Days 1 & 2 in China

The trip to Hong Kong had its ups and downs, but mostly was very good. We flew Delta Thursday afternoon to San Francisco with a layover in Salt Lake City. We went from a small plane to a really small plane, but the ride was fine. We arrived in SFO around 6pm, but our flight to Hong Kong left at 1:30am so we had a lot of time to burn.

We decided to rent a car and check out the coast and maybe the Wharf. Big mistake. It took at least an hour to get our car and then the fog started to roll in and we had no idea where we were going. We never made it to the coast or to the Wharf. We ended up just driving across the Golden Gate Bridge over and back, and then back to the airport. Worst part of the trip by far.

The plane ride over the Pacific was good. Cathay Airlines is pretty awesome. The employees were nice and the planes were nice. Each passenger had their own video screen, so when we weren't sleeping, we were watching a tv show or movie or playing video games. We got some pretty good sleep on the plane maybe 4 hours total or so for each of us. It actually seemed to go by pretty fast for a 13 hr plane ride.

Inside the cable car

So we arrive in HK at about 6am Saturday morning and take the hotel shuttle to the hotel. At that time of the day, our room isn't ready of course. So, we can't sleep in a bed yet. We decided to take a shower at the pool/spa area and then go back (there was lots of back and forth everywhere we went) to the airport to eat breakfast and burn some time until our room is ready. We got our room around 10am and we were exhausted. We crashed until noon. We set the alarm to go off so we wouldn't sleep all afternoon. So we forced ourselves to get up. Not very pleasant.

Pic from the cable car

Andrew with a sand crab

What a stud

We ended up going to the beach and taking a gondola ride on Saturday. The beach wasn't that great, but the cable car ride was pretty cool. It took us to the top of a mountain and was a pretty sweet view. We were exhausted again after dinner and went to bed around 8pm. We all got a good night's sleep and we defeated the jet lag in one day! Woo hoo!


Sunday morning we went to HK Island and went to Victoria's Peak. This again was another scenic thing. This mountain gives you a pretty amazing view of the entire city of HK.

Hong Kong from Victoria's Peak

Then in the afternoon we flew to Chongqing. Debra (our guide) picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel. She explained how the next few days would go while the driver was zooming in and out of an insanely disorganized mess of traffic. I thought we were going to wreck a few times. It was hard to pay attention to what she was saying. Trish and I were both just totally fixated on silently back-seat driving for this guy. It was crazy.


So we just now got back from dinner here in CQ. There is a pretty neat little pedestrian area right here by the hotel that has several blocks of shopping, but not much for restaurants. We ended up in a tiny little spot (maybe 4 tables). It was a total Dances With Wolves moment. They couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak Chinese. The menu had no pictures and no English. Trish brought some menus from Chinese restaurants in KC that had dishes written in English and Chinese. But they didn't seem like they could read it or make it or something. They ended up bringing a menu out that had dishes in English and Chinese, but none of it was anything familiar. We picked two dishes and waited to see what it was going to be.


One of them was a chicken dish that looked like brains, but tasted pretty good. I don't even know what the other one was, maybe like an almond chicken, but man it was hot. I took one bite and the two little waitress girls started giggling. Nice.


They laughed at us the whole time we ate. We had no idea how to eat this stuff. They brought a small ice bucket of rice - like a wooden bucket for old homemade ice cream makers. We each had a little bowl and a little plate, one of those weird Chinese soup spoons and chopsticks. What the heck were we supposed to do? They ended up scooping the rice and putting it into our bowls, but then where do we put the brains? On the little plate? Pile it on top of the bowl of rice? Just eat it right off of the serving plate? They had a great time watching us.

None of us can do chopsticks either. One guy tried his best to teach me, but I'm just too stupid. I don't think my fingers work right or something. Uncoordinated American.


Tomorrow is Gotcha Day! We are free in the morning and then we meet Maria around 2 or 3 pm. Big day. Big big day. Please pray that Maria won't be too shell shocked and that we would quickly figure out how to communicate with each other.


Hopefully we'll have more tomorrow night. With pictures!

Kraig