Welcome to Hong Kong

In May, I had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong for a work conference. It was amazing. The flight was about 14 hours from Los Angeles. I can't remember now when I slept - I think I took a short nap. I left on Wednesday afternoon & arrived in Hong Kong Thursday evening.  The flight wasn't bad - I caught up on all the best picture nominations I had missed.

The weather in Hong Kong was kind of crummy as the rainy season had started early. It was unbelievably humid. My crazy hair was the least of my worries. It's hard to walk around in a business suit in this kind of weather. 

I arrived at the Hong Kong airport by myself. I should have take the train to the hotel (which is what Nick opted for), but instead took a taxi. Either way, transportation was a piece of cake. In hindsight, if you are planning to take a taxi, I would have your hotel name written in Cantonese for the cab driver. I gave myself one day to acclimate to the time change and signed up for a tour with the conference. Our first stop was the top of Victoria Peak.

The view was a bit disappointing.

Our next stop was the Aberdeen Fishing Village. The hope was to see fishermen working on their traditional boats. 

It was a fun sampan ride, but apparently fishermen don't like getting wet in the rain either because we were the only ones on the water.

The next stop was a jewelry store. I don't think this was a real work area, but a lot of people appreciated the opportunity to shop at a legitimate business.

Our tour finished with a stop at Stanley Market. I could have spent more time here wandering the stalls & finding souvenirs for the kids. 

I befriended a woman on the tour who showed me how to ride the subway. It was very crowded. It was also strange how glued people were to their smartphones. It was not unusual to see people watching a movie or playing video games as they walked down the street!

The streets were a bit confusing so I would take a picture of the map before I left the subway station.

I made it back to my hotel without any problems. Day 1 in Hong Kong was a success!