Guest Blogger: Jan Mueller

Since Thursday afternoon, I have been rooming and exploring Hong Kong with Jan Mueller, mother of my friend Jeff Mueller, who I served with in the Air Force while stationed in Montana. She has been an awesome companion and we’ve gotten along superbly. Having followed my blog until now, Jan asked me the other day if she might post as a guest writer here, and I am pleased to publish her post, which will cover our Hong Kong time together. I may post others as she catches up on her writing.

Tuesday evening, October 19, 2010

Flights to LAX and HKG were relatively uneventful except for a security breach in line at LAX (scared the heck out of me!) and the crying, screaming little children on the flight to HKG!  No sleeping (but then I never sleep on airplanes anyway!), and thank goodness for my newest toy from my wonderful husband…had plenty to read on my iPad! 

Thursday morning

No lost bags, made it through customs easily, grabbed a cab and was on my way…a little road weary, but excited to meet up with Jeffrey and begin this wonderful Asian adventure.  Of course, Jeffrey is in class until Saturday, and I promised NOT to be intrusive :-)  I received the royal treatment upon arrival at the Panorama Hotel.  I was whisked up to the 39th floor for “executive registration” only to be told my room was not ready yet…of course it was only 8:30 AM!  But I was right outside the classroom where Jeff was and I saw the back of his head!  So decided to be intrusive (didn’t take me long to break THAT rule!!  Got a hug from Jeff and one from the Professor!  It’s nice to have  friends in high places.  I was then escorted to the dining room where Eugene told the wait staff that I could have anything I wanted and he would sign off on it!  Jeff came to find me at break so I could call my anxiously awaiting husband to let him no that no natural disasters has hit (yet!!) and I had safely arrived at my hotel.  Then the Sales Manager of the hotel stopped by and apologized profusely that my room wasn’t ready, but she was determined to give me a “special” room with a view…she WAS NOT kidding!!  This room is spectacular…it overlooks the Harbor to Hong Kong Island and has a wrap-around window in the shower! 

Zoe arrived minutes after I got my room…just in time, and she convinced me that the best thing to do was keep going.  Hey, I had been awake for 36 hours, ya wippersnapper, and I’m dog-dead tired.  She asked if I could go a little longer…hey, I’m game and she said if I faded, she’d bring me back.  So after a shower and and some cold fried chicken with salt (THANK YOU, Mom!), and felt I had the energy to stroll the streets of Hong Kong.  And Jeff’s class was headed up to The Peak, and we decided to try our luck on the  subway (known as the MTR) system.  Zoe has been in Asia for two and a half weeks already, so maneuvered me through the crowds to the MTR and off we were on my first sightseeing trip ever in Hong Kong.  Traffic here is brutal…they really don’t care if they hit pedestrians and there are very few traffic lights.  At one point when we got off the MTR, we couldn’t  figure a way to get across the street without getting slaughtered!  We found stairs up and over, found our way to the Peak Tram and went on an unforgettable trip 10-minute trip to reach Victoria Gap.  The views at the Peak Lookout literally took our breaths away.  From the skyscrapers…thousands of them…rising to circle Victoria Harbor, and a spectacular view of Kowloon.  But the most amazing view was around back of the setting sun across to Lantau Island.

We grabbed a cup of fruit…very exotic fruit from Viet Nam…Dragon fruit.  It’s white with black polka dots!  I was still holding up and it was coming onto 3:39 PM Hong Kong Time and I had now been up for 46 hours.  Tired but Zoe has enough energy for both of us, and we strolled through Kowloon Park…how peaceful, saw turtles, exotic birds, fun people.  Everyone was so nice and so helpful.  We then went to the top of the Chicago Bank Building…more cool views!  The best part was a photography display of the National Parks of the World, and the pictures were gorgeous…I want to be that great of a photographer when I retire (I have so many things I want to do when I retire, I’ll either have to do it now or live to be 112 (I have the good genes as Mom is already saying that she will surpass 100  because it’s only 11 years away!).  We took pictures of the Lippo building and has been described as the building with the Koala Bears hanging on to it.  Yeah, take a look at the photo to the left…it really does :-)  So back to the hotel and the students are ready for some night life.  I climbed into my jammies (bamboo jammies no less) and at 7:30 was sound asleep…for 11 hours straight!