Tuesday, November 7
LinksHome November 5
We started the day off with a trip down into the city on the escalator. The kids love it and it’s an easy way to get downtown. You can see the photos of the girls and I on the various levels of the escalator on the way down. We see their biggest smiles when we agree to walk the escalator.
We walked around downtown a bit, took a bus, took the old Hong Kong tram, then Stephanie fell asleep, while I carried her. We decided to have an early lunch in a little cafeteria-style restaurant. The girls were pretty ratty at this point, so lunch was quick and painful!!
Back up the escalator to the hotel we went. In fact, the escalator runs in a downward direction until 10am so that people can use it to get to work. Then they switch it to run up to mid-levels after that for people to get home. It’s quite something, and free too! On the way back up, we found an outdoor food market and couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos. The first one is meat and the second one is chicken. What you may not be able to see is that there are cages of live chickens just behind me, waiting to be turned into dinner.
We decided to go for a swim. Keep in mind it’s been 28 and 29 degrees Celsius here, so the outdoor pool is really appealing. Check out the photo showing the view we had from the pool at our hotel. It’s really spectacular! The water is unheated so it was a bit cool, but we had a great time and the kids loved it.
Later in the afternoon, the girls decided they wanted a bus ride so we went nowhere in particular, just to have a bus ride. We went over to Causeway Bay area, and wandered about the shops, buying nothing. Then it was Emily’s turn to fall asleep while Danny carried her. We decided to stop at Starbucks so that Danny could sit down while holding a sleeping Emily. It’s fascinating to realize how cheap labour must be here. This was a tiny Starbucks and when I approached the counter there were seven young people working behind it. You might assume that meant fast service, but you’d be wrong. I stood in line for about 15 minutes to get one Mocha Frappucino. Pretty sure they’d be unemployed in Toronto, but they seemed happy.
We went to Danny’s cousin’s house for dinner. We had homemade hotpot. Danny’s mom and two aunts were also there, so it was quite the occasion. Emily and Stephanie didn’t really eat much, but they had a great time colouring and drawing with their cousin, who is eleven, so we actually had some quiet time. The aunties were happy to see the kids, as was Pok Hei’s dad. He did some serious smiling!
By the time dinner was done, we headed back to the hotel by taxi. Taking a taxi in Hong Kong is cheap, clean and easy….the polar opposite of taking a taxi in Toronto. The drivers are awesome, and even in the crazy traffic, they make the ride seem like a well choreographed dance. Emily was asleep by the time we pulled up to the hotel, so the whole family went to bed early and had a good sleep.
