The next morning, my mom’s friend (hence forth referred to as Auntie), her husband (Uncle), his sister, her husband and their grandson were supposed to come to our hotel in the morning and take us for dim sum.  However, we did not expect that three of us would be wide awake by 5:30 in the morning, waking the 4^th person (me) up as well.  We hung around the hotel room, waiting for Auntie and the others to call.  Finally at 7:30, I decided to take a walk to get us some food.  I walked to the 7-11 down the street and picked up a couple of buns, a container of plain cheurng fun (rice noodles that are used to make chow fun) and dumplings and coffee for $21HK ($2.75 US).  The food was much better than I would expect from 7-11.  After eating the quick breakfast we continued to wait.

Auntie and the others finally came around 9:30 and we went to a restaurant that was actually attached to our hotel.  I don’t know if it was because I was hungry or what, but the food was so good.  We ordered a couple of crock pots of rice steamed with spareribs, har gow (shrimp dumplings), sui mai (pork and shrimp dumplings), cheurng fun with shrimp, veggies and some other stuff.  The har gows were my main focus, as Hong Kong’s har gows are the best I have ever had.  These har gows had two whole shrimp in each one.  The sui mai were amazing as well.  I am drooling just thinking about it.

Auntie’s sister-in-law called the man with the van from the night before and had him come pick us up from the hotel to drive us to the train station.  Taxis in Hong Kong have a limit of seating 5 people and charging for additional luggage.  Therefore, for $100HK ($13), it was much easier to use the van again. 

We got to the train station 15 minutes before the next train was due to leave, which left us 5 minutes to get the luggage checked and to the train before the gate closed.  We opted to wait for the next train, since we also didn’t have the cash to pay for the train tickets (credit cards are not excepted!).  There was a money exchanger about 20 feet from the ticket window and a bank a bit further down.  We walked around the train station a bit after checking the luggage in.  We then walked around the station for a bit before we were allowed to get to the train gate.  We took the escalator down to the train tracks and there sat a double decker train.  We were assigned seats on the top deck of the first car.  The guy selling the train tickets gave us 4 seats with a table in between.  The kids did not require tickets. 

The train ride took about 2 hours, with 1 stop.  We went through immigration and collected out luggage right after that.  We then went through an area with a x-ray machine to scan small bags and there was a dog there to sniff out items that are not allowed into the country, including fruits and vegetables.  Auntie and Uncle’s son (Mun) came to pick us up in his minivan. 

Mun drove us to what he thought was our hotel, Guangdong International Hotel and we were told that it was closed for renovations.  The security guard there said that maybe we were booked at the Asia International Hotel, across the street (talk about confusing).  We checked into our hotel, booked through www.agoda.com, which again was a simple process.  They gave us room 3208 and again asked for a $500 RMB ($74 US) deposit and for the passports of all adults staying in the room.  The room is pretty big, again with two oversized twin beds, a closet, a minibar, desk and two chairs.  My only complaint is the moldy mat in the bathtub.  However, since there is a separate shower in the bathroom, I can live with it.

After resting in the room for about 20 minutes, we were supposed to go to dinner with all of my mother’s old schoolmates. After 2 minutes after we got into the van, both kids fell asleep.  Mun drove me to meet his wife Kathy, who was going to take me to the supermarket, so I could get some fruits and drinks.   I was not going to pay the $3.75 US for the cans of coke from the minibar, when I could get a can for 37 cents at the supermarket.  I had talked to Kathy many times before our trip; she will be joining us and helped us book plane tickets to Xi’an and Beijing.  Mun took the others with the kids to the restaurant first.   Kathy and I went to a Japanese supermarket which was supposed to have quality stuff.  After getting some fruits and drinks, we met up with Kathy’s mother and sister (Jessie) who were joining us for dinner.  Mun came back and picked us up to take us to the restaurant. 

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