Hong Kong At Last

We have fled Guangzhou and arrived in Hong Kong at last. Our train trip down was very nice and uneventful although getting to the train station was quite the brouhaha. Our train was at 3:45 pm so we were told we should leave by 2:15pm. Our bad, we assumed we would have a car or bus so we were not concerned. Turns out that we were taking the China Hotel shuttle and it left exactly at 2:15pm while we were checking out. We jumped in a Taxi with Philip, one of the China Team members, and sped off to the train station...for exactly 30 seconds. That was when we hit Guangzhou traffic. Luckily Philip, being Chinese, was able to give play by play driving directions to the taxi driver. The drive there was slower than LA traffic on the 91 freeway.

We finally got to the station, hired a couple of on the spot porters for our massive amounts of luggage and ran for our train. The line for customs was huge and Philip and our on the spot porters were not allowed to go into that area because they had no tickets and no passports. That left Michelle and me to carry Tenley, two huge duffle bags, two rolling carry-on bags, our backpacks, the extra bag and the stroller through customs and to the train. What a mess.

We got through customs ok, and then on to the train waiting area. Once there we were told we could check our luggage so I went over to the check-in desk and was told to take my bags on the train. By the time I came back Shel had made friends with a nice lady from Hong Kong who offered to help us. She went to the desk and argued with the people there. As it turns out, we were too late to check our luggage. She still was very helpful and carried the stroller down the escalator to the train platform for us. We didn't get her name but she helped us out so much just with the stroller.

The train was very nice. We were in Premium class and it showed. Tenley was not too happy about having to sit down for the ride but had some toys to play with and did ok. She finally fell asleep with about an hour left to go. The train got to Hong Kong around 5:45pm and thank God, people here speak english. The taxi driver was exceptionally nice and got us to the hotel post haste. The staff at the hotel was fabulous and we were put into our suite where Tenley promptly christened the room by having 3 poopy diapers in the space of 15 mins. I think she had been saving up for a special occassion. The first even involved a wardrobe malfunction that caused a change of clothes. We know our friend Tina will feel our pain on that one.

After a little unpacking, room service was ordered and we are beat. We leave for the airport tomorrow afternoon and then on to LAX. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.