China - #1
So as most of you already know, I have returned. I have been home just over a week now. It was so nice not being on the computer for two weeks that I have been dragging my feet returning. Also, jet lag took a while to get over, and returning to a regular work schedule also took the pulling of some teeth. Another reason I have taken so long to post is the time needed. As you can see by the length of this post, it takes a little time, and this is just the first day and a half of the trip. So, here goes . . . China post #1
China was amazing! It was an unreal experience. Hong Kong is insane. Seeing part of mainland China was a chance of a lifetime.
So here is the plan, I will post photos gradually from throughout the entire trip. I will work my way through from the start to the end and share some of my thoughts and experiences from each segment of the trip. Here goes.
The flight over wasn't too bad. I left for the airport around 5:30am. My flight left I.F. a little after 8:00. I met my coworker Sue in SLC who was leaving from Jackson.
A bus took us out to our airplane at LAX. As we got out of the bus and walked over to the airplane Sue and I couldn't believe how big it was. The plane was a 747 and the thing is HUGE. Sue and I both wished we had taken a picture.
Everything went smoothly and the 14 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong actually wasn't too horrible. I didn't sleep much of the way but I did watch 3 movies, 8 or so episodes of '24' and a handful of 'The office' episodes on my new video Ipod.
Arriving in Hong Kong was as expected when arriving to any foreign country for the first time. A little strange and a little intimidating. We exchanged some money then rode an express train in to the city from the airport. We then took a taxi from the train to the hotel. It was night time so we didn't see much but the buildings all lit up were pretty cool. There were buildings everywhere, and all were very tall. My first impression was that Hong Kong was a very clean, polite and somewhat well organized city.
Our taxi driver was a hoot, an older gentleman that kept trying to talk to us using about 50% english and expecting us to understand everything he was saying.
As we arrived at the hotel, I still had that overwhelming feeling. Nobody speaking english and no other caucasians to be seen. This was quite a bit different from when we returned to the same hotel later in the trip. More on that in a few posts.
As we were checking in, Tom arrived at the hotel as well. His flight was 2 hours behind us. He looked for us in the airport but we missed him as we didn't expect him to be there. He tried to split his time between finding us and Jane who was also flying in about the same time as us. He thought about stealing our luggage so we couldn't leave but he didn't. He ended up meeting with Jane and riding into town with her. She was in town for some other reason.
We checked in, ate our first meal then crashed after having been up for about 36 hours.
The next day we went to Kowloon to visit Tom's brother who has lived and worked in Hong Kong for over 30 years. He took us out to lunch at a nice restaurant near his office. The restaurant was interesting. It was a big room full of big round tables and a lot of people. It was fairly full as it was lunch time so I imagine the restaurant had about 300 people at about 60 tables. This was my first strange food experience. Tom had us first timers eat a fish eyeball. The other part of the fish was REALLY good but the eyeball didn't go down all too well. After Kowloon we returned to the hotel, took a nap and then headed into Central Hong Kong do see some sites.
The fish eyeball that I ate is visible in this photo. The fish was amazing. I don't know what kind it was. They brought out the fish in a plastic bag in water, alive, to receive our approval and then took it in the back and cooked it. After eating 'real' chinese food, I don't think I can ever again eat chinese food in an american chinese restaurant.
Central Hong Kong contained a lot of upscale shopping stores as well as side streets and alleys full of street vendors selling pretty much anything.
China was amazing! It was an unreal experience. Hong Kong is insane. Seeing part of mainland China was a chance of a lifetime.
So here is the plan, I will post photos gradually from throughout the entire trip. I will work my way through from the start to the end and share some of my thoughts and experiences from each segment of the trip. Here goes.
The flight over wasn't too bad. I left for the airport around 5:30am. My flight left I.F. a little after 8:00. I met my coworker Sue in SLC who was leaving from Jackson.
A bus took us out to our airplane at LAX. As we got out of the bus and walked over to the airplane Sue and I couldn't believe how big it was. The plane was a 747 and the thing is HUGE. Sue and I both wished we had taken a picture.
Everything went smoothly and the 14 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong actually wasn't too horrible. I didn't sleep much of the way but I did watch 3 movies, 8 or so episodes of '24' and a handful of 'The office' episodes on my new video Ipod.
Arriving in Hong Kong was as expected when arriving to any foreign country for the first time. A little strange and a little intimidating. We exchanged some money then rode an express train in to the city from the airport. We then took a taxi from the train to the hotel. It was night time so we didn't see much but the buildings all lit up were pretty cool. There were buildings everywhere, and all were very tall. My first impression was that Hong Kong was a very clean, polite and somewhat well organized city.
Our taxi driver was a hoot, an older gentleman that kept trying to talk to us using about 50% english and expecting us to understand everything he was saying.
As we arrived at the hotel, I still had that overwhelming feeling. Nobody speaking english and no other caucasians to be seen. This was quite a bit different from when we returned to the same hotel later in the trip. More on that in a few posts.
As we were checking in, Tom arrived at the hotel as well. His flight was 2 hours behind us. He looked for us in the airport but we missed him as we didn't expect him to be there. He tried to split his time between finding us and Jane who was also flying in about the same time as us. He thought about stealing our luggage so we couldn't leave but he didn't. He ended up meeting with Jane and riding into town with her. She was in town for some other reason.
We checked in, ate our first meal then crashed after having been up for about 36 hours.
The next day we went to Kowloon to visit Tom's brother who has lived and worked in Hong Kong for over 30 years. He took us out to lunch at a nice restaurant near his office. The restaurant was interesting. It was a big room full of big round tables and a lot of people. It was fairly full as it was lunch time so I imagine the restaurant had about 300 people at about 60 tables. This was my first strange food experience. Tom had us first timers eat a fish eyeball. The other part of the fish was REALLY good but the eyeball didn't go down all too well. After Kowloon we returned to the hotel, took a nap and then headed into Central Hong Kong do see some sites.
The fish eyeball that I ate is visible in this photo. The fish was amazing. I don't know what kind it was. They brought out the fish in a plastic bag in water, alive, to receive our approval and then took it in the back and cooked it. After eating 'real' chinese food, I don't think I can ever again eat chinese food in an american chinese restaurant.
Central Hong Kong contained a lot of upscale shopping stores as well as side streets and alleys full of street vendors selling pretty much anything.
posted by Jonathan at 11:28:00 PM
5 Comments:
Tip of the iceburg...keep the posts coming.
Tell Tom I wanna know how the 'project' turned out! I'm dying!!!!
I am excited to see and hear about more stuff Jon. I am glad you had a good time and are back safe.
Thanks Sally.
How has the new job been going?
You can post to your blog even if you don't have photos to share. ; )
More from China? More from your life? I'm sure you have stuff going on...come on man, let us see it!
China #2, China #3, Bali #1? Come on!
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