We're in Hong Kong, with a 16th story view of the harbor...

We left Shanghai today for an adventure in Hong Kong while David, Cathy, Lauren and Richard go off to Guilin. They were in Hong Kong before we arrived, and I decided I'd rather have a chance to see Hong Kong than take the river boat tour with them through the country side. Sounds like the decision was a good one, it was about 78 degrees when we landed, but it's pouring rain where the parents are!

We were quiet early for our flight, so we took some photos in the airport, did some wandering, I did some captioning of photos and eventually we were off to Hong Kong. We took a bus to the plane... had a decent meal and arrived in HK a bit late. Getting through immigration was easy, a guide lead us to a bus to the hotel. We're at the Shangri La in Kowloon, the "other side" of Hong Kong... the Peninsula, as opposed to Hong Kong Island.

When we arrived we were given a "standard street view" room, and asked if we wanted to upgrade to the Harbor side... nope, our pre-paid room is just fine, thanks. We go upstairs. Have a very kind filipino man escort us up with our bags. He gives us a tour of the room, shows us the switches, control panels and other bells and whistles. Lauren mentions a strange smell. As we settle in, break out the tour books to decide what we want to do on which day while in Hong Kong, we both start feeling a bit ill... paint fumes? chemicals? We went to the desk and mentioned the problem. They offered to switch us and make a complimentary upgrade to a higher floor and a harbor view room. Score!

Our friendly filipino was back in a jiffy to help us move. The new room is great and the view is awesome. Pictures to come... I'm catching up. Shanghai is done now. Here's a camera timer capture of our view from the new room,

From Hong Kong: Day 1

We ran a few errands, had thai food for dinner, and are now getting into bed in anticipation of our cable car tour, recommended by a friend of the Krinskys, to a giant buddha statue.

Back to pictures, it's come to my attention, by way of a few people that it's not clear that the hyperlink on the end of each caption is a link to the album where the photo is housed. I'm only posting a few photos from each day...you're on your own to see the others, if you so choose. The direct link to my photos is: http://picasaweb.google.com/vsvisitsnvacations