An unexpected day in Hong Kong before India

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Travel day
Feb 3rd
The day has arrived, Sunday February 3rd came and my trip is ready to begin. I woke up at 4:30 AM and could not go back to sleep. Too much anxiety and excitement together. I was going to India to do yoga, meditate and meet with Kyle and backpack through the Northern India, New Delhi, Agra see the Tah Majal t he Rajasthan desert and the West coast all the way to Mumbai. I took a shower and had a quick breakfast and left my apartment at 8:30. The morning was gloomy, cloudy and a bit foggy it was predicted to snow afternoon I prayed for it to snow after my flight because Dalian's airport is very famous for delaying flights. Well I got to the train station just in time to catch the train to Jin Jia jie and got a seat . The train ride was smooth, listened to music and read until my stop. Using my Chinese skills I got a taxi from my stop to the airport really quickly and was at the airport by 9:00. I wandered a bit and then sat down to read a new book my mom game me in the summer but was waiting for India to start reading it and so I began to read it. I saw some DAIS families and observed the people traveling. finally it was time to check in and to my surprise the airplane was coming from Beijing and guess what?! it was delayed due to snow in Beijing. So I started to panic ! my Hong Kong to Mumbai flight was at 7:30 and I had 3.5 hours to make it , but not if it was delayed. I meditated, prayed and thought positive for it to be on time because one thing I have learned in China about flights is that Chinese airlines do not understand the importance of having more than enough time between flights in cases of emergency and also they do not have good customer services policies. I could not do anything about it so al I did was meditate and calm myself down I was not the only one with a connection flight there was an Indian guy going to Bangalore, a family going to Singapore, a man going to Taiwán and a guy going to New Zealand and lots of other people. Every 10 min I or another person would ask about flight status and the answer was always “no time bad weather.” I was already very anxious and other people started to get upset. There was no one to respond for us, finally after like 3 hours a lady came and said they will give us lunch and water and a paper that said the flight was delayed and will book hotel and maybe a flight (without us paying… I doubt it!) After another hour they posted departure time for 4:15 and effectively I would miss my 7:30 flight to Mumbai. Well people stated to freaked out demanding a person from air china to come to our gate and tell us what they would do for us. And to my not surprise no one came! At 5:00 we began boarding very slowly and we had to wait until 8:45 for the airplane to have permission to take off. At this point everyone was upset and had missed flights. I actually did not realized we were waiting for so long because I feel asleep for like 2 hours and when I woke up we were still parked in Dalian's airport. Finally at 8:45 the airplane took off. I meditated, read and fell asleep for most of the flight. We arrived to Hong Kong at 11:50 PM and we were received by air china ground staff they were very welcoming and took care of hotel first then of flights, but they said they could not book a confirmed ticket and so I would have to pay. Only in China!! So I used my iPod touch to Skype and looked at flights to Mumbai and found the same flight at 7:30 PM on Monday night. I had to booked as I already paid the ashram and could not risk not being on that flight. At almost 3:30 AM I arrived to the hotel that air china booked me the skyline Marriott and fell asleep quickly after meditating. That's the story of my flight to Hong Kong.

I woke up in a comfy bed with an amazing view of The city of Hong Kong. I decided to head out early so I could see this amazing city at least for a bit and so I got dressed and grabbed my backpack and headed out on a bus to metro station to explore the city.

Unplanned day in Hong Kong
Feb 4th

My first impression of the city was that everything was in two languages Chinese and English and almost everyone spoke English. The subway system is so modern, clean and easy to figure out , definitely a city build for tourists! Pretty quickly I was buying my ticket and heading to Kowloon area where the famous and designer clothes stores are and where the star ferry Harbour, avenue of the stars, museum complex and a magnificent view of Hong Kong city island.

I first took one line to Lai King and from there took another metro line to the Harbour city area. I got off the subway and found the way out towards the old tower clock and hopped out the station jumping out of job for being in this great city.

Hong Kong is called the NYC of Asia. It has people everywhere and from everywhere in the world, restaurants of all kinds, shops, pubs and bars an a large amount of life for everyone. Museums, shops, markets, cinemas, tons of hiking places within the city, bars, restaurants, cares and parks one thing for every taste.

I walked for a few hours and went to see the famous Victoria square, the old clock tower and the Harbour city where ferries come and go to and from Hong Kong city island. The famous pier has an incredible view and in spite of the clouds and fog the viewed the skyline, skyscrapers and the South China Sea was incredible.

I continued my walk along the pier all the way to the avenue of the stars just like in Hollywood there were gold and silver stars with names of Chinese actors and actresses. I was hoping to see Jacky Chan, but I did not however I did see Bruce Lee's star. It was a fun walk and people seeing as Chinese take the most tacky and funny photos. There were some decorative buses finicky painted with signs of Hollywood and cinema phrases and photos.

As I was returning to the subway station to head back I passed by a very modern and techy building compound which turned out to be the science, space, and art museum. There was a group of a Canadian international school of boys and girls probably all elementary eating a sack lunch I guess they were on a field trip. It was such a great place to go for a walk and it left me wanting to see more of Hong Kong!

I took the subway back to the train station and the bus shuttle to the hotel to get a quick shower, print some documents and get my backpack to go to the airport.
I wandered for a bit looking for an electronic shop to buy Kyle's battery for his camera, but I had no luck. I found a Chinese-English abc rhyming book that I bought for my nieces who are in Venezuela learning Mandarin and whom I hope will enjoy reading it to my toddler nephew. I grabbed some Chinese roasted duck and rice for lunch and went to check in for flight.

The flight was in time and they gave me a nice window seat the first row after business class so I had a lot of space for my legs and for my luck no one was siting next to me so I spread out and slept like on a bed. The airline was jet airways and it really was amazing the service, the comfy seats, business class was incredible it was four columns of 1 seat each and each seat had a private tv with a reclining seat. The only thing I did not like was the food. It was Indian Hindu chicken, rice and some veggies, a sort of pancake and some dessert that looked like yogurt and pudding. Don't get me wrong the food taste was good , but I took a big bite of what I think was a red pepper or chili and and my oh my I was in a lot of pain and my mouth was burning, the spice went to my nose and eyes and I started to cry. I thought I was having some sort of allergic reaction and that I was going to stop breathing. Luckily the yogurt, pudding and pancake saved me and I ate that to stop the spiciness. After that incident I did not want to finish the meal so I put it away and turned on my iPod meditation and got my book and fell asleep.

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