Not too shabby

We landed in Hong Kong around 7:30 PM after an uneventful flight and noticed the humidity and heat straight away...very similar to the climate in Ivory Coast where I grew up. As soon as we stepped into the airport we were pulled aside by "medical personnel" and told we would be tested for swine flu symptoms. Everyone else from our flight was ushered on, but we had our temperatures taken via ear thermometer. I guess they took one look at our pale, flushed skin and sweaty faces and assumed we were carrying the contagious disease. Poor Tirzah was hot and tired and hungry so when we eventually got into the immigration line to show our passports, she was very grizzly. An airport official saw (heard?) our plight and kindly ushered our family to the front of the line where we sailed through and then collected our luggage. As my mother has said in the past, "Could have been an angel in disguise..."

We were met by Gail, the Principal of the school for which Craig will be working, and a board member, Pam. They gave us a warm welcome and arranged for a van to take us to our hotel.

This is the Royal Park Hotel, our home for the next two weeks. You can read more about it here. Not too shabby, indeed! We feel like we are on holidays. It is a very nice way to ease into this new city. Here are some more photos of our hotel which I found online.

Our room is very similar to this one, except all five of us fit in the one room.

These are the fancy lifts in the lobby which require a key card to operate. People here in Hong Kong are so paranoid about swine flu that even the lift buttons are sanitised every hour. Many people wear face masks.

My sister Carla would love the shopping centre a block away from the hotel. It is so clean and spacious. See photo below.

We enjoyed a HUGE buffet breakfast on Friday morning at the hotel restaurant. Jemilla's favourite food was the waffles, Keegan liked the French toast and watermelon, and Tirzah ate several bowls of fruit salad.