Day One.. Idaho to Hong Kong

Friday, April 27, 2007

11:10 AM PST

10:10 AM MST

Wow. It’s only noon and already I’ve seen some interesting things. Airports in general are interesting things. My shoulder is going numb because my carry-on bag is so heavy, and my feet are tired because I keep having to take my shoes off at all the security places. I can’t believe I found my gate. I’m in San Francisco right now and, I swear, this gate is like the farthest away possible from where I came in. It’s in the international terminal wayyyy far away from my domestic terminal, and I came in on Delta.. and I’m flying out on United. These jets are HUGE! My Idaho Falls and SLC jets were itty bitty compared to these gigantic flying machines. San Fran is a lot more diverse than, say, Salt Lake or IF, and already I’ve seen evidence of that. When I first came in, there was an older British couple standing in the middle of the terminal and the husband was like “honnee, whe-a ah yew gowing?! Whee haf a flight to cotch!” and the wife replied, “dahling, ai wont to gow to thi gift shoppe ovah yonda! Whee wheel make it wif plentee ohff time!” and they proceeded to argue in fast British English about where to go. About 5 minutes after that, on the way to the international terminal, I passed a skinny man who looked Asian in the face, but was tall and lanky, with kind of a Hindu aura about him, while he managed to sport a sweet Mexican mustache and was talking, again, in a fast British accent. (Seems there are a lot of people from the UK wandering around here.) Shortly following that, I passed three people who were sitting and chatting in turbans and saris, and then almost got ran over by a kid in regular clothes but with a bright turquoise turban wrapped around his cranium who was going to meet them.

This morning was exciting. I wasn’t really nervous, per se, about flying out by myself, but I still wasn’t positive on what to do where, or where my terminal and gates were, or how to get my boarding passes, etc. I was surprised when the zone 3 boarding call sounded, and not only did I stand up and walk to the gate, a familiar looking Mrs. Kartchner walked also. We excitedly said our hellos, boarded the flight, enjoyed seeing Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, and Pocatello within minutes, and then proceeded to talk for a bit after arriving in Salt Lake. She showed me my gate and stuff and I got my boarding pass worked out… it was a really super surprise. (Was this coincidence? I think not. Institute, do you get my drift?)

Anyway, now I am sitting all by myself by the gigantic jets that I will be forced to sit on for the next 15 hours, wondering if 1) my sloppy English will ever improve, and 2) if the rest of my family will make it here in time. They’re on a really tight schedule.

Ok. The internet costs money, as everything else does, here at the airport, but as soon as I get to Hong Kong, I’ll post this blog as well as one that will probably update you on Hong Kong!!!

P.S. There are a lot of Asian people in San Fran… I’m so excited!!!

April 28, 2007

8:40 AM MST

10:40 PM Hong Kong Time

I’m tired. We arrived in HK after the LONGEST flight of my life (all 15 hours of it) to find the city just getting ready for a Saturday night. I was mentally getting ready for bed, seeing as the arrival time here was just about the same time as 3:30 in the morning, but instead of hitting the sack (Oh, that’s a bad idea, hitting the sack, btw. I hear the beds all across Asia are hard as a rock. I believe it though because my hotel bed is like, literally, sitting on a bench the size of a twin bed with a small pad on top of it.) Where was I? Oh yes.. instead of hitting the sack, everyone decided our time was short and they were hungry, and so, naturally, we took to a night on the town. Pretty much it’s like I just pulled an all-nighter. There’s so much to tell about Hong Kong. It’s… overwhelming. There’s these bright neon signs that blare random Chinese characters all over the place (think Vegas) and it smells like cigarette smoke and dirty streets and musty clothes but it also can be really clean in some places, like the airport—it was spotless—or the elevators in the hotel.

I wasn’t hungry for dinner food (the airline food, as usual, killed my appetite. Lunch actually wasn’t too bad. However, dinner quickly redeemed itself and restored airline food to its infamous status of “Worst Food Ever”) but I was thirsty after walking for a couple of miles back and forth past thousands of double decker buses. (Our tour guide said there were probably 6000 double decker buses in Hong Kong. I don’t dispute it.) I went in to one of the many seven elevens and bought this gigantic thing of evian water—it was the only stuff I could recognize/trust. (The bakeries here are really good though, for the most part. I bought a little coconut bun thingy.. it’s way good!) There’s a TON of soymilk everywhere. In fact, it’s hard to buy anything OTHER than soymilk. It’s in a million different varieties (all of them look disgusting) such as Green Tea soymilk (it was the color of a sick baby’s puke) or Black Sesame soymilk (a weird milky purple/blackish color). My dad purchased some random brand that he said he hasn’t had since his mission. Plain old white soymilk in a carton with a straw. I think it even has vitamins in it. How impressive.

Even right now I can hear the buses go by under my hotel. All the buildings are really tall because over here there’s nowhere to build but up. (or down, but the subways have their own little mini-malls underground) I’m ready for a shower and to brush my teeth but it scares me to use the water when there’s a sign next to the sink that says “water not suitable for drinking.” Boy. In the morning, we’re supposed to go meet up with my cousin’s friend for dim sum. (it’s like breakfast.. but not what we think of as breakfast.. it’s like… hard to explain. Maybe I’ll take a picture of what I get tomorrow.) Our tour is tomorrow, so it feels like Saturday, but it’s actually Sunday. They say the traffic is less busy then. Bummer.

Anyway, I’m waiting to find the sweet bargain shops so I can really go shopping. Everything around the hotel is just like new york… fancy and pricey. There’s tons of jewelry and watch places. I passed about 5 Rolex distributors, complete with their HK $31,500 price tags (that’s still about 6,000 US dollars) and their shiny metal boxes. It’s weird to look at the price tags of everything.. my evian water was about HK 15 bucks ( a little over $2 US) but everything in the store is labeled from around $5 and up. A can of pop in a machine is $5.50. It’s going to take some getting used to.

I’m exhausted! I better go shower and whatnot. I miss everyone a ton and it’s killing me that I can’t call anyone or anything to hear voices because my phone doesn’t even have service over here. Alas. Anyway, I’ll try to post some pictures too. Gotta do it before my internet time runs out! Leave me a comment if you have one!!

This is what the Snake River looked like from my plane window! It took literally about 5 minutes from IF to Blackfoot.. I was unprepared. It was really shocking.

The San Francisco airport is huge! This is just an itty bitty bit of the international terminal.


That's our jet!



The tour stuff is all in my name for some odd reason.. lol. I'm the youngest of the group too.


Wheeling around in the Hong Kong Airport.. we looked a mess after the long flight.


Nasty little food shops. All the stores around my hotel are kinda built in the walls, like in a regular mall, but then they have stories and stories of tiny apartments over them. They look terrible too but I guess that's how everyone lives. Anyway, this is one of the shops that I don't like. They stink like dried octopus.. because that's one of the things i've seen in them. It's just a bunch of dried seafood and other stinky items. When you walk by, you have to hold your breath.


Neon Hong Kong with its buses. Enough said.