Hello & Goodbye to Hong Kong

He said: Well, we left on Saturday and arrived late Sunday night in Hong Kong, via a lay over in Osaka, Japan. We didn't sleep a wink and ended being up 24 hours straight. Needless to say that we crashed when we got to the hotel.

The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast and then went out to venture around Hong Kong. I've been very impressed with Hong Kong. It's very clean and easy to move around in. There are these upper level walk-ways for everyone to utilize, which gets you out of the road ways and away from traffic. All of the walk-ways connect you to all the major towers of interest too. In addition, almost everyone speaks English in Hong Kong.

As we ventured out, we found some great shopping areas too. After some shopping, we went to the Peak Tram. This is a tram that takes you up to the top of the highest peak over looking Hong Kong and the bay. What a view it was from there. The picture below was taken at the top of the peak. Parrish's mother (Sharon) is on the far left, then it's Parrish and Jan. After this little tour, we headed back down to our hotel in order to leave for the train station to catch our train to China.

For my friends at Citi - Enroute to the hotel, I ran across the Citigroup tower. I was able to take a picture next to a location sign located on the side of the tower. I was afraid to take a picture in front of the nice big sign next to the entrance as security in the building was quite tight.


At the time of this posting, we just arrived in Guangzhou, China a few hours ago and what a difference this place is when compared to Hong Kong. We were so glad to have a guide meeting us at the train station and getting us to our hotel. We're staying one night here and then it's off to Nanning, China, via yet another flight. If the plans have not changed, we should have the twins by tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, we'll be able to post our own pictures of the girls that evening.

She said: Hong Kong was great, but very similar to any other large city. If not for all the Asians, I might as well have been in New York! Well, that and the fact that those walkways prevent pedestrians from being nailed by errant garbarge trucks!

We made a mistake by staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong. It was absolutely lovely and now everything else pales in comparison. The train ride from Hong Kong to Guangzhou was nice though so that we were able to see what life is really like for many people here. Parrish, like the typical American, read Fortune magazine the entire time. I, like the typical tourist, stared out the window the whole time. We passed by actual factories where I could see rows upon rows of women in matching smocks hunched over sewing machines. They were probably making something for us WalMart shoppers in the states.

The five-star Marriott in Guangzhou must have had a different rating system than what we are accustomed to. It was passable, but then again, after the Ritz, it seemed like a worn-out Holiday Inn. Fortunately in Guangzhou, "Ann" from our adoption agency's travel group was there to pick us up and get us to the hotel. Navigating Hong Kong wasn't a problem, but mainland China is a different story. Tomorrow we fly to Nanning to get the girls!