Recently in Hong Kong Category

On day three we took a tour.  

• We got a nice hour-long ferry ride.  
• We got to wander through a rural town, which was clearly set up to intrigue tourists.  It was nice.  
• We got to see cows; we're still not sure whether or not that was a joke.  
• We got to ride on a little boat through a fishing town, which was also clearly set up to intrigue tourists.  Even so, that was pretty neat.  
• We got to see the foot of a Giant Buddha; unfortunately, there was so much mist that that's all we could see.
• We got to enjoy an all-vegetarian Chinese-food meal, which is always interesting (well, for us meat-eaters, anyhow).
• We got to wander around a Buddhist temple.  
• We got to ride a tram down a mountain side.

It was very touristy.  It felt pretty silly at times, but it was still fun.

By day two, we were starting to drag a bit.  We took things a bit slower.  We had a taxi drop us off at Stanley beach where we were going to watch some dragon boat training races.  The cabbie dropped us off at the Stanley Promenade, which is this cute little western-style touristy row of shops and restaurants, and a semi-permanent open market of touristy crap.  We wandered around and wandered some more looking for a bunch of dragon boats.

We asked around, but most people didn't know anything about the races.  Some said they were next week.  One said, "wolf races?"  (Bwahuh?)  Finally somebody pointed us up the hill and said, "Up," with an up gesture, "Down," with a down gesture.  Yeah, up and down gestures are pretty much international.

So, we went up the hill, then down the hill, and finally, we found the races, and just in time to see Chuck's team do a run.



Later we took the subway over to... uh, I'm not really sure what that area is called.  I think we went to Mong Kok, where they close off the streets to car traffic and have a huge outdoor market.  We wandered through that market for quite a while, picking up food and drinks here and there.  Wow, that place was a bit crazy.  Whole streets crammed full of people on foot.  Good fun.



We thought the light show at the Hong Kong Cultural Center would be fun, but it was a bit disappointing.  It could have been amazing, and the potential for it was very intriguing.  But it was just a couple buildings turning on and off their lights to music.  Still, we got some cool evening shots waiting for the show.

We arrived in Hong Kong after an approximately twelve hour flight from San Francisco.  We left just after midnight local time and arrived around 6 AM local time.  None of us managed to sleep very much on the plane, so it was effectively an all-nighter for us.  But that didn't stop us!  After checking into the hotel and freshening up a bit, we met up with Chuck, Serene's cousin, for dim sum and a guided tour.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the route we took to the dim sum place.  I'm sure it wasn't that confusing but to us foreigners (pronounced fehr' nehrz) it was like winding through building after building, walking through foyers, down side-hallways, over skybridges, then finally, through a large unmarked door to find the entrance to the restaurant.  Great fun, that.

We spent the rest of the day walking around downtown, playing on the escalators, walking through open markets, and generally just hanging out in Hong Kong.  Oddly, being awake for 30-something hours didn't really bother us very much with all the walking, eating and sites to see.

The escalators are great fun.  It's fascinating to see that as a major transportation mode.  Of course, we had to clog everything up by taking pictures of us making faces.



We walked through an open market which had fish flopping around on the tables.  I guess they really want to prove that it's fresh.



Later on we went up to Victoria Peak and got some amazing views.



Finally, we topped it off with a fantastic dinner at a plastic table in the road next to a hole-in-the-wall place. And yes, cars did drive down that road sometimes while we were there (though not often).



I tell you, we slept well that night.  Zonk!