This morning we realized while eating breakfast that we were supposed to meet our tour guide at 8:50. It was 8:30. There went my plans to grab a latte at Starbucks in the mall adjacent to our hotel. We were told it was only a 5 minute walk and we had passed the meeting place the day before so knew where we were going. Or so we thought.
We set out on foot to the designated meeting place. We walked three blocks and were directly across the street from the place we were told, but there was no place to cross the street. Due to contruction on the side walk we realized that walking further down would not help because we could not backtrack to where we needed to be. We set off back toward our own hotel only to discover that you cannot cross the stree there either. Bill notice the subway entrance and reasoned that there is generally an entrance on either side of the street so we went down to the subway, and he was correct. We got to our destination only to find two things. One, we were not just meeting a guide, as we had in previous cities, but a group of people, and two, we were late and they were already heading toward the bus. The most annoying part, the bus then headed back in the direction of our hotel to pick up two more people - almost directly where we came up from the subway.
For those who don't know me well, I am not a fan of group tours. I don't mind tour buses that you can jump on and off (like in Dublin where the buses went in a ring and you can jump off, visit a pub and grab the next one that comes by), but I cannot stand tours where you are with a group of people and dependent upon their schedule. You cannot get moving quickly when you are not interested in something and you cannot linger when something really catches your fancy. Bill has similar views to mine, luckily, which has made us ideal traveling companions over the years. To make this one worse, he and I were the youngest members of the group by about 10 years and the kids, well, I am sure nobody was thrilled to see them board the bus.
The first stop on the tour was Victoria Peak. The view is truely breathetaking. The highlight for the kids was a playground. The highlight for me was the Starbucks. Unfortunatley, this was the slowest Starbucks staff on the face of the earth. They had absolutely no multi-tasking abilities. The guy in front of me ordered two frappacinos. The girl made one. Stood there while the blender was blending. Then she made the other one. There were two blenders. I saw my cups sitting there on top of the espresso machine and nobody was paying any attention to them. So, the tour guide comes in to hurry me. I gesture towards the cups and explain that they have not yet made my drinks. "Can you cancel them?" she asks. "No," I explain, "I have already paid for them." She then speaks to the girl behind the counter in Cantonese and turns back to me, and I could swear she said, "I have told them to give you a refund." Here is where I had my meltdown. I start screaming at her, I probably cursed. "I don't want a refund, i want my coffee." It might have been more colorful than that. She told me everybody was waiting and I told her I didn't care. I was exactly the type of person I normally hate on group tours, the reason I normally do not take group tours. She left the shop muttering to Bill that I should not have yelled at her, that she was the guide and doing her job. I collected my coffee and boarded the bus. I apologized to the group for delaying them, but did defend myself by tell them that this was the slowest Starbucks on earth.
The rest of the tour was quite bareable. We toured the habor by boat. We toured a jewelry factory (I got a gold ring with a few small diamonds and rubies for a fraction of what it would have cost at home). Finally we went to the Stanely Market. On my own I could have spent a few days there - or at least a good couple of hours. With the kids - and Bill - in tow we returned to the bus in time to get a ride back to the hotel.
Our original plan for dinner was a harbor cruise dinner. It is supposed to be quite an experience, but Bill and I both decided it probably wasn't wise. The chance of there being any options for palatable to the kids on board was slim. And it was relatively late - the boat left the dock at 7:45. Finally, if the kids melted down due to no acceptable food choices of the lateness of the hour we would have no recourse - we would be in the middle of the harbor. Once again, I know it was the right choice, but it doesn't mean that I am not disappointed to miss the experience.
I am feeling a bit old and fat and frumpy right now. We had dinner in the hotel, and afterward I took the elevator down to the lobby for something I needed. The elevator was filled with people dressed for a night out. I stood there in shorts and a top, my hair in a pony tail, no make-up, glasses and on my way back upstairs to put the children down to bed and spend my evening blogging and reading.
Tomorrow we have a free day. No idea how we are going to fill it. The pool here at the hotel is less than thrilling for the kids. It is so hot that Devlin does not like to walk around much and even if she did I am sure Bill, Mac and Liam are not all that psyched for shopping. We will have to figure something out.
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