Day 1: Arrived in Hong Kong


We are here! Arriving at the city that truly doesn’t sleep – the heat and humidity was instantaneous and ever present on our first adventure. Once through customs, our journey began. With a cursory nod from the taxi service counter attendant – we mistakingly venture on a 5km walk around the airport trying to find our transport to our hotel which was only 3km away. After an hour of searching we found ourselves back at the original counter and realizing the original nod (translated to English) meant stay here and wait for car. Covered in sweat and the patina of international air travel we were on our way.

Arriving at the Novotel Airport we were greeted with a 4 star experience that wasn’t expected. The Novotel, a newly built 23 story luxury hotel awaited in all it’s over the top Asian glory. And attached to it was the largest outlet / shopping mall experience I’ve seen. In it’s 4 level resplendent glory the underground mall wound itself to the Tung Chung Metro line that would deliver us to the city in the morning.

After some great bargain hunting from Columbina, Lafuma, DKNY and KingKow we made our way back to the hotel for dinner and drinks. Dinner was great but let me add here that I had the best Mango Daiquiri ever made – cold, icy and what seemed like a 3 mango punch and the equivalent amount of rum made the start of the trip promising in the very least.