Hong Kong

After the 16 hour flight from Chicago we arrived in Hong Kong at about 6:15PM on Friday. I was quite surprised that the flight didn’t feel as long as I thought it would. Immigrations and customs was a breeze. The Hong Kong airport is very nice! The train to the city is about 300 feet from the exit of customs. We didn’t get to experience that whole groggy, glossy eyed, where the fuck is the train to the city, feeling you normally feel when you arrive in a foreign land. Very clear signage! Thank you Hong Kong.

The duration of train ride to the Hong Kong station was about 30 minutes. We walked of the train, walked outside and there was the shuttle for our hotel. Geez! Could this get any easier? Twenty minutes later we were checking into the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The first room they gave us was on the 18th floor, which we thought was exciting, until we got there. There was a window but it had a thick protective frosted layer. It looked like something one would install in a bathroom window to prevent voyeurs. We rang the front desk and inquired if the perhaps had a room with a view, they did, we moved. Now we are on the 21st floor with a room of Victoria Peak and Hong Kong cemetery. The bell-hop explained that the hotel’s Chinese quests get freaked out by the view of the cemetery, so they have glazed the windows in certain rooms.

We woke up several times during the night and finally decided to actually get up around 7. We left the hotel and headed towards the Central District. On our way down the hill we walked through a market. There were absurd amounts of fresh fish. I mean fresh fish as in they were still flopping. I would have to say the amount of fish rivalled the offerings at Pike Market in Seattle. We found a small bakery in the middle of the market and got a couple of small sandwiches. Mine was a square egg with ham on soft sweet breads. Angela’s was beef with lettuce on soft bread with sweet mayonnaise.

We left the market and headed to Statue Square. The square sits directly in front of HSBC’s world headquarters. Ok, I never knew this but HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation. The Hong Kong dollar bills have the HSBC logo on them. This bank is very important to Hong Kong. The bank issued the colony’s first bank notes, so I suppose the HSBC name has always been on HK bill. The building is quite impressive, but not quite as impressive as the Bank of China building which is just to the left of HSBC. The Bank of China building is probably the most famous buildings in Hong Kong. It looks like a finger pointing at the sky. It has a criss-crossing pattern that works up the side. Apparently it’s supposed to represent bamboo, but I don’t see it. We walked through Chater Garden, which is one of many beautifully maintained parks in Hong Kong. They had some sort of live matchmaking stage show. We watched it for a few minutes then darted as they were speaking Chinese, we didn’t know what the hell was going on. When we walked by the park an hour later everyone on stage was wearing a cowboy had and they were line dancing. We headed up the hill and snaked our way to the HK Zoological and Botanical Gardens. It was really beautiful. Oh, I forgot to mention.. The weather here is perfect.. Perfect temperature, perfect amount of humidity. We had been walking all morning and decided we were hungry.

We ate at Zen in the Pacific Place Mall. The mall (and I hate malls) is beautiful. Very upscale. Everyone seemed to be enjoying dim sum but we ordered meals. I had some sort of spicy chicken peanut dish and Angela ordered deep dried chicken. They were both good. I enjoyed the ambiance of Zen very poshy shiek. The restaurant is circular. We sat on the outside of the circle. Dividing the inner circle from the outer circle was a series of taught wire with big green emeralds all the way around. It was very pretty.

After lunch, we decided to head up to Victoria Peak, the highest peak in Hong Kong. To get there you must take a tram. The tram is on cable system. So there is this big thick cable which latterly pulls your tram up the hill. At one point in the ride the tram is almost vertical. That section made me slightly uneasy. I took comfort in the big sign at the tram station that said they have gone 100 years without an accident. By the time we waited in line and rode the tram up the weather had turned really hazy so the view was not that good. It was still very worth the trip. We spent about 45 minutes on the promenade and then decided to head back to the hotel. Down the hill via the tram. I closed my eyes on the vertical portion and hoped for the cable to stay intact.

We planned on relaxing, taking a nap, and then taking in HK night life. I don’t remember this but when the alarm went off (around 8PM) I swore, turned it off, and rolled over. The next thing I remember is waking up at 3AM! Oh well, tonight we will try again.