Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Since we didn't get our passports back until just before the break, many of us didn't want to make any big plans or lay out money on tickets for trips we weren't certain we could take. So last Friday I jumped in with a group going to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is literally a stone's throw away from Shenzhen. A returner suggested that we get some of the touristy stuff out of the way our first trip down. Allison was kind enough to book us a room at a hostel and Kim, along with her trusty HK book, mapped out our trip. There were seven of us all together and we met at the last stop on the Shenzhen metro, Lou Hu (sp?), Tuesday morning. From that station it was only a couple of escalators up to the border and customs. The process includes filling out a departure card, waiting in line at customs, passing through, filling out an entry card, waiting in line at customs, and passing through again-all to get from China to, well, China. After entering China from China we encountered total chaos. It being the day before the actual 'National Day' meant everyone was traveling....everyone. We all needed to buy an Octopus card, which can be used for the Hong Kong metro, buses, and in some convenience stores. That took almost an hour. After being pushed and prodded in that crowd for so long I finally lost it when some guy body checked Cara for no other reason than to get someone else's attention. He tried to look like he didn't understand me, but we were in Hong Kong, dammit, and I know they speak English there. After getting our stupid Octopus cards we could <finally!> board our second train of the day for a 45 minute trip to the city. We checked into our decidedly shady hostel at a place called Chung King Mansion (I could find neither Chung King nor a mansion) and walked down to the ferry. We then had to take another ferry to get to Lantau Island and our first touristy stop of the day: The Big Buddha. Mercifully, this ferry ride was almost an hour so we all took a much needed nap. We then had to take a scary bus ride to the Big Buddha. I say scary because the bus was huge, the roads were small and winding, we were on the wrong side of the road, and the driver didn't know that one is supposed to slow down for sharp curves. While on said bus ride from hell, I expressed my joy that we were almost there. Mariam was kind enough to point out that I was not quite correct. There were still the stairs. Stairs? Oh, yes, all 240 of them. Thank you, Mariam. You couldn't have waited until the bus ride was over to let me find out for myself, could you? The bus dropped us off at some souvenir shops where I prompty bought my requisite tacky magnet and my sister’s requisite tacky key chain and we set off for the giant Buddha. It was hot, it was humid, it was grueling, but I did it! And the Buddha was truly awesome. The haziness made it difficult to adequately capture it’s majesty on film, but trust me, it was beautiful. We ate lunch at the monestary (all vegetarian) and walked around the temple, which was a riot of color, and I succesfully used a squat pot. I’m fairly proud of myself for that last point. I think I might make a note of every succesfull elimination from now on. There was a touristy village thing that looked like the China section of the Epcot Center and from there we took a cable car back to Hong Kong. Seriously. It was the longest cable car ride ever and well worth the HK$68 we paid for it. It went over the mountains and past the airport where we landed over a month ago before dropping us off at another souvenir shop. But I resisted the supreme tackiness of the overpriced wares they were offering. We took the train back to our hostel, freshened up and went back out to a night market where we leisurely shopped for knock off goods and ate at an open air restaurant (Allison and I shared the most amazing clams with chili and black bean sauce). And thus ended our first day in Hong Kong. So, to recap, we took a total of three trains, two ferries, one bus, and one cable car. More to follow….

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