Hong Kong & Macau: Getting There

GETTING THERE

To get to Hong Kong from Panama, I had to fly to Newark, New Jersey the day before my long haul flight and stay overnight.  And because Ilda, my dearest, had just moved to New York City, I planned on seeing her.  I also begged my friend Kristen, who lives in Connecticut, to come down and meet me as well because it had been ages since I had last seen her.  With this plan set, I took off from PTY at 10 am on Friday morning and landed in Newark around 5:30 pm.  I didn't make it to my hotel until about 7 though because customs and immigration were super busy, and the shuttle from the airport to the hotel was late.  I got myself checked in and showered before I hopped back on the shuttle to the airport.  Newark International Airport has its own Amtrak and NJ Transit station, so it was easy to get my ticket and jump on the soonest train into Manhattan.

Seeing these two was so wonderful, and considering that they had never met each other, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had together.  It was so nice to just sit and laugh with my old friends... and the pitcher of margaritas didn't hurt either!

I woke up the next morning no worse for wear, got myself over to the airport and met dad and his colleague from LL Bean, Ryan.  We spent about an hour catching up and eating breakfast before we boarded our flight to Tokyo where we would have an almost three hour layover.

Once on the ground in Tokyo we were all starving so we decided to go for a traditional Japanese lunch: sushi.  FYI even airport sushi in Japan is world class; we were all very happy.

After we pigged out, we walked around Narita airport and reminisced about our past trips to Tokyo.  We were all in consensus that we wish we could have stayed, but our fill of sushi and high-tech toilets would have to hold us until next time.

Our flight to Hong Kong from Tokyo was only a four hour hop, but by the time we landed, collected our luggage and passed through customs we were all ready for bed.  We took a cab from the airport on Lantau Island to our hotel on Canton Road in Kowloon and were met by beautiful rooms and comfortable beds... just what you need after nearly 20 hours of flying!