Hong Kong and a Bug

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After leaving Siem Reap, I flew to Bangkok for one last night before my flight to Hong Kong. I simply relaxed by the pool and slept a lot while I was in Bangkok. The last tour wiped me out!

My flight to Hong Kong was fine and dandy. I arrived in early evening to my hotel in Kowloon. I spent some time at one of the shopping centers. Hong Kong has loads of shopping centers. As soon as I walked into the mall I realized I walked in through the wedding center? There were 3 weddings going on in a mall! Who knew catering halls existed in malls. This was something new… Walking around a bit lead me to all the Christmas decorations! I haven’t seen any holiday decorations anywhere else. I didn’t expect to see any. I hit up a Chinese restaurant (obviously). Back in NYC I retired Chinese food for the most part as I of course deal with the typical Jewish stomach… eating certain foods with the aftermath a stomach ache.

I had the same stomach affect in Hong Kong. I wasn’t feeling so hot. The next morning I relaxed in the 75 degree heat before heading out for an afternoon tour of Lantau Island. Here is where the giant Buddha sits… It was so big; there is a museum in the belly of the Buddha. We also went to the fishing villages which were really neat as well as the monastery. The group was a good group. The scariest thing for me was taking the 25 minute cable car ride to the island. I was nervous I was going to freak out but there was no wind, so it was a nice ride with some great views!

My stomach started to crumble. I wondered if I had some food poisoning, a bug, a parasite??? Oh gee…

I had plans to go to Hong Kong Island via the star ferry my last day (as I only had 2 full days). Unfortunately my stomach wouldn’t allow me to leave my hotel room. I was super bummed out as who knows when I will make it back to this side of the world!

My flight back to NY was at 9:30am. I checked in at 6:30 to find out there wasn’t a single aisle seat left on the plane! My stomach was in shambles and I panicked. Middle seat for a 15.5 hour flight! Oh well. I hope to get some sleep!

I was wedged between a ‘bag lady’ and a Chinese guy. The ‘bag lady’ had about 6 plastic bags bundled up that she deemed necessary to search through every hour on the hour. I made about a trip every hour to the restroom. The good news was Eat, Pray, Love was available to watch so I went ahead and watched. I was so disappointed! The book was pretty good – the movie was just so-so. I loved the cast… I knew all the stories… but I guess it’s hard to fit a year of stories in a 2 hour movie. Additionally I watched one of the Twilight movies… it helped me sleep a bit. Some Californication and Sex and the City helped pass the time (go Cathay Pacific for have R rated shows available)! Because of the bad weather, we circled around for an hour before we were able to land. 16.5 hours with a bag lady, a bad stomach and some small naps, I arrived back in New York. Adventure over and out for now.

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