Day 11: Hong Kong

After all of the hassle yesterday, we finally got on our flight to Hong Kong.  To my pleasant surprise, the seats on the flight were by far the best I have ever been in, with much more width and leg room than normal.  Even better, there was no one in the seat between us, giving us both extra space to stretch our legs.  Thanks to both of these factors, I was able to sleep soundly for four of the five hours on the flight.  Arrival in Hong Kong was equally smooth, the entire process taking only about 30 minutes.  We did hit one snag at the ATM, however.  Since I am leaving tomorrow, I did not want to get too much cash, so I figured I would get about HKD$ 150 (USD$ 19.20).  After spending so long in India and Nepal, where all transactions are at least 100 rupees, I ended up hitting HKD$ 1500 (USD$ 192) at the ATM.  Oops!

Outside we picked a cab to take us to our hotel, which was no simple task.  In Hong Kong, only certain color taxis can go to certain parts of the city, in an effort to reduce congestion.  Thankfully, there was a helpful lady who pointed us in the right direction (apparently it has been the same person for years), and we were off.  One thing that surprised me about Hong Kong was how mountainous it is.  All around the city there are fairly large mountains rising out of the earth and the sea.

Greg had a meeting for the afternoon, so I headed across the harbor by ferry to check out the town.  Our hotel is in the central business part of Hong Kong, but most of the attractions and shopping are across the harbor in another district, so the ferry had to be taken.  Thankfully, it is very cheap (USD$ 0.32 one way) and fast.  Plus, taking a ferry is always fun (the first five times or so).

In Kowloon (the district that I took the ferry to), I walked along the harbor for a ways.  There were great views of the central district along the water, as well as several neat buildings.  Further down is the Avenue of the Stars.  Much like the road in Hollywood, famous actors and actress’ names were written in the cement, some along with their hand prints.  Of course, “famous” means famous in the Hong Kong movie industry, so there were very few whom I recognized, the only two being Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.  It was rather amusing to watch all of the Asian tourists get very excited as they saw their favorite actor, or pose alongside the sets of hand prints.

A clock tower built by the English

This odd shaped build looked very large up close.

There were dozens like this; I knew two.

Next up, I walked down Nathan Road, one of the major shopping thoroughfares in Hong Kong.  Here, shopping is much like it is in the US, with a few exceptions.  Shortly down the road, I came to a nice watch shop.  I looked at some, but they were far too nice and expensive for me.  About a block later there was another shop just like it.  A block later, there was yet another.  What I soon realized was that not only did these shops sell counterfeit watches, but that they carefully copied the stores to create a similar experience to that in a real store.  Watches were not the only counterfeits, there were dozens of camera, computer, mobile, clothing and other stores, some carefully copying the original, which others had blinking neon signs that removed any doubt that such stores were fake.  One thing I quite enjoyed was finding escalators that went up into the building to what seemed to be some kind of shop.  Usually, these took me to a small indoor shopping area with all kinds of things.  In one, there was an entire floor full of stores selling mobile phones, while the next floor sold covers and cases for those phones.  Another went to a shopping area full of action figures and other toys.  One escalator I took looked much like the others, but when I reached I top I found myself in an upscale, 21-floor mall, with fancy stores, restaurants, and even a movie theater, all hidden up one escalator.

I was told to make sure that I was in some of my pictures.

From Nathan Road, I took a taxi to the “Ladies’ Market”, which was more of a traditional market, like the ones I had been to in India and Nepal.  This one spanned three city blocks, with the road completely filled with tents selling all sorts of things.  Most items were for women, so, boring, but it was still interesting to see such a different way of shopping.  I tried to find some sunglasses, as I broke mine at Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi, but most of the vendor’s seemed to be women’s, so I couldn’t find any I liked.  Afterwards, Greg’s meeting was wrapping up, so I headed back towards the ferry and the hotel.

The Ladies' Market went on like this for three blocks.

The Central District under looming clouds.

The ferry I took back and forth across the harbor.

This evening, Greg and I headed out for dinner and to go see the city from Victoria’s Peak.  Victoria’s Peak is on one of the mountains just behind the central district, where I am staying.  There is a tram that goes to the top, so we got tickets and headed up.  When we got going, the ride was pretty steep.  From there, it just kept getting steeper.  Everyone was pushed back completely in their seats as we seemed to be going up at a 45 degree angle.  The maximum incline of the tram is 27 degrees, which may not sound like much, but even the steepest roads are only seven degrees, so the ride felt very steep indeed.  At the top, there were hundreds of people trying to take pictures of the lights of the city, making getting a good shot difficult, but the view was very neat.  We looked out over the central district and across the harbor to the rest of the city, where all of the buildings were lit up and glowing.  Such views made for a good close to a long day after little sleep last night.

The One IFC building and myself.

Hong Kong at night.