Regardless of who I travel with and where we go as the plane touches down it's not long before the question that causes me to cringe is asked and Diva proved to be no exception. As we taxied to our gate she rose from her first class seat to inquire "How will we be getting to the hotel from here?" Truth is I had no freakin' idea. I don't plan for those things, my job is to get you to the destination for almost nothing. Fortunately 24 hours before I Googled the same question and printed off something quick, we had two choices: taxi and a combination of bus, metro, and taxi. I of course, was having nothing to do with the taxi option. After clearing customs I pulled out the paperwork and started to inquire about my choice, bad idea after a 16 hr flight where language might be a problem and its dark outside, but somehow we managed to find the correct bus.
It must be understood that Hong Kong is made up of several islands and when it came time to choose a hotel I had 3 Hyatt's to decide from; a Grand Hyatt on Hong Kong Island, a Hyatt Regency on Kowloon and one in Sha Tin. The first 2 looked to be in the heart of all the hustle and bustle of the city while the Hyatt Regency Sha Tin was about 30 minutes outside of Hong Kong proper and easily accessible to the busier parts of the city via metro. Given that I knew we would be recovering from jet-lag I chose the restful Sha Tin Hyatt Regency (please read tomorrow's review of the property). It was indeed the best decision for us overall. Back at the airport we had some money exchanged to pay for the bus/metro combo, found our bags and made our way to the boarding area for the bus. The bus was an express airport coach meaning it had only two stops prior to our destination which was at New Town Plaza shopping mall Sha Tin. From there we boarded the metro and fortunately Diva who is the chattier of the two of us starts a conversation with some Canadians folks staying at the same hotel and luckily, they offer to escort us to our destination.
We arrived safely, checked in and all was well, except that we woke up at 4am Hong Hong time which was 4 pm East coast time however, Diva and I were ready to go. We had to wait two hours before breakfast would even be served so I killed some time by video chatting with family, then we explored the hotel and made our way to breakfast. As I said I really didn't have a must do list for Hong Kong so I let Diva take the lead. We both had a top 10 things to do list taken from Trip Advisor and decided to plow through as many of those attractions as we could. Our first destination was Victoria Peak, an overlook of Hong Kong Harbour.
We managed our way there just fine, it's amazing how clean the transportation is or the town for that matter. There are 2 ways to get to the top of Victoria Peak, walk or take a cable tram. Diva isn't fond of heights so cable trams aren't her thing but she decides its ok to take the tram to the peak. It's still early barely 9am and hot as hell. We see the beautiful harbour below. Note how the buildings hold in the pollution on the two pics below. I literally just make a 180 degree turn from the same position in taking the photo and look how clear the air is on the non-city side.
Anyway, it was time to head back down and explore the next thing on our list when Diva asks if I'd mind walking down. I suppose the cable car presented enough of facing her fears for the day plus, I love to walk. The walk was shaded, but little did I know how far up we were until we started to walk down, and down, and down some more. Many locals were exercising by climbing up and we are dripping wet walking down. One of my many cultural observations for the trip started with this walk....people from Asian background do not sweat! We had gotten 3 quarters of the way down and I could not take another step, my face was beet red and my heart was doing funny things so I sat on a widow ledge and told Diva I needed a break. Fortunately the ledge I sat on was next to a mini collaboration of fashionable shops and we walked inside where Diva found some comfy lounging chairs in a heavily air conditioned atrium and planted me there while she went to scope out water. I took the opportunity to observe my surroundings and then I saw it....yes perhaps an omen given the circumstance that brought me in there. I literally was sitting outside the Pearly Gates, oh how appropriate.
A bottle of water later and a few left over cookies from breakfast were all I needed because I still had more walking to before I got to the bottom of this damn hill. Once we reached bottom what did we do; walked to a tall building (the IFC building)....
The IFC happens to be the second tallest building in Hong Kong equivalent to the height of the World Trade Centers in New York before 9/11. IFC 1 and IFC 2 as they are known are housed on top of shopping malls and major transportation hubs for the metro and train terminals, the buildings are featured in many Hollywood movies. The Hong Kong Monetary authority occupies several of the floors and on the 55th floor they have an observation deck, height loving Diva was thrilled with my suggestion that we should check it out. What is important to note is that we had walked from Peak Gallery on Victoria Peak (circled on the photo below) to the IFC so you can now see why I almost crossed over to the pearly gates.
Finally, after a long hot day we headed back to the hotel. It was our first attempt getting back on our own and seemed pretty straight forward. We exited the metro at the appointed stop but didn't take particular notice that there were 4 exits from the platform. I remember entering at B or D so we took exit B and after walking a little way I commented that this didn't seem right but we kept walking and things still did not look familiar so without our Canadian friends guidance we really didn't know where to go and the day light didn't seem to help since everything looked so different than at night. I finally had all the forces of jet lag, heat exhaustion, language frustrations and walking fatigue hit me at once and I refused to take another step, basically I told Diva, figure it out I'm not moving. So I stood and waited as she addressed the situation. Sha Tin is a college town and was full of student life even in July. A huge motor coach was sitting on the road not far from where we exited the metro, it must have been used as a shuttle for students or transport for a group visiting the college but it was empty except for the driver. (The photo is the exact motor coach but only taken a day later) Diva made her way to the bus, an attempt, I suppose to acquire direction from the driver, I stayed put.
A few minutes later she's leaning out of the bus waving me to come forward. I didn't move, I just looked at her quizzically. Then she gives me this look like I had better make my way there. I walked over to the bus, she motions me on, acknowledge the driver who barely speaks English and am motioned by him to sit. Diva is already seated behind the driver who is on the right (Hong Kong follows Britain with road rules as the steering wheel is on the right, opposite the way western civilization drives), I get on and am told by Diva that the driver will drive us to the correct exit, I look at her with raised brow, next thing I know the door is shut and off we go. I settle in for a plush ride in an air conditioned tour bus after a long hot day of sight seeing, but before I can put my feet up the driver opens the door and motions toward a tunnel. I'm looking at Diva, like huh?, what are we supposed to do? We had literary driven no more than the length of half a football field. Yup, it was time to get off the bus. Diva used her charm to sweet talk a bus driver into driving us 50 yards on a bus meant to seat several dozen passengers so we could correctly make our way to the hotel. It was the shortest, most exclusive ride in history, I suppose Diva had her own little travel tricks, or in what I truly believe to be the case it didn't hurt to be a charming, blonde, sweet talking American.
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