Hong Kong -- Day 1

A Visit to Hong Kong

Pictures and musing from a teacher in Hong Kong

Honk Kong
Day 1

Flying Forever...

hong_kong_day1pct1.jpg (16819 bytes) It began in Raleigh's RDU airport at around 7:20 AM on Friday. It was a short hop to Chicago, and although I fought not to, I easily went to sleep during the flight.

At O'hara, I boarded what was probably the biggest air plane I have ever ridden. Directed to the correct isle, I thought that this wouldn't be that bad, until I moved beyond the business section and into coach.

After an hour on the plane, they turned on the TV screens and asked us to pull the shades down at our windows. On a couple of occassions, I raised my window shade to see a lot of snow below.

At first, I let it pass, assuming that there had been a storm in the past couple of days, but each time I checked the scene grew whiter. Finally, I concluded that we were traveling North over Canada and the Arctic to get to Hong Kong.

Go Figure!

hong_kong_day1pct3.jpg (14171 bytes) There was a haze in the air when we landed at Hong Kong's brand new International Air Port -- at 5:00 PM on Saturday.

This was the first airport that I have ever used that looked to be larger than it needed to. I'm sure that will change.

First thing to do in Hong Kong is Eat

hong_kong_day1pct4.jpg (22979 bytes) They say that eating is Hong Kong's best thing to do. Everything is scheduled around food. This was one of the aspects of my trip that I was looking foward to and the first thing I did.

My Hosts' families invited me to dinner at their club. Here are just a few of them. Those less than 4 and older than 80 are not shown in this picture.

hong_kong_day1pct5.jpg (19743 bytes) One of the "delicacies" of the evening was fish cheeks. I'm glad that they didn't ask me to eat chick cheeks.

It was an interesting meal with wonderful company, including "grand aunt" who plays tennis twice a week, swims three times, and is 67 years old.

She talked about her father who lifed to 96. She said that the communists confiscated all of their property during the "Cultural Revolution," and that he was stuburnly going to live until it was returned. It wasn't.