On departure day from Wakatobi we were directed to have our bags on the porch by 8am. We had breakfast, then we sat around with the group leaving with us till almost 11am. Finally, we boarded boats for our trip back to the pier of a nearby island, from there we took vans to the tiny airport, where we waited for another hour. The charter flight took us back to Bali where we had a five-hour layover before our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We got a room in KL since it was after 10pm, and our next flight left at noon (and it took us 14 hours to get there).
We landed in Hong Kong at 4pm. For our last stop on this tour we booked a hotel room with a mini kitchen, since we were only staying 3 days. The J Hotel by Yoo claimed it was the first boutique hotel in HK when it opened in 2003. It was designed by Philippe Starck as an art hotel. They certainly had some interesting, colorful décor and furnishings. It was a bit run down and probably would have been a death trap if you happened to be so unlucky as to be there when a fire broke out. The elevator was tiny, and the stairwells were crammed with amenities stock. It was centrally located, included breakfast, and they provided guests with a smart phone with 2gb of data per day, and we could use it to make international calls as long as we used a dialing code they provided. The hotel has since closed, and the building is being “re-purposed”.
Coming from the peaceful island life at Wakatobi, the crowds on the streets were a bit of a shock. So many people. It was hard to get down the sidewalks and at intersections there would be hundreds of people crossing at once. I had a few things on a list for us to do, but our hearts were really not in it. Bill had been to HK a few times for work, and he had done some of the tourist activities already, he would have done them again with me, but was happy to skip them. We were both just ready to be home (the last stop on these trips always seems to be a problem. The same thing happened when we were in Dubai in 2015). Fortunately, Bill noticed a billboard for a flower festival on the taxi ride to our hotel. I can always rouse myself to take flower pictures (so hopefully y’all can rouse yourself to look at her flower pictures), so we went to the “Joy in Bloom” in Victoria Park. It was very nice (Dessa got her first ever senior citizen discount – sweeeet), but the selfie lovers were out in force so it was often hard (or at least time consuming) to get a good shot.
Victoria Peak is the most popular tourist attraction, and we took a cab to the funicular tram to the top. The crowd that was waiting was huge and we were told that it would take at least an hour to even buy a ticket and then the wait would begin again. We took a taxi because while Uber is legal in HK, they have been forced to charge more than taxi rates. As it turns out we probably should have used Uber. The taxis were old and worn out, and we had two different drivers that had the strangest driving style. They would gun the gas, then let off completely so that we were jerking back and forth. I don’t suffer from motion sickness, but it was nauseating. We also had one cabbie just take off when we told him where we wanted to go. We learned from that experience to get in the car before giving them our destination.
We went to a couple of street markets, and went to see the Symphony of Lights laser light show that is set to music. The nightly show is a combination of lasers and lighted buildings synchronized to the music (we didn’t hear any music but it might have been out there somewhere – I’m old and my hearing isn’t great). They claim online that there are 40 buildings participating, but we sure did not see anywhere near that many, and it was rather underwhelming (and that is being generous) but we might have just been tired of sightseeing.
At last it was time to go home. We had a 6pm flight from HK to LA. Bill always books us the aisle and window seat (coach of course), in the hope that the middle seat will stay empty. If it doesn’t, I trade with whoever shows up and sit in the middle. This time the lady did not want to move. This has never happened before (I still can’t get my head around someone actually choosing to stay in a middle seat) and I would guess we have done it a hundred times. So once again, Bill and I were separated for the long flight. As it turned out, it was a good thing, I got to lean against the window wall and Bill did not have me lying on him. One last flight to Dallas and we were home the night of March 27th. This last week consisted of four days of traveling, and three days of wishing we were home.
My Pack Mule
In all, we traveled to 8 countries, took 16 flights, and flew 29,000 miles, in 90 days. Bill was like a pack mule dragging all our luggage for the last three months. We traveled with three large suitcases and four carry-ons, all packed to the max. I do appreciate his hard work. I was very happy to be back in the USA. No more Asian food, or rats! I could have Mexican food, and Chick-filet ice cream, and best of all, we could see the grandbabies. They acted like we never left, thanks to Facetime. Asia was fun, very inexpensive, and the people were super nice. I got my fill of all the places we visited (except Wakatobi – she wants to go back there), but there are plenty more places to go in Asia, so I am sure we will be back. Bill likes to say he took me on a 4-star vacation (at least 3.5), and I point out to him he took me to mostly 2-star countries.
We seem to only have flower pictures from HK. I’m sure we took some others, but it has been so long we can’t seem to find them. If you like flower pictures, you can see them at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_and_dessa/albums/72157694967396982
Love it!