Grand Adventure 2017 Day 7: Smoggy Foggy
This morning was tough. After five spectacular days in Tokyo, today was our last. We woke up at 3:30 AM (that's not a typo) and were out of the hotel by 4 AM to check out. It wasn't easy but we somehow groggily packed away the last couple of items and were off. Originally we had planned to just jump on the subway to Haneda International Airport, a short thirty minute subway ride. That was until we saw it didn't start running until 5:30 AM which would have made us miss our flight.
We instead made a gametime decision and ordered an Uber to pick us up. Ten minutes later our driver was there at the front of the hotel and whisked us away to the airport. Thirty minutes later we were dropped off at the international terminal and on our way. We dropped off our bags within minutes at the Hong Kong Express terminal and sat in the terminal for an hour before boarding our flight.
When we boarded the Hong Kong Express flight going from Tokyo to Hong Kong it was a slight deja vu moment. The plane layout and feel was almost identical to the Wow Airlines flight we took to Paris for my birthday. It's a no thrills airline with thin seats and no drinks or food. Luckily it was an early flight so both Jenn and I best to close our eyes and sleep the flight away. That was only partly successful. Although Jenn spent most of the trip on her iPad or with her eyes closed I only got a couple minutes of shut eye and spent the rest on my Switch playing Super Mario Odyssey.
The flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong was four and a half hours. We landed in Hong Kong at 11 AM and after waiting to get through customs our bags were "delayed" in getting to the baggage carousel. We must have waited at least 30 minutes for our bags. Luckily they finally came and we were off. When we got out to the main arrival terminal an older gentleman from The Langham hotel had our name on a board and whisked us to his booth where he took our luggage and gave us two waters. We were then escorted to a lot where hotel drivers wait and sat in a beautiful Mercedes to take us to our hotel. In the car was a beautiful letter from the hotel welcoming us to Hong Kong, telling us what we'd see on our car journey, and giving us a weather forecast.
After a 30-minute drive we arrived at The Langham and Jonathan one of the head guys at the hotel opened our door and welcomed us to the hotel. He also did something that I think more hotels should do. He had us skip the check-in counter and took us straight to our room. Gave us a tour, took a copy of our credit card and passports and let us relax. It was such a nice, easy experience that we were both blown away. He also gave Jenn a flower and me the bill so he knows how things work in this relationship.
Once we got settled in we found a nearby restaurant for lunch and were off. We decided to go with a more traditional Hong Kong meal and went to a high reviewed restaurant called Din Tai Fung. When we found the restaurant which was just around the corner from The Langham we were overwhelmed at first. The menu was a couple of pages, and there was a ton of people there, like hundreds. We were fortunate enough to get a table and a nice waitress who helped us through it. We started off with a spicy pork and shrimp wonton which was simply amazing. Jenn ordered a simple fried rice and a beef noodle soup and I ordered the sweet and sour chicken. There wasn't one bad thing on the table and we didn't leave much of anything on our plates. We did leave a bit of a mess but no one said we were professionals with chop sticks. Although we were overwhelmed a bit at first (or at least I was) we settled in nicely and had a fantastic meal.
After lunch we knew there was a Starbucks next door so I grabbed a cup of coffee and we got our third mug of the trip, a beautiful Hong Kong mug. After sitting there for a half hour or so we walked back to our hotel. We toured around a bit, saw the beautiful gym and pool area and then retired to our room.
At this point we realized that the weather was looking poor with cloudy, smoggy, foggy skies (and a bit of rain) so we stayed in for the next couple of hours, looking at photos, unpacking, and doing something we haven't done a ton of so far this trip, relax. It was exactly what we needed. We spent the next couple of hours doing absolutely nothing and it was glorious.
A little after 6 PM we left to go walk around and explore, with very little to do but find dinner. We walked through two beautiful malls and got to the coastline where day was turning to night and we got some amazing photos of the stunning Hong Kong skytline. I've never seen as many high rises as I've seen in Hong Kong, all beautifully lit up. Which, after a quick google search, makes sense because Hong Kong is second with the most high rise buildings with nearly 8,000 of them (only Moscow has more with over 11,000).
As we walked on the coastline we stumbled upon a restaurant that I would never be able to get Jenn to go away from, Italian food. She's been amazing trying all the different foods, so a respite with some pasta was in order. The restaurant was called Al Molo and we were lucky enough to score a great seat inside with a beautiful view of the skyline. We kept to a pretty simple meal, Jenn got the pasta carbonara and I had a simple margherita pizza. Both were really good. We had a friendly Italian waiter and the entire experience was really nice.
After dinner we walked around the general area, taking photos, looking in on shops, and enjoying a nice evening. After that we got back to our hotel a little after 8 PM, Jenn took a shower, and I fell asleep. Although we didn't do a lot in our first day in Hong Kong, I'm super excited to see what the next three days will bring.
