This weekend we were able to spend four days in one of our favorite places, Hong Kong! I love Hong Kong because there is something for everyone...shopping for mommy, eating for daddy, and playing for the kiddos! We were blessed with beautiful weather and, thankfully, healthy children!
Not too many things are straight forward in China, so when I went to book the tickets on a Chinese website, I should have known that what appeared to be so easy would somehow turn into a bit of a nightmare! I booked our tickets directly to Hong Kong from Tianjin, which is great because the airport is 15 minutes away from the Disneyland Resort Hotel where we stay! After many phone calls with C-trip (the internet site!), I had all the tickets ready. (When you fly to Hong Kong, it is considered international still). The Thursday before we were scheduled to leave I received another call from C-trip - our flight to Hong Kong had been cancelled by the airline and could we just go on Friday. Danny and I really wanted to have 2 full days exploring, so we decided that we would just fly to Shenzhen (city close to HK border in mainland China) and take a bus across the border to Hong Kong. One would think this would be easy enough to change, but I ended up on the phone about 20 more times, had my credit card denied due to so many charges and refunds being put on it by this company, and in the end, Danny's co-worker booked the tickets for me!! So much for my independence in China!!
In the end, things actually went smoothly and our trip to Shenzhen was just fine!! I was so excited that we were going to ride a bus across the border. I kept telling Danny that I was really becoming a "local". He was not quite as amused by the whole thing. We were both picturing a very crowded bus, and in the end, he was very happy, and maybe I was a bit disappointed. After we bought our tickets for the bus, we were led into a VIP area for about 10 minutes while we waited for our bus. Then we were escorted to the awaiting bus, which was air conditioned and very nice. After that we were taken to the border crossing where we unloaded, walked through security, got our passports stamped, walked out and boarded a bus for Hong Kong. It was just too civilized for me!! I guess maybe I will just have to get on a Tianjin bus and ride it's route to get a true China bus experience!!
The journey did take up a good part of our day, but after we checked into our hotel, we made time for some shopping. My dear Brits have gotten us hooked on one of their large department stores, Marks and Spencer. I love their food items and have decided that their cookies are my new Girl Scout cookies for the time being!! I buy boxes and yet, they are still gone within days!! To get around Hong Kong this trip, we decided to be like the locals and take the marvelous public transportation system called the MTR. At most of the stations, you walk right out and there is a huge mall - can you imagine just jumping off the train, having a shop and then going to the next station to shop some more. You can understand how happy I was and how irritated Danny became as the night went on!!
This was one of the malls we visited! I believe it had 13 floors of food and retail!!
Even though we weren't on the "mainland" anymore, they still had plenty of fakes. I thought this guy was great with his rolling purse store!! I'm assuming he needs to move quite frequently to assure he doesn't get into trouble!
After a long day on public transportation, Eens still had energy to smile for his mommy!!
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