Final days - Hong Kong July 11 & 12th

Our last morning at the White Swan went by very quickly as we had to check out and board the bus to the train station by 9:15 a.m. Several other families, including our friends Ellen, Rick and their daughter Sarah and Pam and Robert with their daughters Elizabeth and Catherine, were also going to Hong Kong via the train. We had another tour of downtown Guangzhou and then had to go through Chinese customs. The train was much nicer than we expected, and they served drinks and snacks. It was just under a two hour train ride. We kept expecting Indigo to fall asleep but she kept stayed awake the whole trip. I was expecting much more countryside, but there are a lot of fairly built up towns along the way.
When we arrived in Hong Kong we felt we had to come to another country. We were greeted by health officials that made us sanitize our hands and they were taking laser temperature s of the babies. We had to go through Hong Kong passport control and customs. We quickly changed some US dollars for Hong Kong dollars, and then took a taxi to our hotel. Our luggage was so big they had to tie down the trunk with a cord. Indigo was in the bjorn on me and finally fell asleep in the cab with her hand in the snack trap. She stayed asleep and slept on the bed until late in the afternoon. Our hotel room was much smaller than the one we had at the White Swan, and we could barely fit the crib.
The three of us walked down to the pier where the ferry’s leave from the Kowloon Peninsula (the part of Hong Kong we were staying in) across the Hong Kong harbor to the main island (Hong Kong actually is made up of over two hundred separate islands). The walk was only about ten minutes, but it was right through the shopping district (Gucci, Yves Saint Lauren, Prada, Dior, Louis Vutton, etc.). LV was so popular that there was a line out the door for people waiting to be let into the store – as if it were some hot NY or LA night club or something. While checking out the ferry options we stopped for ice cream. The man at the store made Indigo a tiny little ice cream cone - a minature cone with a little ice cream on level on the top. At first she was very cautious and surprised by the cold but she loved it. We came back to see what the rest of the group wanted to do for the evening but everyone else wanted to stay closer to home. We then walked back to the harbor, and got on a two hour Star Ferry ride which included seeing the famous light display at 8:00 p.m. Many of the tall buildings in Hong Kong have all kinds of lights, and laser lights pointing into the sky. Indigo was still up, so we went to dinner at the Happy Garden Noodles and Congee. Indigo had a late night on the town in Hong Kong.

The next morning, today, Indigo experienced her first meal at McDonald’s, horrific we know, but our options were somewhat limited. Her Happy Meal included Mango yogurt which she enjoyed very much. We just gave her the yogurt, some diluted grape juice and we got a noodle/pasta dish so she ate some curly noodles. Daddy ate her pancakes! We then walked down to catch the ferry across HK Harbor to Central, where we boarded a bus to take us to the Victoria Peak tram. We did this with Rick, Ellen and Sarah and Ellen’s parents. The incline of the tram is quite something.

We had amazing views of Hong Kong below from the roof terrace atop Victoria Peak. We ate lunch and then did the whole trip back in reverse. Indigo fell asleep in Melanie’s arms right before getting on the tram and slept there for the tram ride, the bus ride and the boat ride. The bus ride back to the Central ferry station went down different streets, so we experienced both Hong Kong pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Upon our return to our side of the harbor, Melanie and Ellen went shopping while we took the sleeping babies back to the hotel. When Melanie got back, she went out again with Ellen to an area called the Women’s Market.

I took Indigo to the nearby Kowloon Park, which is a very large park made up of gardens, fountains, museums, swimming pools, sculptures, bird ponds and a kid’s play area.

I showed Indigo how to go down a slide, which she wanted to do over and over but still was cautious and used her hands on the sides.
Our friend Ellen and Sarah joined us for our final dinner in China. We enjoyed the noodle place so much we went back there to have our last Chinese food. Melanie is frantically repacking our suitcases to fit in all the new purchases. Tomorrow morning we head for Hong Kong airport for our big trip home, which will be much longer and more involved than the trip here. Upon landing in Chicago and going through customs and immigration, Indigo will be officially an American citizen. “Lucky baby” was the phrase we heard the most from Chinese when learning Indigo was coming to America. However, we are the ones that feel so lucky being given such a beautiful and happy (most of the time!) baby. We are overjoyed with coming home and beginning the next phase of this life adventure. Signing off from China. Love, Melanie, David and Indigo.