Thursday morning in Hong Kong

Thursday, April 13, 2006, 9:31 a.m.
One more day until Pam, Camryn and I return home.

By Terry R. Cassreino

HONG KONG - It’s morning here and we are dragging a bit.
Pam is still asleep and Camryn is sitting in the bed babbling on and on about something that I can’t understand (something about “A da” and “Ba ba ba ba ba”).
This, the Harbour Plaza Metropolis, is very ice. But our room is exceptionally small and narrow; it has a toilet, sink and shower but it doesn’t have a bath tub.
Our view, however, is nice. From our room on the 15th floor, we can see the Hong Kong harbor and several elevated highways that criss-cross the city below.
I’m not sure what we have on tap today. We are in no particular hurry, but we do plan to visit some nice shopping areas looking for bargains of any kind we can find.
The jury is still out, so to speak, on whether this is a good bargain. We’ll see. . .
Until then, here are a couple of photos.


PHOTO 1
Camryn sits on the bed this morning irritating the living hell out of Pam. First, Camryn grabbed a phone book and started slamming Pam on the head saying in Mandarin “Get up out of bed and fix me some breakfast.” When that didn’t work, she started banging her massive rattle on the top of Pam's head. Here, Camryn is in the process of humming her rattle at me and the camera. Then she laughed.












PHOTO 2
Here is a view from our 15th floor room at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis across from the train station in Kowloon. I don’t really know where the hell we are and I’m totally confused about directions. But we’ll manage somehow.


Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

Riding the rails in China

Wednesday, April 12, 2006, 11:27 p.m.
Two more days until Pam, Camryn and I return home.

By Terry R. Cassreino

HONG KONG - It wasn’t Amtrak, but it damn well could have been.
Pam, Camryn and I boarded the passenger train in Guangzhou after we got the baby’s U.S. visa Wednesday afternoon. We expected a fast trip to Hong Kong.
Well, we made the trip in the advertised time of just under two hours. And the car in which we road had wide, spacious seats any air traveler would die to have.
Once we reached the train station in Hong Kong, our adventure began. We arrived a little after 8, went through customs and immigration and headed for our hotel.
Oh my God. Our luggage. We forgot to pick up our four pieces of checked luggage that included four tea sets, six Rolex watches and various souvenirs.
Pam, Camryn and I, itching to check into our room and then head out for dinner, abruptly turned around and went to claim our luggage. But it wasn’t there.
Get this: The elevator on which it traveling up from the ground floor was stuck. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And, you guessed it, waited.
Then the police arrived and politely told the three remaining passengers waiting for checked luggage that it would be another 15 minutes before anyone could repair the elevator.
So we waited again. And again. And again. In fact, we waited for more than an hour before our luggage mysteriously arrived. By then it was 9:30 p.m. and we were starving.
So here was Pam, a crying and fidgety Camryn and myself trying to haul four huge pieces of luggage and tons of carry-ons across the street to the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel.
I called the hotel from the train station and asked for help with my luggage, but they refused. So an employee from the station helped us and then refused to accept a tip.
Now it’s 10 p.m. and we are famished. So Pam priced the hotel’s buffet, which was still open. And what do you know: A bargain at $57 in U.S. money per person during a weeknight.
“What the hell are they serving for that kind of money?” Pam asked the front desk clerk.
“Oh lots,” the clerk said. “Go take a look.”
“I think we’ll go to McDonald’s” Pam snapped.
And that was half correct. By the time we got to our room - which is nice even though it’s the size of a broom closet - we decided to order an incredible pizza from Pizza Hut.
It wasn’t Chinese food, but it was the best damn pizza we have had in a while. It came piping hot and piled high with vegetables, meats and even pineapple.

Dull ride

Back to the train trip: To put it simple, the ride was boring, That’s right: Boring. We saw little interesting scenery; instead, we talked with another family that adopted a child from China.
We also amused ourselves by watching Camry relax, gab away endlessly in baby Mandarin and play peek-a-boo with the passenger in the seat behind us.
And then there were the train attendants. At least I thought they were train attendants. They dressed similar to flight attendants and they walked up and down the aisle endlessly.
Every now and then, a train attendant would walk down the aisle selling items. One sold cold drinks. One sold snacks. Another sold fresh corn on the cob. Another sold raw meat.
I imagine the raw meat was steaks that were cooked in the dining car. But by the way the train attendant waved the meat in the air, I certainly didn’t want to order one of them.

Train restroom

Pam had to use the restroom on the train and was quick to file a report as soon as she returned to her seat.
“T.,” she whispered as she sat down. “They have Eastern toilets on the train. But you have to pour your own water down the drain to flush it.”
Pam said a red bucket was off to the side. If you used the toilet, she said, you had to fill the bucket with water from the nearby sink and then “flush” the toilet.
It sounds simple, but I’m sure the rocking motion of the train made it difficult.

Camryn's visa

Camryn has her U.S. visa.
Pam, Camryn and I joined several other families adopting Chinese babies at the U.S. Consulate in downtown Guangzhou for a brief ceremony marking the occasion.
That, though, was the only thing brief about it.
We waited for what seemed like an eternity in a non-air conditioned building to get Camryn’s visa so she can return with us on Friday. All’s well and we’ll be on our way.
First, though, is our day of shopping Thursday in Hong Kong. I hope it’s an inexpensive outing because with the rates this hotel charges that might not hold true.

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.