I dreamed of travelling since I was a child, but due to time and financial responsibilities , it took me more than two decades doing my 8amto 5 pm job before I started going out of my country and travel within the asian region . Our first destination was Hongkong. We are four in a group. My companions are my friends from my workplace , they were two retired women and one nearing retirement like me. To make things easy for us , we joined a travel club where everything was taken care of from landing to liftoff. We were picked up from the airport on time and we were allowed to check in early in a 4 star hotel where we stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. There was a welcome dinner buffet, a traditional chinese fine dining in a luxurious restaurant. The program ends at 9 pm. The night was still young but we decided to sleep early to prepare ourselves for the next day activity . So while our young members are enjoying the night because our hotel is centrally located and is the best location for night outings , we the older members of the travel club were already snoring.
Come morning, the breakfast buffet is superb with lots of international cuisine to choose from , we ate to our hearts content and feel guilty afterwards. Can we not just eat and forget the calories and cholesterol in every bite? The funny thing is we brought our anti hypertensive drugs in the buffet table.
Then our 1st day tour started . Our tour guide drop us off at the Oceanpark and will pick us up at dinner time. The Ocean park is very huge. It is divided into two parts the waterfront and the summit which can only be reached by cable car or underground train .After seing the panda in the waterfront we decided to go to the summit by cable car. its a first time for the 4 of us. It seems that all of us has acrophobia . While we are there up high, thousand feet above the ground , I can hear my heart is pounding..We are not talking with each other. Then I slowly looked down , what a beautiful scenery, the vast blue sea and the park itself. At last I conquered my fear of heights, what an achievement.!! After our lunch we walk around and see the giant roller coaster..the thrill of the young people in the rides is so inviting,but no it may cost our lives.So we just walk around , pause for picture, and sat on every bench available after a few distance walk. We laugh at the thought that we paid for a whole day tour for sightseing and unlimited rides just to sit around and wait for our guide to pick us at 6 pm for our buffet dinner . We enjoy the tour though most of the time was spent on picture taking, and watching street shows. The next days were city tour and a bargain hunt .
One thing I realise in our travel, it pays to stay in a comfortable place that after a tiring day we can dip in a warm jacuzzi. Backpacking is no longer a thing for oldies like us. So that means spending more than we should have spent when we travel young.
the fatfeet 