Packing for the flight back continued in the morning, while the kids went to the playground again. The new suitcase proved very useful, and the fresh bread we bought the day before was turned into heaps of sandwiches. These, together with other food items packed for the long flights, filled a whole daypack.
We left the campsite on our way to return the motorhome around 1pm, which should have left us a lot of time for the return procedure, since the road was expected to take 1.5-2 hours, and the Apollo office closes at 16:30. But due to roadwork and a couple of accidents on the way to Sydney, we barely managed to arrive within the 15-minute grace period after the official closing time, after which we would have paid a significant fine for late return.
Thanks to a friendly and efficient manager, the return process was smooth and speedy. Rather than being fined for late arrival, the manager compensated us for our various maintenance-related travails, thanked us for the feedback and said he would send the motorhome for a comprehensive maintenance service. While we waited for a taxi to come take us to the airport, we bode farewell to the vehicle we called home for nearly two months, as well as to my hiking boots. I decided that after more than 10 years of service in five continents, and intimate relationship with cobblers in Israel and Australia, it was time for them to retire, and no better place for that than Sydney. Hence, they were left proudly standing on top of a rubbish bin, in the hope that someone would appreciate the vigor still left in them and offer them a second life.
The taxi driver who took us to the airport was interested to know “what place we call home”, and when he heard that we were from Israel demonstrated considerable knowledge of Jewish traditions, inquiring whether we should’t refrain from riding a car that day. I was a bit bewildered, and said it wasn’t Saturday, to which he replied that it was Sukkot… Turned out that among his regular clients was an ultra-orthodox Jewish family, so he was much better informed than us about the do’s and do-not’s of the Jewish faith. At the airport, we had plenty of time to spend prior to the flight, but not enough to make a dent in the quantity of sandwiches in our luggage.
After a long but relatively pleasant Cathay Pacific flight, we landed in the wee hours of the morning at Hong Kong International Airport, and discovered that there was a Grade 3 Cyclone Alert on the island. We had more than ten hours before our flight back to Israel, and our original plan was to go to one of the large urban parks and then have Dim-Sum somewhere. In view of the rain and wind that plan had to be altered, but we still didn’t intend to spend all these hours in the terminal. Before leaving, though, we thought it would be better to check the El-Al transfer desks and make sure that all was in order with our check-in to the connecting flight. The El-Al transfer desks turned out to be at the furthest end of the terminal. On the long way there the string that has held Lilach’s sole in place during the last 48 hours decided to give way, and our attempts to retie it proved ineffective. After discovering the transfer desks to be totally deserted, we started limping back toward the carry-on luggage safekeeping booth, when Lilach had a eureka moment, and tore away the sole from the boot completely. This left the boot with a thin inner sole, which was an improvement on the previous state, but one we feared may not be the best solution for exploring a cyclone-ridden city. But thorough combing of the duty-free shops in search of boots or snickers yielded nothing, and so we ventured out and took a taxi to a dim-sum restaurant that Lilach found some recommendations for, which had the special distinction of opening at 6am!
Surprisingly, the young taxi driver didn’t know the name of the place we wanted to go to, and the English name of the street didn’t seem familiar to him either. But after consulting with his supervisor, showing her the location I indicated on my online map, he typed something into his phone and we were on our way. The taxi’s dashboard resembled something out of a scene in Blade Runner, with a myriad of colorful USB cables connecting to a tablet, two cellular phones, and other gadgets I didn’t recognize. The driver’s English was pretty rudimentary, but we managed to gather two pieces of information (a) he didn’t like the Chinese rule of Hong Kong, and claimed this was the prevalent sentiment among the younger generation; (b) the cyclone rating system in Hong Kong jumped from 1,2,3 straight to 8, with 3 indicating heavy rains and strong winds, but still “business as usual” more or less, whereas 8 meant near-total closure of the city. Our grade 3 cyclone was enough to paint the whole sky dark grey, and the rain was pouring rather steadily. Fortunately, we packed an umbrella, and Lilach also had two plastic ponchos she bought back in Lamington.
We got to the dim sum place around 7am, and at first didn’t see any restaurant in the alien neighborhood. Then we noticed a staircase climbing from street level to some cavernous space on the second floor, which turned to be our destination. We asked if they accepted credit cards, since all our local currency was used for taxi fare, and the response was that they only took cash, but we could find ATMs in the neighborhood. We decided to eat first, and worry about payment later. A friendly waiter seated us at a round table, next to an elderly gentleman, from which we could examine the surroundings. The other patrons were all Chinese, and the atmosphere was very casual – people were reading their morning paper, drinking tea, eating and chatting. The table setting was rather unfamiliar to us – there were no glasses to be seen, nor napkins of any kind, but on the other hand there were bowls of three or four different sizes. The waiter asked us if we wanted tea, and when we ordered jasmine tea seemed taken aback a little by our vulgar taste. He came back with a pot of jasmine tea, but also with a larger pot of hot water, and a big bowl of teal leaves. He put the latter in a medium-sized bowl, poured boiling water on it, covered it with a saucer, and poured the water out to the largest bowl on the table. He repeated that exact sequence once more, and on the third time poured the tea into our tea cups. The dim-sum variety included many of our favorites, and the quality was pretty good. The highlight as far as the kids were concerned was a steamed sponge cake, just mildly sweet and with a very light texture, of which we ordered a second portion.
When we were more or less done, well fed and drunk on several pots of hot tea, I went out to the rain to look for an ATM, and indeed found one just a couple of blocks away. After paying the bill, we all went in the direction of a small market alley I found on my way back, and examined the intriguing shops selling all kinds of alien-looking dried animal parts. Among the items in a pharmacy storefront was a live venomous snake, while another store advertised it’s “Ox Gallstone Business”…
We spent a couple of hours in a huge shopping mall that offered a shelter from the storm, where we finally found shoes for Lilach – a pair which was immediately recognized as the most comfortable shoes she ever wore. Later on we discovered that the brand – Geox – is pretty well known for that feature. Before returning to the airport we had time for another dim-sum experience. For lunch we chose a more central location, which sported a somewhat nicer decor and clearly targeted a wider clientelle. Despite our initial reservations, the dim-sum was good here, too. Back at the airport we thought we were getting to the gate at the last moment (old habits are hard to change), but this time it was an El-Al flight, so we had about an hour to spend at the gate before departure…
Back at home, Amir and Yuval surprised us at the airport, just hours before Yuval’s departure to Georgia. Good to be back!
Family Trips 