Bob y'all

Thursday 4:30 AM, after 6 hours of sleep for Eammon and less than an hour for me, the alarm sounded and two very tired but excited people were out of bed. Sonia arrived at 5 AM and we were off to the airport but not without some excitement. During the 45 minute drive, I made my best attempt at trying to cough up a lung and Eammon managed to have an allergy attack because we forgot that Sonia has her dog ride in the front seat of her car and Eammon's allergic. So after our less than stellar start, at least we were on our way.

The first leg of our journey from Atlanta to Detroit was easy peasy. Eammon and I each had 3 seats to ourselves so I laid down across them and though I didn't sleep, at last I rested. Eammon struggled with a sudoku puzzle. In Detroit we had a long layover so we sat at Caribou coffee for a good while then went on to wait at our gate. This was the long leg of our journey, 13+ hours to Tokyo and the plane was packed with only 6 unoccupied seats and luckily for us, one of them was next to me. So once again I was able to lay down, this time with my head in Eammon's lap and with the help of an Ambien I slept a good part of the flight. Good thing too because we took off over an hour late and when we arrived in Tokyo we had a mad dash through the airport to catch the Hong Kong flight. In fact other than seeing the people mover sidewalks as we raced along them, I can't tell you anything about Tokyo.

During the five hour flight from Tokyo I was monitoring our temperatures as Eammon was running a low grade fever and mine kept spiking up over 102. I wanted us both to be somewhere near normal so that when we landed in Hong Kong and they temperature scanned us, we didn't set off any alarms and have any problems entering the country. By the time we met up with our guide Matthew and some other late arriving families, made it to the hotel and into our room, we had been up and traveling for a total of 31 hours. The bed was really comfortable but I think even if it hadn't of been, we still would have slept OK.

This morning I was up very early but laid in bed until 7:30 when I decided that maybe a hot shower would help clear out my chest a little and make breathing a little easier. Eammon was still exhausted so I went down to breakfast alone so that he could sleep in. I had a nice chat with another Atlanta family and went back up to the room in time so that Eammon still had time for breakfast before they closed. After he finished up breakfast we had some time before we had to meet for our group dim sum lunch and afternoon tour of Hong Kong. Eammon opted to get a little more rest and listen to some music and I went out for a walk and some shopping. As you can see from the picture, I didn't get all that much. Some watermelon and guava juice for Eammon, peppermint tea and some throat sweets for me and I couldn't resist getting Eammon some spicy shrimp flavored crisps which he really likes and is munching on them right now while he's taking a bath.

When we did meet up with our group I finally met so many of the people whom I've been chatting with on line or who have been in my yahoo groups, it was fun. We were then off for a dim sum lunch which was excellent. We then boarded busses with our guide for the day Patrick and headed out to Victoria Peak. Along the way Patrick taught us a little Cantonese and had cute stories to go along with the words so that we'd remember them. Good is ho; very good is ho ho; and excellent is ho ho ho thus Santa is really from Hong Kong. Another thing he taught us was to say good morning which is Joe son, as in the son of Joe. So of course we'd remember these few little words.

Though a little hazy, the views from not only the top of the peak but the entire ride up were breathtaking. Eammon and I went up to the top of the observation tower and just marveled at the view. Next stop on our tour was the Aberdeen fisherman's village where we went out on a sampan and like voyeurs peered into the homes and lives of the people who live on the water.
One thing that really struck Eammon and I was, when we viewed the buildings from the water we realized just how many apartments there are It really was over whelming to realize how densely populated the area is.
Our next stop was the jewelry factory where we were given a brief and somewhat backwards tour of how jewelry is made before being led into a showroom of piranha's sales people. It was just crazy how overwhelming so much jewelry can be, too much sparkle for this girl. I was really starting to drag and didn't have the patience to even look at anything in more than a passing way let alone deal with the sales people so I just headed to the end of the tour and waited for others to catch up with me.

Our final stop of the day was Stanley Market where you could shop to your heart's delight and still have change from a dollar. Everything was so very inexpensive and Eammon couldn't help but buy a little rugby shirt for Maisie and while he was getting one for her, two for himself. I saw some adorable baby clothes and passport dolls, but I know that I can get the same thing in Guangzhou and this way I don't have to carry stuff around with me for the next week and a half. When we first got off the bus and were walking down to the market, Eammon asked me if I remembered the four words that Patrick taught us this morning. I had to think and then proudly said I did, well at least three of them, ho, ho ho and ho ho ho. I was then thinking on the last one and said Bob, Bob something, three letter boys name something. Well that just made us so silly because my way of remembering things is just awful. So good morning y'all, Bob y'all!!

After we finished at the market we returned to the hotel and were on our own for dinner. I really was in the mood for some udon noodle soup as this pneumonia is really kicking me in the, well the lungs. It hurts like heck if I have to take a deep breath and I still sound quite wretched and my throat hurts, so noodle soup meant sushi!
Before dinner though Eammon and I walked over to the harbor to watch the 8PM laser show that some of the tall buildings in Hong Kong do each night. The laser show was nothing to write home about but the view of the city was wonderful. We then strolled around looking at the menus of many restaurants before deciding on Ha-Ne sushi where we sat at the sushi bar. It was fun because there was a little track that went around and if you saw something that interested you, you just took it off the track. You knew the price of each item by the color of the plate it was on. You also had the option of ordering off the menu and Eammon and I ordered a seafood noodle soup which was gorgeous. When we were finished the waitress came and added up the number of plates of each color and that was how the bill was determined. I thought with all we had the dinner would have been close to $50, at home it would have been that much or more, but here after everything was added up it still was less than $20 USD total for both of us.

We wanted to try some new things that we really don't see in the states and we did but we also were very careful since I'm already so sick and then the fact that I never got any hep shots, so needless to say we didn't get too adventurous and were careful We may have to go back there for lunch tomorrow just so we can have the soup again. Walking back to the hotel we passed a fabulous little bakery and just had to get a few things to try.

We have a great little view from our room of a little city park area and the Christmas lights on some of the surrounding buildings. Well, that's all for now, we each tasted the pastries and the remainders are in the fridge. Tomorrow we're here until after lunch then we're flying to Chongqing for one last night before Maisie day!!