1st Days to China

I am sorry I took so long to post anything about our trip. But it has been a L.O.N.G trip to get here, and I was in such a fog getting here that I just couldn't manage it. However, after a somewhat decent night's rest, a shower and another nap I am now able to tell our journey so far.

We left our house at 10 AM on the morning of Wednesday, May 22nd. After 3 flights to LA, Seoul Korea, and then finally Hong Kong, which included 13 hours of layovers, we had traveled 39 hours! Asher did really well on the flights. Although, during our "bedtime flight", he wasn't able to go to sleep until our 2AM and he then slept for only about 5 hours, quite restlessly and on my lap most of the time, so therefore I didn't really sleep. It is a painful thing at that moment. But I must say Korean Air is amazing. They flew beautifully, got us there an hour early, their service was awesome and very attentive and their seats were much more comfortable than other airlines for only economy. The bathrooms were even bigger and way more clean. If ever doing this flight in the future we will only fly them if we can. So great!
 
We were able to get a shuttle that works with our hotel from the airport, paying less than a taxi and much more comfortable. We got to our hotel about 2 PM on Friday, May 24th. We were wondering what happened to Thursday, May 23rd? It is neat experience to actually go forward in time! It is a very nice hotel, in one of the business parts of Hong Kong. Speaking of Hong Kong-WOW! what a beautiful and amazing city. Hong Kong, means, "fragrant Harbour". I am not sure how fragrant it is, as the smells aren't always so pleasant. If you were to take away the pollution, crime and Godlessness here you can see the beauty that God created and man built. It is the city with the MOST sky-rise buildings.. I could not properly describe it you would just have to see it. 

Our hotel room was not ready, they were packed! So we went to Subway. The restaurants around were very American style and very expensive as well. We ended payed $16 for 2- 12 inch "Subway" sandwiches, avoiding the fresh vegetables in order to not get sick. Jay also bought us one of the most delicious fruit I have had called Dragon Fruit. I will post a picture of it too.

Back to the hotel: Again rooms not ready, but they did find us some on the top floor (15th!) with a gorgeous view of the Harbour and City Skyline. I tried to take pictures from our window, that I will post, but not very clear unfortunately.

We received our luggage and then went to straight to take a 2 hour nap. Our plan was to walk around some more and eat dinner afterward. However, Jacob and Asher would not move 4 hours into the nap so Jay and talked, deciding we would all go back to sleep (we were actually very thankful for that as well.) Asher slept 12 hour straight and woke up at 3 AM. At that point he was up and playful and while I did encourage him to stay in bed for another hour, he did not go back to sleep until our next nap at 10 that morning, when we all slept again for 3 hours.

At 6 AM we all got up and headed to breakfast. It was a nice spread of American and Chinese choices. Following breakfast we desired to go shopping to the Famous Ladies Market. The concierge told us that none of the shopping places would be open until noon though. So that inspired us to walk around a bit and take an earlier nap. (mentioned above) After nap we rode the taxi to the Ladies Market. It had been raining with thunder for a few hours so we weren't sure we wanted to go, but the hotel concierge encouraged us letting us borrow umbrellas and saying "we get good deals because of the rain". 

What a shopping adventure that was and the rain had mostly stopped when we got there, so we were glad we chose to go. It was probably a mile or maybe even 2 of street vendors on both sides. I was able to find several things I was looking for with decent bargaining. The vendors are toughs sometimes, but I am pretty good at bargaining. I really based my amount on what I knew I would pay in the states and for the quality. Unfortunately, they do rip you off a lot of the times, and much of their stuff is fake, copy cats, or just bad quality, even if it is nice looking. If I wanted something and walked away in the end, they always called me back and accepted my price. Well, besides one, which was way over priced and the vendor insisted it was leather,which it was not. ( I worked at a leather store for 3 years in my youth.) She wanted 3 times what I would pay, so I offered her very low and since she would not take it, I left. That was okay, it probably would have broke anyway as it was cheaply made. 

We had some delicious frozen yogurt and a freshly made donut just for fun. Growing up Jay and I both loved Johnny's donuts, which I "think" I remember was owned by a Chinese family. So we tried one and it was so good. I do think Chinese are some of the best bakers, believe it or not!

We came back to our hotel and rested a bit before going to dinner. Jacob chose an Italian Pizzaria. We shared a New York Style pizza, which happened to be quite delicious. We payed way too much for it, especially for the little toppings which were on top (It was $30 USD for one large). I think our hotel is in a district where people are fine with paying those prices. The tourists coming in our hotel are obviously visiting Hong Kong from all over the world. We have seen many Indians, other Asians, Africans, Australians and Americans in our hotel lobby, which is always packed.

Our next plan tomorrow is to leave about 9 AM Sunday, May 26th, on a taxi to the train station. We are going to try to get on the 10:52 AM train to Guangzhou. I remember the train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong with Asher, and it was very beautiful, through the country side, comfortable and relaxing. Arriving in Guangzhou we will then find transportation to the Guangzhou airport, which I read is about 30 miles away or so. After getting there, our  2 hour flights leave to our separate provinces at approximately 5 and 7 PM. Our guides will greet us and help us with our luggage, taking us then to our hotels. Jay and Jacob's guide should be Michael in Chongqing and Eliza, Asher and myself have Celine in Zengzhou. The next morning or so we will be meeting our babies this whole journey began for!! I am so excited..I will post pictures and show you them as soon as I can. Jay will not have a computer, so it might take longer for me to post Isaiah. But I will show you Elliana Kate Jun as soon as I am able.

 This was our first flight to LA on Frontier. Flight was okay, a bit shaky on take off and landing, calling me for Dramamine, but we got there, obviously fine. Eliza and Jacob smiling, ready for their adventure.

Jay, Asher and me on other side of the row. 

Asher watching the flight crew on one of our layovers.

Here is one of our Korean Air planes, I think this was the one that took us from Korea to Hong Kong.

Toby, Jacob knew you would like to see what was in front of us on the back of the seats. It was a TV screen, fully equipped with interactive maps of the flight, the world, movies, video games and the news. It helped the travel day go a bit faster.

A small sampling of the huge Hong Kong harbor and all the boat freight that was being shipped out. It was spectacular. It had these huge crane type lifts that picked up the cargo and moved them around.

Not looking so great here, we hadn't slept or showered in almost 2 days, but we were waiting for our hotel rooms. We ate some Subway and delicious Dragon Fruit. A MUST try in China.

Dragon Fruit!!!

Our window views from hotel room of the harbor. Sorry the quality is not so great.

An ancient Chinese sail boat, called a "Junk".

The world famous "Ladies Market" and location of our shopping excursion.

After pizza, we walked along the peaceful harbor and attempted to see the buildings light up with a laser show, which they do every evening at 8. We saw a little bit, but it was cloudy and we weren't in the best location. It was neat what we did see.

Back to hotel and to bed.. Goodnight.