Tuesday, Oct. 2nd - Day 2
We arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport at 8:05 PM. Gathering up all of our belongings, we stepped out of the plane and walked down a narrow hall. At the end of a long ramp down, we were struck by a wall of warm air which carried the scent of a land which was wholly new to us, except for Wayne; he had been to China once before. I'd have to say that Hong Kong definitely has a fragrance all its own.
Enter...the drama! Luckily, this leg of our journey was the least dramatic of all; A good thing too since we were all so tired. On the way down the ramp I had been doing a bag check to make certain we hadn't forgotten anything. It's a good thing I did because sure enough, one bag was left behind. Amber and Wayne hurried back up the ramp and into the plane, retrieving her backpack. We made it through immigration rather quickly and then hurried to baggage claim. I was pleasantly surprised to see that every sign was in both Chinese and English. That made it quite easy to find our way, much better than we expected. It also helped that Wayne had been to the airport before during the preview trip. Arriving at the baggage claim, we waited for our luggage ...and waited ... and waited ...and waited. The unthinkable! Noooo! Our luggage didn't make it with us. Finally we found one out of 10 bags we had checked at the airport in Canada. Eventually the conveyor belt stopped and the bags stopped coming. Wayne went and spoke to an airline representative and left our address in case the bags were found. Taking our one bag and five carry on bags, we walked until we saw a man with a sign saying "Anderson". It was pretty clear that he was there to meet us since every other sign was written in Chinese characters.
Thankfully it had previously been arranged that a van would be waiting to pick us up. The driver took our bags for us and wheeled them out. As we stood there staring at the small mini-van that had been rented for us, we realized that our bags not making it to the airport with us was a blessing in disguise instead of the unthinkable. Oftentimes there are these moments in our lives where all we can see is the negative. We tend to forget that there's someone watching out for us. We would all do much better to be grateful for what we do have instead of constantly fretting and complaining over what we don't. We and our bags barely fit inside the van but soon we were on our way. The drive to our hotel took a while but we were so glad to be off the plane, we didn't mind. Besides, there was a lot to see! Oddly enough, all the views reminded us of Seattle and we felt right at home; The freeways, the water, the green hills, and the tall buildings were actually a welcome sight. Our chatty driver eventually pulled into the driveway of a very lavish looking hotel and I knew we had arrived. We had only seen this place in pictures, both those on the net and those Wayne had taken when he had come here on his preview trip. He really had done a marvelous job finding a place where we would all be safe, happy and well taken care of. The doorman took our bags and opened the door for us while we went and checked in. He then took us up to our rooms and helped us inside. Finally, we could rest, really rest... or so we thought. We were all so tired we just got ready for bed but when we went to lie down, we realized the beds were made of steel! Okay, maybe not but they were so stiff they felt that way. But it didn't matter much, we arrived, we were safe and there was a whole new world out there waiting for us to explore it.
We arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport at 8:05 PM. Gathering up all of our belongings, we stepped out of the plane and walked down a narrow hall. At the end of a long ramp down, we were struck by a wall of warm air which carried the scent of a land which was wholly new to us, except for Wayne; he had been to China once before. I'd have to say that Hong Kong definitely has a fragrance all its own.
Enter...the drama! Luckily, this leg of our journey was the least dramatic of all; A good thing too since we were all so tired. On the way down the ramp I had been doing a bag check to make certain we hadn't forgotten anything. It's a good thing I did because sure enough, one bag was left behind. Amber and Wayne hurried back up the ramp and into the plane, retrieving her backpack. We made it through immigration rather quickly and then hurried to baggage claim. I was pleasantly surprised to see that every sign was in both Chinese and English. That made it quite easy to find our way, much better than we expected. It also helped that Wayne had been to the airport before during the preview trip. Arriving at the baggage claim, we waited for our luggage ...and waited ... and waited ...and waited. The unthinkable! Noooo! Our luggage didn't make it with us. Finally we found one out of 10 bags we had checked at the airport in Canada. Eventually the conveyor belt stopped and the bags stopped coming. Wayne went and spoke to an airline representative and left our address in case the bags were found. Taking our one bag and five carry on bags, we walked until we saw a man with a sign saying "Anderson". It was pretty clear that he was there to meet us since every other sign was written in Chinese characters.
Thankfully it had previously been arranged that a van would be waiting to pick us up. The driver took our bags for us and wheeled them out. As we stood there staring at the small mini-van that had been rented for us, we realized that our bags not making it to the airport with us was a blessing in disguise instead of the unthinkable. Oftentimes there are these moments in our lives where all we can see is the negative. We tend to forget that there's someone watching out for us. We would all do much better to be grateful for what we do have instead of constantly fretting and complaining over what we don't. We and our bags barely fit inside the van but soon we were on our way. The drive to our hotel took a while but we were so glad to be off the plane, we didn't mind. Besides, there was a lot to see! Oddly enough, all the views reminded us of Seattle and we felt right at home; The freeways, the water, the green hills, and the tall buildings were actually a welcome sight. Our chatty driver eventually pulled into the driveway of a very lavish looking hotel and I knew we had arrived. We had only seen this place in pictures, both those on the net and those Wayne had taken when he had come here on his preview trip. He really had done a marvelous job finding a place where we would all be safe, happy and well taken care of. The doorman took our bags and opened the door for us while we went and checked in. He then took us up to our rooms and helped us inside. Finally, we could rest, really rest... or so we thought. We were all so tired we just got ready for bed but when we went to lie down, we realized the beds were made of steel! Okay, maybe not but they were so stiff they felt that way. But it didn't matter much, we arrived, we were safe and there was a whole new world out there waiting for us to explore it.
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