Hong Kong.
The brassiest metropolis of China, and I would like to qualify this given that Shanghai has gone on overdrive the past 15 years and is the de facto business capital of the PRC.
It was almost eleven when we got settled into our hotel. Our guide, Henry, was a no-nonsense kind of person, a difference from Fiona who had the gift of gab and courted all attention. Henry had quiet knowledge but was more organized and efficient. We were hungry! The twists and turns of the station exhausted us.
We stayed in the New Territories, several kilometers away from the city center (which explains why the hotel was so cheap). The hotel was part of a mixed-use development with a high-rise apartment building making up the other portion of the property. As I divined, the room was small, but comfortable, though on the first night I slept on the window bench, which was a really bad idea.
The bummer of the Hong Kong trip was the clogged toilet in our hotel room! I’ll save the imagery for you. So we had to switch rooms and move all of our stuff. Stressful since we had to meet our 8:00am schedule but we only got to move at 7:30am!
Because of our experience in Shenzhen, we were not likely to pony up a lot of cash for the goods they were selling at the various tourist shops. I did, however, appreciate the kind of organization these guys had.
Why not promote eco-shopping tourism in the Philippines? Not only do we have the destinations, our people have enough smarts to do this. It doesn’t even need a whole lot of government intervention, only less government red tape. Why this is not being done is a testament to the lack of direction and vision in the country.
Going through Hong Kong, I gained a sense of balance over the things NOT DONE during this trip. Even with better management of my time, I guess it was all a matter of priorities – my primary objective being the happiness of my mother on her 70th birthday. It was also the first real opportunity for me to give something back to her after all of these years.
This opportunity may never come again. While I still have time, I aim to make life better for my mom. One only hopes she will be around if and when my own children come. Well, she is tough as anything, but the main problem is that I’m having a hard time on the relationship end (hahahaha!).
Ocean Park was a blast! Cute pandas (a relatively new attraction), fantastic cable car ride, great dolphin-and-seal show --- the only thing that took some fun away was that it was raining. Plus the fact we managed to run into one of the biggest senior citizen conventions ever. There was a veritable horde of seniors (most probably from elsewhere in China), so we didn’t get to enjoy some of the attractions as much. Back to the Philippine question – WE CAN DO THE SAME THING AS OCEAN PARK, but the question is - who is going to take the risk?
Later that day, we went to the Mongkok night market. It’s an experience to be undergone to give a good description. It’s not that esoteric, by the way, but still…
By that time, however, I was already drained due to the exertions of the day, and I didn’t want to spend as much anymore. I just wanted to sit down, relax, and forget that I would be spending more money. Still, we had to buy the requisite perfumes, knick knacks and some clothes for the people back home.
And so the trip ended with all of us filing into the tour bus to the airport the following morning. I did a cowardly thing though, to protect myself from potential letdown, which was NOT to collect numbers of our tour-mates. My mom had all of them though, but my not taking down numbers was a convenient excuse and an escape. Guess I still have to work on my store of guts. There will be opportunities anyhow; I just have to make proper use of them.
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