Hong Kong

David was in Hong Kong and Singapore last week for work so I joined him in Hong Kong for the weekend. We flew out on Thursday night on the red-eye and worked from the hotel on Friday (David went into the office for a bit). The fun began late afternoon on Friday!

One of the most interesting things about Hong Kong is that it’s a massive metropolis positioned between the water and a towering mountainous rainforest. The buildings are so closely packed and smashed up against the mountain that the weather gets caught overhead – it’s often foggy or misty from about 50 stories up and it makes it difficult to take in the full splendour of the skyline. We had this problem during the laser show put on every night. (check out the pictures), but the florescence of the corporate signage (EVERY building is labelled in some way!) and the sharpness of the lasers could be seen to relatively well.

The public transport system is highly used (train, bus, ferry). The trains are exceptionally clean and take you to most everywhere you want to go. The ferries are efficient but dirty. The majority of the city is pretty old and decrepit. There are signs of new buildings here and there but you can tell most of the structures have been around for a long while. The culture attempts to keep things clean but since much of the city is so old, there is little to be done to make and old surface feel new again! Nonetheless, the overall feeling of the city is welcoming. The city is more Westernized than I anticipated. Most all signage is in Chinese (some Mandarin, some Cantonese) and English. We were grateful for that since otherwise we would have had a real issue!

Hong Kong is known for shopping, eating and custom made suits! Although we had determined previously that we wouldn’t have enough time to do it, we decided after getting a recommendation for a tailor from one of David’s co-workers that we would get custom suits made. We had no idea what we were getting into but it was a pretty cool experience. We chose the fabric from books of samples and the styles from magazines. Three days and as many fittings later we had two gorgeous, custom made suits! Goodness they move fast!

We decided to be on-the-go tourists since we only had a few days so there was very little down time on our trip. Friday night we took the Star Ferry across the harbor and dinner at Peking Garden in the Star City Complex. The restaurant had the feeling of a cruise ship – low ceilings, huge chandeliers, tables lined up next to each other as efficiently as possible for the space. We were rushed through our dinner but were able to savour some of the best Peking Duck we’ve ever had (they served the ENTIRE duck – neck and all – and carved it right there in front of us). The French bottle of wine we had was lovely and once the food had come and gone we were able to enjoy the rest of the bottle without too much attention paid us. After dinner we went out to the take in the view of Hong Kong Island (from the Tsim Sha Tshi side) and watched the tail end of the daily laser show.

On our first full day of sightseeing, we started out by attempting to navigate our way to the Central train station from our hotel. One might think that would be easily achievable with a map and two intelligent individuals but let’s just say it was quite the adventure! The streets were lined with store front after store front. Some of which looked a bit scary (there were people eating in most and some of the shops were very crowded, but unfortunately the variety of dead animals hanging in the window was a bit of a turn-off!) I really enjoyed the walk even through there were twist and turns that we never could have anticipated. There is no such thing as a straight sidewalk in Hong Kong – more like a sidewalk for a block or two and then a staircase or an alley or some detour through a park to get from point A to point B. We made a big realization during that walk about navigation in our family – we determined that only ONE of us can navigate on any given trip – try giving two smarites a map and a voice and you’re just asking for conflict ;) We made it to the train station (finally) and were off to the Giant Buddha.

The trip to get up to the Giant Buddha includes a 25 minute gondola ride. Here are some pictures of the scene on the ride up. Disembarking from the gondola I couldn’t help but be impressed with the 3-4 story Buddha that stood before us on the top of a peak. To get there, we followed a stone street filled with storefronts and finally found ourselves at the base of the long staircase leading up to the Buddha. What I haven’t mentioned up to this point is that it was RAINING during this entire excursion! Beyond the rain, we were being blown about by strong winds and the omnipresent cloud cover – often completely covering the entire Giant Buddha making our ability to enjoy the experience difficult. My umbrella may have spent more time being inside out than protecting me from the rain. Check out the picture David took of me before we ran for the return trip down! It’s a bummer the weather was so bad – I think I really would have enjoyed the experience if it wasn’t raining.

Our big tourist adventure on Sunday was to take the tram up to Victoria Peak. The Peak is a one of the highest points on Hong Kong Island with stunning views of the Harbor. We got a couple of good shots from up there but unfortunately the cloud cover was so thick that we only got glimpses of the actual view. At least it wasn’t raining this time! Only misting a bit ;)

In the end, we both really enjoyed our adventures in Hong Kong. I’m not sure that we’ll go back, but it was a really interesting and different experience!

~LAA :)