Arrival to Hong Kong after our 15 hour and 35 minute flight was amazing.... Couldn't wait to get off of the plane and start walking around. We were quite surprised at how easy everything was to read and to maneuver. Immigration, baggage claim, customs, buying the MTR train tickets all was very smooth until we had to transfer to a different train to make the last leg of our journey. We had opted to wait until getting to hotel to exchange currency and when we went to buy the second train ticket it only took Hong Kong dollars.....We had to hunt down a lady who had to unlock an exit for us to get to the ATM. When we got there we had a hard time making the cards work but finally it spit out Hong Kong currency. We went back had to get the same nice lady to unlock the exit door to let us back in, once standing in front of the machine we entered the number of tickets and realized the currency we did have was to large of a denomination to use in the machine #hongkongballer. The Jacksons were on the hunt for the nice lady to tell us where to go get change. To customer service I went and change is what I had in hand when I had to be let through the exit door by my new Chinese best friend. Train tickets in hand we followed a trail to the Blue Line train. We had almost made it when I turned to talk with Dre and I saw he had stopped and was looking at his suitcase he started to walk towards me and muttered something to the effect that his wheel busted.....That is not good is what I replied. Now with a new clickeity clack noise we got on the MTR train, which by the way was VERY clean, air conditioned, smooth, and fast. We had a short ride and exited the train when we exited we had a little trouble getting our luggage through, we had to pull, stuff, lift, and inevitably toss our bags to the other side. THEN we say was appeared to be an endless amount of stairs that we had to take our (2) 45-50 lb suit cases up......Yikes!!!! Once outside, I went on a search of the skyline for the Conrad....It looked to be across the street and so we started to walk. We went through a very nice mall (reminded me of South Coast Plaza) and arrived at the front desk. I thank my lucky stars when I find out that our room is ready cause we are both ready for a shower.
All cleaned up, we heard a knock at the door and are greeted with Welcome Tea, yummmmm. A few moment later the door bell rings and we are greeted again with some whole fruit. We head down stairs to the Lobby Lounge and decide to redeem our coupons for our complimentary welcome cocktail and talk about where we would head for the day, side tracked we became when we saw the pool and pool bar with the amazing blue sky and sunshine, we knew we had to go enjoy it. After another glass of wine, we headed to the porte cochere where a bellman hailed a cab for us. Let me start by saying that everything had seemed very modern until that moment. We notified the bellman that we wanted to go to Stanley Beach, we got into the cab, a mid to late 80s something, and our journey to Stanley Beach began. After twisting, winding, lots of breaking, and lots of teeth grinding as we narrowly missed cars passing on the other side's we pulled over on a curb where there was a small beach. We were told there were shops, pubs, and lots to see.... We only saw a very small beach and we looked and started to laugh at each other. I needed to use the bathroom and when I walked in I saw what looked to be showers, I kept walking around and quickly realized those were the toilets.....What was this thing in the ground? So I did it, I used it and realized my legs were not very well conditioned for this type of toilet :/ Before giving up on Stanley Beach, we went for a walk and found these little alley ways with lots of shops, restaurants, art displays, and cats....Yep, CATS, there were plenty and they look well-groomed. We found a very cute restaurant called EatBar, very American looking, and so in we went....this was the location for a very important lesson.......not all tacos are created equal. Chicken wings were bomb, tacos however we're a glorified plate of Cool Ranch Dorritos and some fancy sour cream that had a hint of sweetness, we laughed again and I had to take a picture....Hong Kong Tacos. The restaurant manager came over with his glass of wine and toasted the upcoming Christmas holiday and shared his card with us... A joyful and spirited man wearing an apron that has Santa Claus on it (another very surprising thing, Hong Kong is decked out for the holidays). We caught another 1980s taxi back to the hotel and wanted to grab an actual meal. We went to a restaurant in the mall where we had an amazing burger....at dinner is where I hit my sleepy wall and although it was only 8:00 pm we headed back to the hotel until we heard a ruckus down stairs. What we learned here is that it seems in Hong Kong security is very mild mannered, but the general public will react. An unruly man, who was clearly inebriated had disrespected the bar tender who told him they ran out of beer, this is when a man entered and choked the man unconscious and then attempted to wake him up. Once conscious the man lay on the ground and screamed all kinds of crazy noises, the choker then jumped in his back to be in position should he have to go night night again. Dre couldn't help himself and started recording the incident....once the man caught Dre recording him he started saying to Dre "your my friend and whitness," we gave him a thumbs up and when he looked down, we left. I am certain he is sore today and probably has little to no recollection of the night or what happened to him.
When we arrived to our room we quickly put on our PJs and jumped into bed, only to see that the hotel sent us a VERY nice bottle of champagne and a card congratulating us on our honeymoon and marriage. Conrad Hong Kong you really know how to make two newlyweds feel special.
