Hong Kong 2007

Next Day

July 28-29, 2007

We all convene bright and early at National Airport for our departure to Hong Kong, via Chicago. Well... all of us except one (not naming names!) who arrived at National via Dulles. It was a few nail biting moments but it all worked out. The flight was uneventful but LONG! Except there was a family sitting in the center section of my row who complained to the flight attendant that I wouldnt put my window shade down and the sun was in her eyes...PULLEAZE! We were flying over the Arctic for gosh sake! It was beautiful...all the clouds and ice...gorgeous. If you want to control the window, get a window seat, but I digress.

Customs was a snap. I have never gone thru customs so quickly anywhere before. Tami was a bit disappointed because her stamp was not so good and she wanted a good strong one for memory's sake. She went back to try and get it but you had to have the same guy stamp it and it was just not possible.

When we got out of customs, we were met by Janet and Mimosa from the Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong. Check out their home page and item #5...Quest! After a fairly short van ride, we arrived at our hotel, The Salisbury YMCA in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong. We checked our bags, took quick showers and headed back out to see the light and media show held every evening at 8:00 on the harbor. (Quick side note: EVerything in our rooms is really small. The beds, the doors, the showers. We feel very big - no comment!) Very cool. Like a boardwalk type of place. We walked along looking for a place to change some money as well as food.

We found an ATM in the mall...this is quite a high-end mall - Louis Vitton, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tiffany's...you know, the places we always shop. It looked like Fifth Avenue in New York. We finally found a restaurant that looked like a good place. It was called Mask. The waitress there was the best waitress ever! I had this really spicy seafood soup...it had three chili beans on the menu key to indicate it was one of the spiciest things they had. No problem, I say. The soup was delicious but I couldnt identify most of the 'seafood' in it. It included mussels, octopus, sea whelk (a thing that looks like a conch shell and is very rubbery in texture), squid and a bunch of other wiggly stuff. I also had this drink which was good too. It had a piece of fruit on the glass unlike anything I have ever seen.

After dinner, back to the hotel and into bed! Exhausted.... more later!

--Myra

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Day 2 - July 30, 2007

Our first full day in Hong Kong!!!  We were all planning on sleeping in…It seemed like a good plan, but didn’t quite work that way.  Most of us were up between 3 and 4 am!  Myra even tried to go to the gym at 5:30…still closed…most normal people are still sleeping at that hour!

We decided we might as well get up and get going.  We had breakfast and headed for Lantau Island.  It is the home of the world’s largest seated bronze Buddha.  Yes, it was big, huge, enormous…  Getting there was very interesting.  Our fearless guide, Paul, led the way.  We took a ferry to Hong Kong Island.  From there took a ferry to Lantau Island.    This ferry had vomit bags…never a good sign!  In Lantau Island we got on the local bus and 45 minutes later ended up in a small fishing village.  From there, another bus took us to the Buddha.  The roads were small, windy and steep.  A few of us had our stomachs in our throats by the time we got there…The vomit bags were a good thing to have…

We walked up 256 stairs to get to the big guy….it was amazing!!!  The view was out-of-this world…rolling mountains, and even a prison!  We had a lovely lunch in the VIP room of the monastery….all vegetarian (onions weren’t even allowed…don’t ask!)  Then another bus, a train and the subway, and back to the hotel.

We had a welcome and production meeting tonight the Association of the Arts for the Disabled.  We learned about the shows, workshops and media relations that we will be doing over the next two weeks.  We met the Board of the ADA where they fed us chicken heads and chocolate…YUMMY! 

Now, gotta go to bed…goodnight!

---Erica

HOT! HOT! HOT! And whatever is in it is really good!	Check out the fruit on the side!
Here we are waiting for the ferry	April gets seasick but this ferry was well prepared
The 256 steps leading up to the Buddha	This guy can really make you feel small

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