Around the World: Day Zero and Day One

Summary: HATE FLYING to HONG KONG! but also We LOVE HONG KONG! Flickr set tells the story so far in photos...

HongKongDay0andDay1 046
Originally uploaded by Avant Game.

DAY ONE:
It is 6:50 AM when we land.
Hong Kong airport rocks. Easy, fast, calm. LOVE IT. Luggage appears seemingly instantly off the plane, customs/immigration takes less than 5 minutes including the wait in line, everyone smiles as we walk by.
Take a cab ride from the airport with the coolest cowboy rock star taxi driver ever. Straight out of Jarmusch-- the perfect cross between a character from Mystery Train and Night On Earth.
Our hotel is awesome. We're staying at Langham Place in Mong Kok. They let us check in at 8 AM, seven hours early. They are the best.
Our room is amazing and high-tech. It's the ultra-connected home of the future that Intel is always imagining and the Digital Home. There's also a DVD player and a 67-inch High Def widescreen plasma TV and so we are totally going to buy movies on the street and watch them in our room if we have time.
We nap for 3 hours and then walk the streets. Take lots of great photos, scout the local payphones, drink a malted lychee soft drink called Jolly Shandy that may or may not have actually contained beer, we're not sure. Visited a GIRLY arcade called Game Zone where cluster of girls squealed and screamed as they kicked girly claw-game ass. LOVE IT>
Had a high tea buffet... noodles and Earl Grey... just starting to appreciate the British/Chinese culture mix. LOVE IT.
Went to see new Pang brothers (Hong Kong horror film makers) movie at the local teen cinema. We were the oldest people and only non-Asians at the almost sold-out show and it was awesome hanging out with local teens. We are picking up serious style and trend insights here. Also I bought two kawaii tchockes out of a huge bank of vending machines, one is a Lucky Frog toy and the other a bucket of stickers. The movie, Diary, was wicked awesome crazy weird. I won't ruin it by posting any spoilers, but freaky and awesome AND is all about a psycho puppet maker.
We're going for a drink at a bar now... Hong Kong rocks.

Day Zero:

Worst. Flight. Ever. Now, I know I said the very same thing last January, when our SAS flight was diverted from Copenhagen to Stockholm and they lost our luggage for 5 days after the kid sitting in front of me threw up on my legs... but that was bad in a different way. This was bad in WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING FLYING IN THIS WEATHER and make-younever-want-to-fly-again way. First, we rode for about 90 minutes through Tropical Storm Rose, and you know riding through a storm that gets a name means it's not fun. But that was nothing compared to about eight hours in the flight, when thanks to El Nino in the Pacific Ocean, we went through 3 hours worth of horrid storms. I start thinking... "Well, maybe I don't REALLY need to travel so much... I can be very happy just padding around the bay area and taking road trips for the rest of my life." However once you get off the plane, your brain starts to block it out so that you can continue having a normal travel life. Already I am in denial about how awful it was. Let's just say I hope that it really is the worst flight I ever have.^_^

Fortunately, because this is an AROUND THE WORLD TRIP we will not be flying over the Pacific Ocean on our way back! Woo hoo!