My Twilleager Life: June 2015

Mike and I decided to go to Hong Kong for our big Spring vacation. He lived there for a semester during college, and wanted to take me. Hong Kong was never on my list of must visit places, but we decided we needed to go now (pre kids). HK is not made for small children and strollers. I didn't really need to plan anything, since I had my own personal tour guide.

We had a 8 hour layover in Istanbul. Luckily, Mike has some airline status and we got to go into the Turkish Airlines lounge. Which is amazing!! The lounge was 2 stories, with a golf area, remote control cars, video games, pool table, sleeping rooms, massages, open bar and lots of food. It was a long layover, but with all the amenities and a season of Dancing with the Stars to catch up on it wasn't too bad.

27 hours after we started our journey we made it to HK. We got in late, but walked to the water to see the island all lite up.

The junk boat

The first day we walked around a lot, and visited a couple of malls.

My first time reaching the handles.

We went to the top of the International Commerce Building, which is the 7th tallest building in the world. It has 118 floors and stands 1,588 feel tall.

That night we went to an area that Mike frequented when he was a student and had a few drinks.

3am room service!

We did some shopping at the markets. These are the kind you haggle at. I bought a small back pack. Luckily, some people in front of us bought the same thing and had haggled the price down. So we just told the sales lady we wanted to pay the same price.There are several different markets around town, we went to the Ladies Market and a night market. And stores stay open until 10pm. The Swiss would be so angry.

The next day we went to Disney Land. Disney is about an hour away, with a few subway changes. I have no idea why but the place was empty. It sprinkled a little but besides being humid the weather was fine. The longest wait was maybe 15 minutes!! With no lines we rode all the rides and had lunch in about 3.5 hours.

Disney had their own train to get there.

That is a sad castle.

I made Mike ride the tea cups

The next day we went to the peak for a view of the entire city. It was a tad cloudy but we got a pretty good view.

And at the top of the peak they had a Bubba Gump restaurant, so we had to eat there.

That night we rode the junk boat around the harbor to view the light show. Every night the buildings along the water put on a light show.

And then we walked along the water, and saw some celebrity stars.

Bruce Lee

Jackie Chan

The next day we went to the fabric district!! The fabric district is in Sham Shui Po. It's probably about 10 blocks. There are probably a ton more stores, but these were the ones I found. We spent about 3 hours walking around. Most places only put out little samples for you to order from and then you go back 3 days later to pick up your fabric. But I found some stores that had the bolts there. Most people spoke English. And if they didn't it was easy to communicate, I would hold up 3 fingers (for 3 yards) and they would type the price into a calculator and show me. The prices were so cheap, there was no need to haggle. I saw one person haggling but he was buying 40 yards. So maybe it is ok for large purchases, but I don't think you do it for some purchases. Some of my fabric was only $3/yard, that same fabric would be $35 in Switzerland. The most expensive fabric was only $7/yard. And I think the quality is good on all of them.

My haul. I also bought a lot of piping that is not shown

We had lunch at Pizza Hut, and it was amazing. I miss pan pizza. And prices that are not ridiculous.

We also went to Stanley. Its a town on the water with more shopping.

Next we took a ferry to Macau for a couple of nights. We had some success at the casinos.

Mike wasn't expecting this German sized beer.

And we celebrated our 1st Anniversary.

On our last night we went back to Hong Kong. We stayed at the Sheraton and got a harbor facing room. It had a great view, and was a nice way to end out trip.