Back in October Tim and I decided to take the family for a week's vacation in Hong Kong during their holiday break. Since we were not going to spend Christmas with the family, we decided to give the kids a treat and spend it in Disneyland.
The decision to visit Disneyland left us with two obvious choices. We could visit Hong Kong or Japan. Of course, the esteemed rodent has palaces in California, Florida and Paris, but those were just a bit too far away. Besides, Japan and Hong Kong were already on our list of places to visit during our adventure over here.
Initially, we leaned towards visiting Japan. As we started researching it, we realized a few things. The first factor was that Japan was going to be a lot more expensive.
Weather was another consideration. Japan is much colder than Hong Kong in December. While I am certainly not intolerant of cold having grown up in the Midwest, it was certainly not something I missed. The possibility of riding amusement park rides in freezing conditions was less than appealing. I mean, when you are spinning like mad on the tea cups, do you really want to be hit with frozen vomit? I can only imagine that the wind chill factor on a roller coaster would be brutal.
Another compelling reason to visit Hong Kong was that friends of ours in Bangkok used to live there for many years, and they still rent a flat there. They agreed to let us stay there for our trip. Their apartment was in Discovery Bay, an upscale community on the Lantau Island.
Our initial inquiry into flights was hardly promising. The rates averaged about $400 a person, and since we needed to buy five tickets, the cost came up to about two grand. One of Tim's employees knew a travel agent who found us tickets on Emirates Air for only $200 a piece.
The price was great, but it didn't come without a catch. We wouldn't arrive in Hong Kong until about 10:00 p.m., and our return flight to Bangkok wouldn't arrive until after 1:30 a.m. Despite the undesirable arrival times, the cost difference was simply too much to pass up, so we booked on Emirates Air.
On the day before we left, I booked a cruise to watch the Symphony of Lights show. After booking, I received an email telling me that I would receive another email within 24 hours so that I could print out the vouchers necessary board the ship. As I made the reservations only 25 hours before leaving, I was a bit sceptical as to whether they agency would come through.
To be continued...
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