Christmas in Hong Kong

I have not had time to update my blog as we have just returned to Hong Kong after a busy time traveling in China so will attempt to recap the last 6 weeks of our travels.

We arrived in Hong Kong to stay with Dave and his family for Xmas. Chris and Maya would be in Thailand so we were to spend the time with Arianne and Alex.

The first item on the agenda was to find a Xmas tree—those of you who know Dave can well imagine that he had not thought about it and expected to go out 3 days before Xmas and find one. Most places were sold out but thanks to Ken’s resourcefulness who spotted a fully decorated display tree and did a deal to buy it complete with decorations. Dave had envisaged a real tree—these can be found with difficulty and expense in Hong Kong but we persuaded him to acknowledge that he would be in the same position next year and if he invested in an artificial one now then he would not need to worry about it 3 days before next Xmas.

We ended up with enough decorations for the tree and the whole room.

Xmas day brought Arianne and Alex new bikes which were quickly wheeled outside to ride.

We had found a turkey and all of the trimmings, and even crackers so a traditional dinner was enjoyed.

The next few days were spent going to the beach and various other places in Hong Kong enjoying the warm weather.

Dave went off to Thailand to collect Chris and Maya while Ken and I took Arianne and Alex to Ocean Park—a Disneyland like park. Papa and Arianne got to go on all of the scary rides and Nana took Alex on the tamer ones. Arianne had a wonderful time and I finally found a ride which was more exciting than the boring merry go round for Alex to go on. We paid attention to the typical Hong Kong warnings about being careful if you had high blood pressure or heart problems even announced before going on the boring merry go round—you can’t be too careful!!!

Next day was the Science Museum which has great “hands on” things for the kids.

Ken and I then took a trip overnight to Shenzhen the “rip off” capital across the border in mainland China.

After we caught the train and got our visas at the border we made our way to the 5 story building where you can buy many name brand copies.

Our mission was to find gortex jackets for ourselves and our NZ and Canadian family.

We made our way past the many small stores as we were hassled—“missy handbag, watch, glasses”.

We spent most of the day trying to source out the best deals and finally found Ugg boots--$55—for   myself and the girls in the family and gortex jackets for everyone who had requested them. They are North Face copies with removable liners of amazing quality for about $80 each. I found some Calvin Klein jeans for $27—had tried some on at the Calvin Klein store in Hong Kong where they were $160!!

We had been given the name of a dressmaker so I had some of the fabric I had bought in Myanmar made up as well. We had some shirts made up for Rob.

We had a coffee and a short visit with Cici our Chinese friend who we had met 7 years ago in Yangshou and is now living in Shenzhen.

We were in the taxi line to go to our hotel and a young man who spoke English offered to write the address in Chinese for us. We realized later that outside of the mall itself no one speaks English and the taxi driver would never have been able to take us—a lesson for future travels in China!!

We arrived at the hotel to be told our room was on E floor and when we got in the elevator we realized that that was the 13^th floor—the Chinese are incredibly superstitious.

Our room was nice but we were surprised with the window into the toilet and shower from the bedroom—no privacy there!!

It was my birthday so a special dinner was planned—well we had thought anyway. We went to the hotel restaurant and were handed a menu in Chinese with no English or pictures!!! There were very few people eating there so we couldn’t even point to what we would like.

After giving up on that idea we walked down the street where we saw a sign in English saying “Chili crab”—good start!!—no such luck as nothing inside was English. There were some pictures on the menu and others eating there so we pointed and did get ourselves a strange but edible dinner—not my favourite birthday dinner!!

Next morning we were offered noodles and some dumplings for breakfast and managed to find a western coffee shop where we did forgo the cinnamon toast but had a great cappuccino.

We made our way back to the mall, picked up our clothes from the dressmaker and caught the train back to Hong Kong.

David was still away and Ken and I shopped till dropped stocking up with winter clothes and shoes—7 years in the tropics has left us with nothing for Canada!!

We had a lovely New Year’s Eve with Becca and the children at a great hotel—the rack of lamb made up for my less than stunning birthday dinner.

Dave came back with Maya and Chris and we had another couple of days with them before heading to China for our month long trip.