So we arrived in Hong Kong at 10:15 am. We really just had this morning/ early afternoon in the city because we planned to go to our friends’, the Allbrittons, house in Sai Kung around 4:00 pm. We had to find food somewhere because we only had a small breakfast and everyone needed some sustenance. We also needed to figure out what to do with our bags while we explored. It had to be somewhere that made sense for us.
We took the train to the Kowloon station, which was in the lower level of a large shopping mall. We ate lunch at the mall and left our bags in a locker there. This worked great b/c we planned to go back to the station to catch a train out to Sai Kung.
Before we left on the trip, we got some kid friendly videos of the different cities we were visiting so Audrey could be inspired. One thing she saw on the Hong Kong video was that the world’s longest escalator was there. (see photo- we are at the beginning of the first section of the escalator)
That was her top choice for things to do. One thing we are doing while traveling to keep the kids engaged is making sure we do things they will enjoy. And even more importantly for Audrey is that we give her the power to choose activities (within reason of course). So escalator riding it is! And with the weather the way it was today, Joe’s first choice of Victoria Peak wasn’t possible.
We took the train a few stops across to central Hong Kong. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the escalators it was already 1:30 or so (due to a horribly annoying experience at the restaurant where they brought us the wrong foods, didn’t bring us the one thing I thought the girls would eat, ignored us, were rude, etc… I feel like this time it was more than just a language barrier.)
The escalator is divided into sections. Sometimes it was a block long, sometimes a couple of blocks. Sometimes it was a moving walkway and at others it was a standard escalator. We would have liked to stop along the way, pop off into the neighborhood and check things out. However, we were short on time and it was raining, so we kept riding. It was actually a great activity because most of the escalator route was covered and the weather limited us in what we could do.
The neighborhood was filled with interesting shops, a huge variety of restaurants, tons of people and apartment buildings. We stopped for a bit to take a rest and have a snack. It felt like a real slice of Hong Kong. If we had an extra day here, I would want to spend a little time exploring this neighborhood more.We got back to the bags by 3:30 and asked the MRT guy how much time a train vs. cab would take to get to Sai Kung. If we just took a cab, we could get there pretty close to our estimated arrival time of 4:00. We got in the cab line, which took us a solid 15-20 minutes just to get a cab! Then once we got in, the cabbie didn’t know how to get to the Allbrittons’ house. The guy managing the cab line helped us help the driver, but it was annoying. We immediately thought maybe we should just take the next cab, but they insisted we stay and figure it out. It took at least another 20+ minutes to start moving! By this time it was 5:00 and rush hour! Argh. We were frustrated and since they didn’t eat much today, the girls were a little nutty.
We finally made it to Brian and Langley’s just before 6:00. We know these guys from Audrey’s class last year at Montview. Their daughter Chase was a friend of Audrey’s. The girls are very similar and hit it off right away when they met. They also have another daughter, Madoc who is 5 months older than Scarlett, so it was fun to see those 2 actually play together. They were just babies when B&L moved from Denver to Hong Kong last year.
Their helper JoJo made some lovely meals for the kids and us. She even hung out upstairs with the kids so the adults could have a relaxing dinner free of interruptions from the kids. Um, hello- how cool was that?! That was AMAZING! I would LOVE to have a JoJo of my very own. Not only for what she does, but how she does it and who she is. We only just met her and can sense what a great person she is. And Scarlett, who is usually very skeptical of anyone who doesn’t live in our house, took to JoJo right away. She even said “Hi JoJo.” And “Thank you JoJo.” ☺
The Allbrittons had just returned from the US 5 days before we arrived, so they were tired and we all went to bed early. We had a great time catching up tonight!
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