September 13-15
Michael and I got into Hong Kong a few hours before Ken and Janine, so we had a chance to check into the airbnb and go explore a bit before they arrived.
Here’s the view from our airbnb… not too shabby, eh?
We checked out a beer shop and then grabbed dinner in SOHO.
Finally J9 and Ken made it around 9pm after an 18 hour flight. We grabbed a quick dinner near our apartment, had a few beers and then went to bed.
The next morning we popped out into the heat to check out a few sights. First up was the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on our way to Victoria Peak.
Next it was a very steep, slightly terrifying tram ride up to the Peak.
Definitely worth it for a great view of the city.
Then some of the best noodles and dumplings we’ve had at this tiny shop.
We never got a full picture of all four of us together from this day, but note that Michael and Ken are both in Navy shirts and blue/gray shorts while Janine and I are both in pink shirts and navy shorts. It’s hard work coordinating that much. You can kind of tell here:
And you can at least see what the guys are working with here:
That night we got dressed up and had a fancy dinner at an incredible rooftop restaurant – Tin Lun Henn – with a great view of the city.
Somehow, I only have this one picture of Michael. I think he’s pretending to be fancy here:
And of course I got a picture of the Peking duck.
And Janine got this picture of the fancy chop sticks. The white are to eat with and the black are to use for plating when taking food from a communal dish.
And then Michael got this cool picture of the hallway at dinner.
But could we get any pictures of us all together while we were dressed up? No. Janine and I even wore heels!
The next morning we grabbed some great dim sum before heading to the airport.
The below were like tiny pineapple upside down cakes.
Initially we were supposed to meet up with Ken and Janine and spend four days in Hong Kong, a city that all four of us were pumped to visit. But with a huge typhoon headed our way, we decided to enjoy the city for less than two days and then duck out early before the typhoon hit to avoid messing with the rest of our travel plans. We have places to go and people to see!
Mangkhut ended up being the strongest of 16 typhoons since WW2 with winds over 124 miles per hour. There was flooding in Hong Kong and major clean up on Monday, the day we were suppose to fly out. Our Monday flight to Phuket was actually canceled by Saturday morning, so it made the decision to change our plans pretty easy. We hopped on a flight to Chiang Mai and gave Ken and Janine an extra city on their tour of Thailand.