We left Guilin to head toward Hong Kong. Our flight was delayed at take off and we had to make a plane switch in Xiamen. The flight to Xiamen gave us approximately a 2 hr window, but that was now being eaten into, big time. The biggest problem was that we could not check our luggage through, we had to collect it and then check in for the HK flight. This too, ate time from us. There were about 6 people who were on the same flight from Xiamen to Hong Kong. We found each other by eavesdropping on conversations with the boarding gate in Guilin and again in baggage claim.
Directly after exiting baggage, we sprinted after a Xiamen Airline employee picking up a Manila passenger to escort him through the process and very sweetly agreed to allow us to tag along and use the back doors to check in.
We made it with about 15 minutes to spare. The flight to Hong Kong was delayed for a bit because of weather. We finally took off and were in HK airport in what seemed like a nano-second. (In real time it was about 2 hours). One British couple told us about the train directly into the city. We stopped at currency exchange, then purchased our Octopus card and hit the train. It was soooo civilized. Every seat back had a USB port, there was working wifi. SSSSSSWWWWWWEEEEETTTT. The train made 3 stops, Kowloon was the 2nd. After exiting the train, we found the taxi queue and in a moment were in a cab heading to Hotel Benito.
This was a really nice little hotel. It was in Tsim Sha Tsui, essentially downtown Kowloon, a hop skip and a jump from either the metro or Star ferry to Hong Kong Island. It is certainly more ethnic Chinese, not too many westerners and has a huge spate of restaurants and amenities. Many shopping malls which contain restaurants either in the basement or on the top 2 floors. We check in and were given a room that smelled a bit damp. I kept it as I was not sure what the other rooms would be like. The hallway was always about 50degrees F with the AC roaring. The room was maintained considerably warmer. The windows were not able to be opened, but the view across the street was for Tom Lee's Music. A huge billboard with many smiling children stared back into our room.
We were hungry and saw a sign for an Indian restos and went up one flight. The place was deserted, which gave us trepidation. There was a 3-piece band, keyboard, singer, and tabla players. There was a party of 5 or 6 Indian fellows there who were competing with each other to sing with the band. They were shy at first, and then really got rolling. The singer was encouraging them to get up and sing loudly. It was very entertaining. The food was quite good and we asked the waiter if there was a band every night, and he said yet. We then queried if the place was always this quiet. He answered, it doesn't get really going until 10 or 11 pm.
We went to bed with happy bellies and so pleased to be in HK.
Directly after exiting baggage, we sprinted after a Xiamen Airline employee picking up a Manila passenger to escort him through the process and very sweetly agreed to allow us to tag along and use the back doors to check in.
We made it with about 15 minutes to spare. The flight to Hong Kong was delayed for a bit because of weather. We finally took off and were in HK airport in what seemed like a nano-second. (In real time it was about 2 hours). One British couple told us about the train directly into the city. We stopped at currency exchange, then purchased our Octopus card and hit the train. It was soooo civilized. Every seat back had a USB port, there was working wifi. SSSSSSWWWWWWEEEEETTTT. The train made 3 stops, Kowloon was the 2nd. After exiting the train, we found the taxi queue and in a moment were in a cab heading to Hotel Benito.
This was a really nice little hotel. It was in Tsim Sha Tsui, essentially downtown Kowloon, a hop skip and a jump from either the metro or Star ferry to Hong Kong Island. It is certainly more ethnic Chinese, not too many westerners and has a huge spate of restaurants and amenities. Many shopping malls which contain restaurants either in the basement or on the top 2 floors. We check in and were given a room that smelled a bit damp. I kept it as I was not sure what the other rooms would be like. The hallway was always about 50degrees F with the AC roaring. The room was maintained considerably warmer. The windows were not able to be opened, but the view across the street was for Tom Lee's Music. A huge billboard with many smiling children stared back into our room.
We were hungry and saw a sign for an Indian restos and went up one flight. The place was deserted, which gave us trepidation. There was a 3-piece band, keyboard, singer, and tabla players. There was a party of 5 or 6 Indian fellows there who were competing with each other to sing with the band. They were shy at first, and then really got rolling. The singer was encouraging them to get up and sing loudly. It was very entertaining. The food was quite good and we asked the waiter if there was a band every night, and he said yet. We then queried if the place was always this quiet. He answered, it doesn't get really going until 10 or 11 pm.
We went to bed with happy bellies and so pleased to be in HK.
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