Hong Kongin'

• Lisabraz's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Hong Kong

Trip Start Mar 17, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 03, 2010 Next
Entry

  Hong Kong, China
Friday, March 19, 2010

We were awake by 4 a.m., swilling instant coffee and plotting our day's activities before the sun rose. We decided to focus our sightseeing efforts in and around Kowloon, with a trip up to Victoria's Peak included, as the weather forecast was good.

The streets around the hotel were completely empty and quiet when we started out on foot, around 6:30. We first headed down to the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, which is a wide walkway skirting the beautiful harbor. It was a hazy/smoggy morning, but the sun was up and glinting off the water, and the skyscraper view on the other side of the harbor was pretty amazing. Along the promenade are “stars” built into the walkway surface, similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with many Chinese actors' names that we didn't know—we kept looking for Jackie Chan's, but no luck! The only other people out at that time in the morning were joggers and people practicing Tai Chi. We soon realized we had gotten up way too early, because not even the coffee shops were open yet.

Fortunately, there was a huge mall nearby, and although the stores were not yet open, the main doors were unlocked, so we were able to spend some time wandering around and peeking in shop windows. This mall is called Harbour City, and I think it is actually 4 malls in one and includes something like 700 shops, all very upscale. I read somewhere that it is one of the largest shopping complexes in the world, or at least in Asia, and it would probably be pretty easy to get lost in there without a map.

Since it was still early, we decided to hang out and wait for a nearby restaurant called Serenade to open—we'd read about it in our guidebook and heard it was a good place for dim sum. It was kind of a long wait, but worth it. We shared only four little dishes, but everything tasted delicious, and it was a fun experience. We were still getting used to chopsticks, so that made everything all the more interesting.

We next hopped on board the Star Ferry for a short ride across the harbor to Central. I'm not sure how long the ferry has been in operation, but it looked exactly the same as the one in the 1960 classic,
“The Life of Suzie Wong” (that I'd recently watched in preparation for the trip). Anyway, it was a short ride of about 6 minutes or so, and we were docking on the other side of the harbor in no time.

Outside the ferry dock we caught a double-decker bus, which took us to the peak tram entrance, and from there we caught the tram up to Victoria's Peak. The views were incredible, as shown in the attached pictures. The peak itself likely looks far different from yesteryear, as it has been quite built up with (expensive) shops and restaurants. We stopped in at a Bubba Gumps for a beer (it was after noon at this point), and the tab came to 24 USD, yikes!

We decided to head back to the room for a rest break, so took the tram back down the mountain, then wandered around until we found the subway entrance. The train trip back to Kowloon was really quick, and traveled underneath the harbor. Once on the other side, we emerged onto the busy streets and were soon back in our room. We were both wiped out from jet lag and getting up too early so decided to just take a siesta for an hour or so. We didn't get too much rest as there was a lot of noise, with staff members sitting around in the hallway chattering away. Bill finally poked his head out the door and glared at them which seemed to quiet them for a little while, anyway.

Our last tourist activity for the day was a trip to the Temple Street Night Market, which involved a
completely packed train ride, then some time spent walking in circles, trying to figure out where to go. The streets were crowded, huge flashing neon signs everywhere, shops, activity, noise, etc. It was pretty disorienting. We managed to find our way to Temple Street after a little difficulty, then wandered the stalls. Bill bought some little trinkets, and I bought a brick of extremely fragrant Dragon Rose tea.

That was about it for our first full day in Hong Kong. We were in bed and completely zonked out by 11:30. Tomorrow we go to Lantau Island to visit the largest seated Buddha in the world!

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

At the Harborfront	Clock Tower Along the Harborfront	Mirrored Ceiling	Dim Sum Fun!   Comments!
Bill aththe Peak	Peak Shot	Beer Break After the Viewing	Shopping Action
Street Scene

Previous Entry Next Entry