wednesday, november 20

the airplane ride over to hong kong was very full.  this was my first time travelling on singapore airlines and i've heard very good things about this airline.  it was aight.  there were many children and babies on flight, at least 5 in our section.  before we started flying, i already heard at least 2 babies crying.  poor things.  parkin and i were one of the last ones to board the plane and were happy to see that the aisle seat next to parkin was still empty... until a chinese man in his 50's sat down  10 minutes before take off.  *damn*  we left sfo around midnight.  with my eyes closed and teeth clenched,(i'm a bit afraid of flying) i squeezed parkin's hand and smiled.  we're going to hong kong! after watching a couple of in flight movies and picking at my meal, i decided to sleep for awhile.  i woke up after a little while and had the worst sore throat.  my nose was also stuffed.  i pulled the blanket over my head and went back to sleep after taking a sip of water.  i did not feel good, i sort of expected it, but this time it felt worse.  it hurt when i breathed thru my nose, so i started breathing thru my mouth but my throat hurt too.  it was a lose lose situation.  but thanks to cindy who gave me some rewetting drops before we left, my eyes were never dry.  yes, i nap with contacts on sometimes. we arrived in hong kong at 6am.  i was still pretty tired  but knowing that i was finally in hong kong perked me up.  we found our shuttle and were on our way to marimar hotel.

our hotel room wasn't ready yet, so we walked around kimberly road where our hotel was located.  as we walked, a woman outside a wonton house lured us into the little restaurant for $3 wonton mein.  after our little meal, we walked some more but none of the stores were open.  it was about 9am and there were garbage trucks and such lulling around, and lots of people getting ready to open shop.  our photography studio was also on kimberly road, so we looked for it.  on the way there, we saw a bunch of other studios along the block.  a lot.  it's very popular out there.  when we finally found the NOEL CHU studio, it wasn't open yet, so we walked back to our hotel and our room was ready.  our hotel room for the next 6 nights was decent.  nice and roomy and clean.  the only bad thing was that the bathroom kind of smelled of sewage at times so we bought a candle to cover the smell.  after we rested for a bit and freshed up, we went back to the streets in search for a phone store so that parkin could buy a sim card for his phone.  after that was accomplished, we shopped around for a bit and i found a cute burgundy jacket for $13.  parkin called his friend jenn, who was also in hong kong and left her a message on her voicemail to see when she had time to meet up.  she joined us while we were having lunch at the spaghetti house.

after lunch, since we didn't have any plans and jenn had been there for the past couple of weeks, she took us around the city.  we walked around central, causeway bay, temple street, the wet markets.  it was tiring, but great absorbing all of the sights.  some of the places looked so familiar from previous trips, and others very new.  we ended up at pacific place and had dinner.  after dinner, we went to have drinks at a bar then at 9pm, pooped, we said our goodbye and thanks to jenn who was leaving the following day, and went back to our hotel.  i was drained and started coughing so we stopped off at 7-11 to pick up some cotalin (cold medicine) and water.  i fell asleep pretty quickly.  i think we both did.

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