Home Sweet Home

We arrived safely home this morning, even a few minutes early on a Northwest flight from Tokyo. We had a delay leaving Hong Kong, so it was pretty tight making our connection, but we arrived in the nik of time and were quickly off for our finally leg of a long journey.
We lost internet service shortly after arriving in Hong Kong due to a earthquake in Singapore that knocked out the internet service. This did not make our children happy at all. All of a sudden they lost connection with friends, boyfriend, and girlfriends. We could not even check email. It is amazing how much having that connection helped keep us grounded with the security of home. However, we all managed to survive.
We left you last when we were celebrating Christmas in Guangzhou. We had a nice quiet day, filled with our last walking spree down our favorite streets, a final foot and back massage ( we really wanted to bring them home with us ) and a cruise on the Pearl River to see the lights of the city. The cruise was fun, we sat on the top deck, the lights of the buildings and the other boats on the river were beautiful. The next morning we boarded a train for Hong Kong.
The train was a nice break from the flying and we enjoyed the comfortable seats while we watched the landscape of southern China pass by. It took us about two hours to arrive in Hong Kong. We were met at the train station by Mario. Due to a long story, our hosts in Hong Kong were out of town, and they insisted we stay at their lovely town house on the back side of Hong Kong island and have their driver, Mario, take us anywhere we wanted to go. We quickly discovered we were in a gated community of very expensive town houses with no resturants or shopping within walking distance. Mario took us to the small town of Stanley that was not far away. The town was small but filled with resturants and shops. We went our first late afternoon in search of dinner and grocery store. We couldn't figure out why it was so crowded. We were used to crowds by that point, but it seemed strange that this small town would be filled with people, and this time a rich variety of all races and languages. It wasn't until the following day that I realized it was Boxing Day, which is a holiday in HK. Jeff and I discovered we were at the end of our energy level and although we did not want to lose a precious day of sightseeing in HK, we decided we had to have a down day on Wednesday. The kids were actually pleased as they wanted to head for the beach and have a day soaking up the sunshine ( it was just right, sunny, but not too hot ). As Jeff and I enjoyed a quiet day of resting and reading, the kids laid on the Stanley beach, soaked up the sun, and Adam swam in the water protected by netting so the sharks could not come into the swimming area. I had remembered sunscreen, which all but one of my children used, and Meng came back with her first sunburn, having insisted she did not need the extra protection. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.
Thursday we were ready to go again and spent the day in the city. We rode the Star Ferry, something I have wanted to do for many years since reading TaiPan, and Noble House by James Clavell. Never dreaming I would ever really be able to make this dream a reality. Having only one day we just hit the high tourist attractions, of course, including riding the tram to Victoria's Peak. The view was beautiful! We really enjoyed our short time in HK, there were very few stares, and most people spoke English. If we looked a little lost, someone would notice and ask us if we need directions. The skyscapers were everywhere, and it amazed us to see so many tall apartment buildings in such a small area. People, people, people everywhere.
So we are at the end of this incredible journey, we felt like we were gone for a long time, and although we were ready to come home, it was hard to leave. This was a trip we will always remember, we had so many new experiences, and had so much fun with the new friends we met. We will post more pictures and I will have the girls post in the next few days as well. Thanks for sharing this trip with us, Vicki