Arrival

Today has been a long day for us, we first had to fly to Vancouver to catch our Cathay Pacific flight at 3:00pm and then we arrived in Hong Kong at 8:30pm the next day.
　

　
It is a 14 hour flight but seems longer since it is already the next day back home. It didn't take us long to get through customs because we have a valid Canadian Passport which is all you need to enter Hong Kong.The International Airport of Hong Kong is on Lantau Island which is approximately a 40 minute ride on the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) from our hotel in Kowloon.
　

　
Here is the route map of the MTR. (click to enlarge)

　
To take the MTR we first had to buy a Octopus Card at an information center in the airport and it is good for transportation and almost anything else you can imagine(7/11 or fast food) .
　

　
It is different from a traditional bus pass at home because you must pay a deposit of $50.00 and then you must load the card with money to use it. We loaded each of our cards with 500.00 Hong Kong Dollars, although I'm sure we will have to re-load it, which is easily done at anywhere you use it. You don't have to worry about loading your card with too much money because when we return it to the airport at the end of our trip we get back our deposit and the remaining balance. Unfortunately if we lose the card we lose all of our money - so we are keeping it safe with our passports!
　



　
We are now in our hotel which we will stay at for the entire trip, it is called the Langham Place Hotel in the district of Mongkok. It is brand new and absolutely enormous. There is no comparison to any hotels back home. Hong Kong is full of high-rise buildings, many of which being hotels, so we decided to stay at one of the biggest and most elaborate to get the real Hong Kong experience. Time for bed, can't wait for the rest of our holiday!