Moon Festival
Here we are at the final destination and the last instalment of September ad-French-ure. I must admit, as much fun as it has been sharing this trip with you, putting together these posts – selecting and preparing the photos – has been hard work and I’m looking forward to going back to writing with more words than pictures!
- Part 1 – September ad-French-ure
- Part 2 – Show me the Monet! (Giverny)
- Part 3 – The abbey on the rock (Mont Saint-Michel)
- Part 4 – Villains at Villandry! (Villandry)
- Part 5 – The lady of the lake (Chenonceau)
- Part 6 – Blois, Blois, Blois… (Blois)
- Part 7 – Da Vinci would’ve thought of a better post title (Amboise)
- Part 8 – Viva la revolution! Hic! (Fontainebleau and Reims)
- Part 9 – And we thought our election was bad (Wetteren and Leuven)
- Part 10 – Moon Festival (Hong Kong) (You are here!)
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We had one last hurrah in France before leaving Europe. Our departure flight was an early morning one out of Paris, so we imposed on Jenny’s parents one last time to take us out in the mobiroom. We drove most of the way from Belgium to Paris, stopping overnight just outside of the city at Senlis, so that we could wake up in the morning and make the short trip to Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Our stay in Hong Kong co-incided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, but not by design. I had no idea when we planned the trip, but it worked out awesome, ‘coz it meant we got to celebrate with my relatives. More on that later.
We touched down at Hong Kong International Airport at just after 7am in the morning. Our plan was to drop off our bags at the hotel and then walk around all morning until our room was ready for check-in. I barely slept a wink on the flight over, so the prospect of being on our feet wasn’t looking very appealing.
I’ll tell you now: there’s something to be said for the benefits of luxury. On arrival at Langham Place, they let us check in immediately (although it may have had something to do with us agreeing to upsize to a nicer room on a higher floor). It was an immense relief to be able to take a shower and a nap before hitting the town.
Here are some pictures of the room that we stayed in (taken later on in the trip):
Refreshed, we ventured forth into the world of culinary delights to seek out breakfast… and ended up at Cafe de Coral (the McDonalds equivalent of Chinese food in Hong Kong) because without my parents as guides and translators, we were totally clueless.
Things rapidly improved as we went back to revisit old haunts that we remembered from our previous trip, like this place inside the Langham Plaza famous for wontons. However, we had been instructed by my aunt not to eat too much, because she was cooking up a storm for the Moon Festival family gathering that night. I knew better than to doubt her.
The remainder of the trip was a poorly documented flurry of intense eating and shopping. The ever-improving Aussie Dollar continued to blow our minds and things kept looking cheaper by the day. Again, practicality was far from our minds as we bought ridiculous items such as a waste bin, a garlic press and other kitchen bric-a-brac, clothes, several pairs of shoes, and of course, Transformers. In the end, we ended up having to buy an extra luggage just to accommodate all of our purchases!
And that was that. Having engorged both our luggages and our stomachs, we were finally on our way home. Well, not quite… of course we had to have one last breakfast at the airport with our remaining cash on hand.
There, now we’re done.
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Thank you so much for joining me on this little photo-blogging series – it took a while to get through, but we got there in the end.
I’ve enjoyed reading all of your comments here and on Facebook. I hope my posts have entertained and inspired you, and that you continue to stick around!
Thanks for sharing ur trip with us! i thoroughly enjoyed following Jenny & you on this trip.. u make me miss & love my holidays!!
we love the langham place!! so glad u guys got to stay there!!