So, I was sad it was our last Garden breakfast buffet. We had plenty of time and enjoyed gorging ourselves one last time. Phil had the bellboy bring our luggage down. (Thank goodness for Bellboys! We had 9 backpacks, 7 shoulder bags, and 6 GIGANTIC pieces of luggage - more on those in a later post, oh and Jemma's walker!)
This was usually where we sat each morning, which was SO great because Phil and I didn't realize that the dictionary definition for BROTHERS is n. boys who mess around and we needed some space between Ian and Titus at the table! Sheesh! Those boys fell right into brotherhood easy-peasy. And Phil and I started almost as quickly to grow tired of the constant poking, tackling, shouts of laughter or mercy, and general MESSING AROUND. We have since grown our tolerance a bit, but it was quite the splash in the face about how they can "mess around" around the clock and drive us nuts!
We took a shuttle to the train station with our guide who had helped us purchase our train tickets the day before.
It was so nice that our guide stayed with us in the train station. I don't think we anticipated having our guide literally stay with us until we walked through security, but it was so nice.
Miko, our guide, got us a porter who not only took care of all our baggage through the entire station, he also got us into our very own lines. I was impressed with the service - no idea if we paid for that with our tickets, but Phil tipped him well.
When it was time to board the train, I was a little surprised that it looked like a storybook train. And as it pulled up, the ticket collector stepped out of each doorway to take tickets and let people board, just like I'd seen on TV.
Did I mention our seats were AH-MAY-ZINE?! As we walked into the train, you could either go down some stairs or up. We went down and walked through the empty train car to the end where our seats were. We had 1 single seat, 2 single seats facing each other with a table in between, and then 4 seats around the table. I quickly sized it up and thought, "this would be a perfect time for me to pretend I'm by myself." I mentioned to Phil that I'd take the alone seat and have a moment or two to relax. Given that Phil had daily been able to go out for food or errands of some sort by himself or with just one child, he easily agreed (or saw the crazy look in my eyes - one of the two) and I planted myself on that seat ready for a care-free train trip.
The center tables opened up and were clearly not for children... given the brass lip around the edge of the tables that made it so that no crumbs could be wiped off the tables, ever. Not a problem, unless the train plans on serving thin butter cookies that crumbled at the mere sight of children. Thank goodness that the train attendants (is that what you call them) were so thrilled to have children on board and bent over backwards to make sure they were cared for.
See that's me in my seat. :)
Phil put our bags away and we figured the best possible option was for him to have Titus and Jemma with him and the other 4 kids across the aisle. (See earlier mention of brothers messing around and you can understand why we wanted Ian and Titus sitting separate for a 2 hour train ride.)
The train was just like the movies... whizzing by the scenery and I smiled and let my heart relax and soak in this bucket list item. The kids read, played card games, had crumbly cookies and water, played with play dough, and napped-ish.
Then the attendant came by with a starbucks menu. Umm thank you, yes. Phil bought me a latte and I plugged my headphones into my phone and listened to my kindle read my China novel.
Until the series of unfortunate events... when the attendant brought all the waters just moments after she handed Phil 8 triplicate customs forms to fill out and Jemma spilled water all over the stack of them. Phil called for back-up. My solution was to take the forms and line them up along the side of the train on the floor so they could dry out. Immediately upon return, the attendant saw my nice neat row of drying papers and exclaimed! She picked each of them up and returned with a stack of at least two dozen new customs forms. LOL! She was so pleasant and helpful.
We were going to take a couple of taxis to our hotel, but a random guy who caught us at the right moment said he'd drive us in a van (for the same price as one taxi) and Phil said sure. LOL - this to me was so out of character for him, but hey, we'd come this far, I think we both figured, what could happen?
After a bathroom break, the driver took us past all the buses, past the shuttles, past all the taxis, past all the vans, into a remote lot with other buses and lo and behold, there was his unmarked van. And that was when I wondered if this was a good choice. He had Titus, Lily, and Sammy get in the back and told them to buckle their seat belts no less than 10 times and then told me and Ian and Jemma and Phoebe to sit in the middle and told us to buckle literally 10 times. Okay, we get it. We aren't in China any longer. We will buckle. Or so I thought.
As you can see in this picture, Sammy is not buckled. Evidently, his buckle was stuck. In the trunk. It was blazing hot and more humid than I've ever felt in my entire life and we are all pouring sweat and no one can get Sammy buckled. But I had train lag and forgot as I was trying to convince Ian that he had to buckle and not touch the side curtains.
So we start driving and all of a sudden we start hearing profanities every other word coming out of the driver's mouth and I'm wondering what in the world?!?! Does this guy not know that those are bad words in English? (Ya, I give people the benefit of the doubt... to a fault. He knew.) He pulls over muttering about police and opens the trunk and fixes Sammy's buckle so that Lily can reach it and buckle Sammy in.
After that, the driver kept getting upset about the air conditioning and telling someone to stop pushing buttons. I couldn't figure out WHO he was even talking to because I couldn't see ANYONE pushing buttons. Ian was subtly exploring the button panel that must have been right next to him. Phil patted Ian's knee to get his attention and then shook his hand no to Ian telling him to stop messing with the buttons. At this point, I just wanted to get there.
Our driver turned out to be pleasant and got us to our hotel and we only paid the price for one taxi. So, okay. We got there. :)
We had two hotel rooms - unfortunately NOT next to each other or even on the same floor. I had the early sleepers with me and Phil had the older kids with him. We put everything in my room since I didn't want anyone unpacking my carefully packed and organized packing cubes looking for clothes that I had already put into a Saturday cube and Travel cube. :) I may not be organized in everyday life, or in life in general, but when it comes to trips, I can organize!)
After we had all the stuff unloaded in my room and Phil tipped the porter, we went down to the lobby to catch the shuttle to the mall to find food for "lunch". We'd been told food was expensive and to bring food with us. We had brought a couple loaves of bread and peanut butter, but were hoping to use that for breakfast since the buffet was $30 a person! We saw a pizza hut and RAN. Okay, maybe we actually paused, took careful note of where our shuttle was, and looked both ways (which is interesting in Hong Kong because the cars drive on the other side of the street, which also makes roundabouts interesting) and walked in like normal people. But mentally I ran.
We sat down and ordered pizzas and an appetizer. I didn't realize we were ingesting pure gold, because when Phil got the bill, that meal was $100!!!! U.S. dollars! Eeesh! That was the most expensive pizza hut pizza I've ever had. Good thing it tasted amazing!
After we ate, we headed back to our shuttle after a little discussion about whether we'd stay at the mall and look around (I can't remember what we were thinking of looking for at that moment) but we decided that we'd go back to the hotel and Phil would just come back if we needed.
We got back to the hotel and it was mid-late afternoon and Phil and I decided that the pizza we just ate was supper.
We could watch the planes land from our window.
We let the kids all do electronics for a while and then everyone went to bed. Early. REALLY REALLY EARLY. Hahahaha!
But not before Room Daddy had a dance party.
Jemma was on the couch, and then on the floor. I had a whole bed to myself. Hahaha! Sammy slept as if he had the whole bed to himself. LOL
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