1.First Time in Hong Kong

Day 1: PACK IT ALL IN ONE DAY

• Flying Cathay Pacific for approximately 14-15 hours: We left Brooklyn on Friday Night for a 1:40 AM Saturday NY Flight. We arrived at 4:30 AM Sunday HK Time. The plane ride was LONG! I felt kinda warm the majority of the time because there wasn't an air vent that allows air to cooly flow. I did manage to get a few naps in and got to watch the movies, Super 8 and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. I watched several episodes of Mike & Molly as well as some episodes of Family Guy and The Big Bang Theory. The plane food was somewhat ok. I had beef with mushroom sauce, with mashed potatoes, carrots and peas, along with Haagen Daz ice cream for supper (1st meal). Then had beef congee, blueberry muffin, and strawberry yogurt for breakfast. At the end of our long plane ride, we finally arrived in Hong Kong. The airport was quiet and deserted. We called our aunt and uncle to pick us up. They didn't pick up so we left a voicemail message indicating our whereabouts and a meeting point. About a half an hour later, Auntie Magda and Uncle Stephen met us at Pickup B area and we were well on our way to our first day of HK Adventures!

• Mom's Hometown: One of the first things that my Aunt and Uncle did was take us to see my mom's apartment where she lived her entire life in HK and we stood at the doorway to take a picture. We also got to see where she went to school on the car ride. Inside, I felt a bit emotional because I looked around and I envisioned her hanging out in the neighborhood. Our uncle told us a brief story of how the Beatles one time were staying at the Hyatt across the street (hotel has turned into a mall) and they were there for a rare HK show and their car had to pass by that exact street and my uncle got to see them inside the car.

• Sai Kung: This place is known for dragon boat racers, golfers, weekenders going to the islands. We went there to EAT. Aunt & Uncle took us to this local eatery to eat breakfast, had toasted bread with fresh eggs & ham, and my first abroad HK milk tea! This place reminds me of Venice just a little bit as we walked alongside the water. Not only were there a lot of locals doing their usual weekend activities, you kinda felt like you're stepping into the role of a local to see what's it like.

• Uncle Stephen & Auntie Magda's Place: We stopped by their place just to rest up a bit before heading out again for lunch. Since we spent much of the morning pretty much walking when there's no one out and about, we hung out and got to meet Chocolate and YoYo, their dogs! Very active and feisty! They have this massage chair that was totally divine! I absolutely loved it! About 11am, we headed out to eat dim sum, along with our cousin & his gf. Food was great! Went to window shop before dim sum and aunt took us to the local markets where we saw live chicken, live frogs, everything was out in the open and bloody! It's nice to actually see this culture and lifestyle.

• Mong Kok: This area is full of shopping malls, young adolescents and eateries. Packed and crowded everywhere. We found some bargains at the Ladies Market. Our cousin, Geoffrey and his girlfriend, Circle, took us all over. We went to the Goldfish street, and saw lots of fish, rabbits, hamsters, dogs, cats and lizards...this street is like an aquarium! Lots of stores with tanks and stuff. Went to another area, and ate some smelly tofu! It smells! They treated us to eat the best pineapple bao and had some HK tea. It rained a bit, and we did more window shopping. We then went to a mango place where everything had mango on the menu. We went back and rested for a bit more before heading out to dinner.

Ellie eats the smelly tofu...and we eat a scrumptious pineapple bao with milk tea on the side!

• Dinner at an Outdoor Place: Tables were set outside and they were covered in plastic tablecloths. The place is not by any means a regular restaurant. But it was packed with ppl and the food was great! We ate pigeon, chicken congee, beef chow fun, fried chicken, and eggplant.

• Place to Stay: Our cousin drove us to our Auntie May & Uncle Tony's place where we would be staying for the entire week. It's located at Chinese University and we finally rounded up our first day!
• Overall Impression of the first day: Hot & Humid, lack of sleep, ate smelly tofu and pigeon. Overall it was a great day because we got to see so much! Great food, beautiful places, awesome relatives, decent bargains. It's time for Day 2! :)