China trip – Part 7
Friday, April 20 – Alas, we’re en route to our last stop on our 2-week trip to China – Hong Kong, where we plan to spend our last three nights.
Destination cities – from Beijing in the north, traveling south to Hangzhou, Guilin, and Hong Kong
Friday, 8:30 am – We’re out front of our motel in Guilin, loading up to head to the Guilin train station – in a torrential rain.
Shangri-La Hotel – Guilin
When our driver, Terry, pulls up at the train station to let us off, we’re ankle-deep in water getting our luggage out. I’m stressing about my i-Phone getting ruined in the outer pocket of my getting-saturated nylon purse (why didn’t I think of wearing my purse under my raincoat?) as we orient ourselves out and around the train station to find the correct entrance. Whew! We’re inside now. The place is mobbed! Where do we go? Oh, up this escalator. A fine young Chinese fellow who speaks very good English overhears our conversation and points me in the right direction. (Overall, we found the Chinese people to be very warm, helpful and friendly toward us.)
There’s the gate to our train! Get in line, stay together! I take a photo:
Guilin Train Station
But you can’t really capture this crowd in a photo. So I take a video:
Today we travel 360 miles east-southeast by train from Guilin to Shenzhen – and then from Shenzhen we take metro trains, from Shenzhen to the border crossing at Hong Kong, and then down the Hong Kong peninsula to the southern tip.
We’ve boarded the train to Shenzhen now. I take a couple of photos of the scenery passing by us at about 130 mph.
Rice paddies
One of my few rural photos!
The train ride from Guilin to Shenzhen is about 3 hours. Settle in for relaxation and reading! I’m sitting between David and Eric. We’ve packed along some munchies and drinks, bottled water, beer, peanuts – but I’m just not hungry. Can’t seem to concentrate on my reading, either. I set my kindle aside. My stomach is queasy. Hmmmm. Surely I won’t get sick … Could it be motion sickness? David pours servings of beer in paper cups for himself, Eric, Steph and Victor. The empty cups get returned back to him, he stacks them on his seat tray and excuses himself to the bathroom. Suddenly my stomach hurls its contents. One hurl at a time, as they say. Boy were those cups convenient! I very calmly pick up the first empty cup, fill it to the brim with my first hurl. Then the second cup. Then the third, and fourth. Oh no! Wait, thank God there’s extra room in my half-empty water bottle! Eric, meanwhile, leaps into the isle, finds the stewardess, and returns with two large plastic garbage bags and several small barf bags. Got it covered! What the hell? We dump the cups of puke in a trash bag and I head to the bathroom. David stocks up on paper barf bags for future use …
We get off the train in Shenzhen. First leg of the trip done! LEG? Yes, we still have to get from Shenzhen to the border crossing into the Hong Kong Peninsula, go through customs to enter Hong Kong, then take the metro 12 more stops down the edge of the peninsula to the lower tip of Kowloon.
Here’s a couple of maps from travelchinaguide.com – The first photo shows the Hong Kong peninsula. Shenzhen, in mainland China, is in red letters – Hong Kong is the lighter green area:
Hong Kong
The second map is the Hong Kong Metro. After we get through customs we catch the blue line at the top of the peninsula – travel south along the edge of the New Territories, through Kowloon to Hung Hom, the station furthest south (at yellow highlighted area) – 12 stops (I know, I counted them down!)
We get off near the yellow highlighted area
Yeah, so long story short – I actually took a picture when we got off the train from Shenzhen – right before we went through customs.
Welcome to Hong Kong!
We just kept going as a group and I would signal them – we’d pull out of the crowd, I’d barf in a nifty paper bag from David’s stock …
Good thing David had about a dozen of these
dump it in the trash, pull out a fresh bag, get it ready for the next hurl …
Hello barf bag, my new friend …
and we’d proceed on. My stomach timed it just right so I got through customs without a hitch, barfed before we arrived at the agents’ station and barfed on the other side.
Oh, but wait a minute. Did I digress? You wanted to hear about Hong Kong! My bad …
After we get off the metro, Victor snags us a 5-person taxi to take us the few blocks to our motel – Shangri-la Hotel Kowloon (of course! We have grown to love this hotel chain). So we are staying on the southern tip of the Hong Kong peninsula, right across Victoria Bay from Hong Kong Island. I go straight to bed that Friday evening, while Steph and Vic, David and Eric go out and explore the city. No worries. Eric takes photos. Great photos. (I’ve pulled them off his Facebook page. He said I could use them, plus, he beat me to this story by 3-4 weeks.)
So, dear reader, it’s Friday night, April 20th and you’re in Hong Kong! Just because I’m sick doesn’t mean you can’t go out on the town with Eric and David and Steph and Victor!
You run into Spider Man
Any ladies in distress? I’ll hang upside down for you
And this floating guy. An Angel?
Levitating human statue? Top this Las Vegas!
And, uh, this guy.
My next boyfriend
Who, I think, must be either a God or made of wax because what human could really have arms like that?
Eric also captures some nice evening photos of Victoria Bay
and the skyline just after dusk on Hong Kong island:
Hong Kong Island
Yeah, so tomorrow we catch the Star Ferry – from the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. Take a tram to the top of Victoria Peak and hike back down! Here. I’ll give you a sneak preview…
Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor
I’ll be on that ferry tomorrow. Just hope I don’t get seasick!
Tags: Evening skyline in Hong Kong, Guilin train station, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong MTR map, Hong Kong peninsula, Kowloon, Shangri-la Hotel Kowloon, Star Ferry - Victoria Harbor, Victoria Harbor
The Decompression of a Boomer 
May 26, 2018 at 6:50 pm |
WOW!!! what a trip!! when I was in Saipan some of the fellas went to Hong Kong. I had no interest in going. they had a good time and bought lots of stuff. The crowds of people seem over whelming. Sorry you got sick. Pauline.
On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 4:52 PM, The Decompression of a Boomer wrote:
> Jody Caraher posted: ” China trip – Part 7 Friday, April 20 – Alas, we are > en route to our last stop on our 2-week trip to China – Hong Kong, where we > plan to spend our last three nights. Friday, 8:30 am – We’re out front of > our motel in Guilin, loading up to he” >
May 26, 2018 at 8:45 pm |
Thank you, Pauline. It really was a great trip. Could have spent a lot more time in each city, especially Hong Kong. I must have caught a stomach virus or something since I hadn’t eaten or drank anything different from the others.