We woke up at 3:00 in the morning to be picked up by the red truck at 4:30 to get to the airport on time. Departure time was 6:00, and although the boarding pass said we could proceed straight to security, it wasn't true. We had to go back downstairs to wait in line to check in for our flight so that they could stamp "international" on our boarding passes. We were finally able to board and settled in for the almost 3 hour flight after I had a little discussion with the immigration official on why I didn't need a re-entry permit.
We were excited that Hong Kong time was 1 hour behind Thai time, our plane arrived 15 minutes early, and we made it through immigration with no problems. We then were able to get our airport express tickets, use the ATM, and purchase our Octopus cards which act like a debit card for traveling and purchasing items around Hong Kong. God led us each step of the way, and we didn't get lost until we got off of the MTR to find the Thai consulate.
We bought one-way tickets so that we could save a bit. You can buy one-way tickets and save about 10 HKD per ticket. Plus you can buy the airport express tickets with your credit card. Octopus cards can just be topped up with cash. So it's really up to you. We wanted to use our credit card so it was good for us to buy the one-way group tickets.
The airport express is smooth and efficient. We were into the city in about 25 minutes and transferred to the line we needed to get to the Thai consulate. We were at the consulate after a few missed turns (some very nice people helped us out) about an hour and a half before the deadline for collection, but we were missing one document for the visas. We tried to contact everyone we knew in Thailand to try to get people moving to get us the document, but it was very difficult since it was a holiday in Thailand. At least we found a coffee shop where we could buy a coffee and use the free wi-fi although we couldn't connect with anyone who could get the document to us in time for submission on Tuesday.
We're thankful we left on Tuesday so that we had an extra day for the consulate. The Thai consulate was closed on Monday and had a holiday on Good Friday as well. Our friends traveled to Hong Kong on Wednesday, but that would have been too late for us. God worked out the timing on so many things including preparing the way for us to get to the consulate before the deadline on Tuesday or we would probably have returned to Thailand without the new visa. If we had found out on Wednesday we didn't have all of the paperwork we would not have had enough days to process the visa.
After we couldn't contact anyone we decided it was time to get back on the MTR to find our hotel. Rusty noticed this woman burning an offering--it looks different than Chiang Mai. Although I know that the country is predominantly Buddhist (really a lot of ancestral worship), I didn't notice a lot of religious rituals. Of course Buddha images are everywhere along with shrines for ancestral worship, but I didn't notice the temples like we have in Chiang Mai.
Real estate is premium. The hotels are not large, but they shoot high into the sky. Our hotel had 6 rooms per floor, but it had 23 floors not including the lobby. This is the smallest room in the hotel with a full size bed and a little bit of room to walk around the bed.
The bathroom was actually a comfortable size shower which was larger than a shower cube in the States. The only problem with the bathroom was there was no countertop. You can tell the bathroom door was really close to the bed. Most importantly the room was clean, quiet, and comfortable. I thought it was pricey at $100 per night, but I would stay there again. Rusty joked that he couldn't take off his shoes or get into bed without opening the bathroom door, but it did have a large t.v., small refrigerator, and a bit of closet/cabinet space.
After resting up a bit from the long day (it was only about 2:00) and using the hotel's wi-fi, we decided to do some exploring. We knew for sure we wanted to ride on the Star Ferry to get to the mainland. The fare for the upper level is $2.50 HKD which is less than $0.50. The ferry company is a 100 year old company that is listed as one of the top 10 things to do in Hong Kong.
It was quite windy, but we enjoyed taking some selfies. It's hard to get pictures of us together, but here we are with the iconic Hong Kong skyline in the background.
We did a lot of walking, looking at buildings, and waiting for the free light show to start. Hong Kong really is a mixture of East and West. We had trouble pronouncing many of the brand names that we saw at the malls and downtown stores. We finally found some American brands in the corner.We stopped at a McDonald's to pick up some food. It was easy and quick. I tried a wrap that had beef and rice in it, and Rusty had a big'n tasty--both things we do not have in Thailand.
Then we waited at the pier to watch the light show. It was beautiful even though we didn't have the clearest skies for the show. We made it back to the hotel not long after the show to get a good night's rest to get ready for another day at the consulate.
*Take away from day 1--everything in Hong Kong seems to be very fast. You need to be able to learn and adapt quickly to the things you have never done before.
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