Final day in Hong Kong. Matthew and Tony ran to the park first thing this morning. We had dinner with my cousin Stella and her daughter Dior and her beau John last night and decided to do it again today over lunch before we had to take off for the airport. I also invited our friends Mylene and Amy to join us. They were traveling through Egypt and just returned to Hong Kong. It was nice that they were able to have lunch with us. My cousin's daughter Susan also joined us for lunch. We had a leisurely lunch and Matthew was twitching to go back to the park. He HAD to get the most of the park and squeezed as much time as possible before we had to take off. I asked Matthew and Tony to return to the hotel no later than 4:45PM in order to allow ample time to get to the airport.We were the last ones in the restaurant. That's pretty depressing. The staff were "discreetly" clearing the dishes and milling around us. I think it was their way of saying..."OK- you're done. Now LEAVE." We took the hint and wandered back to the Disneyland Hotel so we can hang out and chat while waiting for Tony and Matthew to return. Dior and Susan explored the hotel grounds and of course, Matthew and Tony saunter into the hotel at almost 5PM when we had to leave for the airport.
It's a sad day for us because it brought the reality of leaving a civilized place such as Hong Kong that much closer. We had a week of proper lining up. Seriously- there was no pushing, no shoving, no jumping the lines. We didn't have to listen to anyone drawing deep into their bowels to hock a loogie and most of all, CLEAN bathrooms. It is sheer joy to be able to go into a restroom and not worry about how clean it is. Tony loved the fact that people can speak and understand English in Hong Kong. Matthew even practiced some of his Cantonese. Sometimes, he would get confused and answer in Mandarin. That's OK. I loved the fact that he tried.
So, after a week of living in civilization, we now face the reality of returning to the bowels of Shanghai. We'll be back into the swing of things like pushing, shoving, screaming, public lewdness and most of all, facing very dirty bathrooms. How depressing.
