Our Last Stop - Hong Kong

I was up early again this morning. I woke up around 4:00am. Since I couldn’t sleep I edited the photos I took yesterday and then worked on journaling and my blog. By 7:00am I was done with everything and all caught up on my photos and journaling. Then I got up and got dressed and packed my things. Thomas got ready as well and around 7:30am our bags were outside our room for the porters to pick up (this had to be done by 8:30am). After putting our bags out we headed down for some breakfast. We had a quick breakfast and then returned to our room to relax for a while. At about 9:00am we headed down to the lobby to meet everyone. Around 9:30am our local tour guide handed out our lunch boxes and then we got into the bus for our drive to the Guilinbei Railway Station. It only took about twenty minutes to get to the station and there we said goodbye to Christine. Then we went through security and made our way to the waiting area. Our trip number is G2901, we board on platform 11, we are in car 03 and in seats 9AC. We were let onto the platform at 10:30am and the train left the station at 10:55am. We got settled and the train left the station and quickly got up to 240 km/hr. During the train ride they gave us a snack box and we already had our lunch box. We saved both of these until around 1:00pm. We opened one of each box and ended up sharing just the one box which meant we had to carry the other box with us off the train when we arrived in Shenzhen. Thomas read and took a short nap and I read and worked on some journaling. The trip was about three hours and the train reached a speed of 304 km/hr. The train was really comfortable and had lots of room. It was a great way to travel and was much better than spending time in another airport and on another cramped airplane. Also, we got to see more of the beautiful hills in the Guilin area as the train left the station and headed for Shenzhen.

It was just after 2:00pm when we arrived in Shenzhen and we quickly made our way to our waiting vans. We had to split into two groups because all seven of us and all our luggage couldn’t fit into one van. Thomas and I rode with Arnold in one van with some of the luggage and Jeff and Jen rode along with Paul and Mary in the other van. We drove for about 45 minutes from the train station to the border. We first had to get out of the van and walk through customs. We had to show our passports and a departure card to the agent. He then took the departure card, scanned and stamped our passport and then we were good to leave China. Even though we weren’t really leaving China, we were just going into Hong Kong which is technically part of China. Then we got back into the van and drove just a short distance to the Hong Kong border where we had to show our passports and a arrival card. They took one copy of the card and gave us back our passports and a second copy of the card and we were free to enter Hong Kong.

Then it was another 40 minutes drive to our hotel – Kowloon Shangri-La. The drive into Hong Kong was interesting. Lots of tall buildings all clustered together which was similar to the cities we visited in main land China. But then there were lots of buildings and other things that made it seem like we could be in any large city in the world. It just seemed so metropolitan where the large cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai still has a more local cultural vibe. It felt like we had reentered a world that seemed more like ours. The past 18 days felt like we were in a totally different world than ours and now it feels more like home. I am not saying one is better than the other just that it is now more familiar.

Once at the hotel we got checked in and got our room keys – we are in room 1801. We had a little time to go up to the room and get settled, use the bathroom before we needed to meet in the lobby for a walking tour of the area. Our local tour guide here in Hong Kong is Matthew. He walked us down Mody Road to Nathan Road. He talked about shopping, restaurants and bars and gave us an orientation of how to get around. After about 30 minutes we returned to the hotel. We had about a half hour to relax and then we all met across the street from the hotel for dinner. We were on our own for the night so the six of us went to a place called Rocco’s Pizza. It was nice not to have Chinese for a night. We all had pizza and drinks. Thomas and I each had a salad. We had a nice relaxing meal and a good visit and about an hour later we returned to the hotel and called it a night.

Once we were back in our room we took showers and Thomas read while I journaled. It Is now time to get some sleep so we can see more of Hong Kong in the morning. This trip has been a busy one and a long one. We are now ready to return home and have some normal time but I think we can manage one more day before leaving on Sunday for home.