART station to catch a train to Glen Park. Lau-lau was waiting for us at the top of the hill, and we spent the next several hours having dinner with her and just hanging around. Mom called us in the middle of dinner and promptly called us crazy for walking up and down the hill from the BART station. At around 10:30 p.m., we left Uncle Bob's house (he was in Las Vegas at the time) and set off for SFO. At this point we'd like to point out that to get from Berkeley to SFO takes 57 minutes and costs $5.50, but going from Berkeley to Glen Park and then to SFO costs $3.30 + $4.60 or $7.90. Our flight wasn't until 1:25 a.m., Sunday. We made good time and checked in with almost two hours to spare. The Singapore airline representative was very surprised when we told him we had no checked luggage. Then he smirked at us and said, "Ah, well the shopping in Hong Kong is very good." Not one to argue, I just nodded my head, but actually, we would not buy anything on this trip and we are just very light travelers. We waited at the gate for several hours, by-passing the duty-free shops along the way, and just as we thought we could stay awake no longer, we boarded Singapore Airlines flight to Hong Kong. We thought that as soon as we got on, they would just turn out the lights and everyone would go to sleep. Well, we were wrong. First there were the squalling babes (IN STEREO) we had to contend with. These screaming (and I DO mean SCREAMING) infants started just after we sat down and continued for an hour after takeoff. Shortly after takeoff, the cabin service started, first with a hot lemon-scented towel for a refresher, then drinks and dinner. We were excited to see three choices for dinner and then breakfast. They were Indian, Chinese, and Western choices for both of the meals served, but we shortly realized that the Indian choice had to be pre-ordered. Still, we persevered and Casey scored an Indian dinner. It was good, but being that our systems are only supportive of strongly spiced foods when we're not hurtling through the air (with a good amount of turbulence), we decided that perhaps the more bland Chinese and Western options were the way to go. After dinner, Poobie went to sleep and I explored the entertainment system. I have to say that it was one of the best entertainment systems I've ever come across. The selection was astounding with everything on demand! There were 60 movies to choose from, 103 TV programs, 225 CD's and 85 video games. The controller popped out of your arm rest. I watched 3 movies, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Longest Yard, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (because I read the books too...) Note that all of the movies I watched weren't yet out on DVD in the U.S. Half-way through the flight, an attendant came by with little snack rolls, apples or FULL SIZE 3 MUSKETEER BARS. Can you guess which one I went for? At this point I was thinking "Singapore Girl, You're a Great Way to Fly!". I had brought an orange as a snack for the flight and as we were debarking, Poobie noticed that the orange was from Australia (I thought it was from California). We bought an orange in California from Australia and then brought it all the way back to Hong Kong... We landed just before 6:30 a.m. local time, and it took us no time to clear customs and immigration. We headed for the Maxim's restaurant on the top floor of the airport to wait for my dad. Maxim's is one of my mom's favorite dim sum places. Little did I know that it would take my dad 2 hours to arrive. But he finally did and we bought our Octopus passes (a rechargeable transportation pass) and took the double-decker air-conditioned bus to Hong Kong. Our first taste of the heat that was to come started at the bus stop right outside. It was just unbearable. It was 87°F but with close to 90% humidity. We thought we stepped right into a steam room. On top of all that, it was pretty smoggy. As we set off, Poobie kept gasping every time the bus driver made a turn or stopped a foot away from the bus in front. Those drivers were experts at getting the most out of their 6 inches of clearance! On the way to Hong Kong proper, we passed by a slew of motorcycle police and then an enormous motorcade going the other way. We were to discover later that the motorcade contained the Vice President of China and Michael Eisner on their way to the Grand Opening of Disneyland Hong Kong. The bus dropped us off right in front of our hotel, the Majestic. I was familiar with the hotel since I'd stayed there several times before. We dropped our stuff off and then headed out. We took the MTR from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui and then walked to the Star Ferry. Then we took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong side followed by a short bus ride to a funicular that would take us all the way up to Victoria Peak and the best views of Hong Kong. The funicular itself was insane. Some of the track was so steep (nearly 45 degrees) that we were pressed really hard into the benches we were sitting on. When we got to the peak, my dad said we should walk around Lugard road, just to check out the views. We didn't know it, but that walk would take us pretty much all the way around the peak. The views WERE amazing though. The road was mostly pedestrian, really kind of like a paved path, sometimes barely clinging to the rocks. Poobie was amazed that much of the hill was shotcreted up, even around the trees. It was SO hot. We sweated and sweated and sweated some more. At the end of our loop, Dad made us have a snack at Deli-France (which was not so good). We took the funicular back down and the air-conditioned subway back to the hotel. We all decided to take a nap and try to contact Terence Yin. He said he would meet us around dinnertime. My dad decided not to join us so we were on our own for the night. Various and sundry calls later, Terence said he would be delayed and that we should meet for drinks later that night, so we set off to find our own adventure. We walked through the night market, but not seeing anything that interested us, we ended up having dinner just across the alley from our hotel at a little eatery I'd been to before. That night we had chicken and salted fish fried rice (a classic for sure) and a Malaysian style curry chicken. They were both very good, especially the curry if you didn't eat the chicken. Tired and done with the heat, we went back to the hotel to wait for Terence's call. We watched an interesting show on MIT blackjack card counters and promptly fell asleep. Adding the day we spent in Berkeley, plus the time on the flight where I didn't get any sleep, plus the day spent in Hong Kong, I was up for 46 hours!
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