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Published: January 3rd 2009
Chelsea on the Tram
Isn't she the most adorable thing? Wednesday, December 17th, my sister Chelsea flew into Hong Kong from Italy where she's been studying art conservation. I left Shenzhen to meet her at the airport. She was unable to obtain an entry visa for mainland China while in Italy, so the two days we needed to wait for her visa to come through gave us a chance to do some sight-seeing in Hong Kong. Hong Kong doesn't require an entry visa. They just stamp your passport and you're good for thirty days. Mainland is a little different.
We stayed at the affordable yet totally sketchy Chung King Mansions located just off the Tsim Sha Tsui station. It's just down the street from the harbor, museums, and just about everything else. Trust me: the location is the only thing this place has going for it. It's over priced for what it is, but cheaper that anything else, so it's popular with tourists. Oh, and it's not a mansion. 😉
The next day Chelsea was still tired from traveling and I was battling a nasty cold, so we decided to take it easy. We still had to get up early to submit her application for the visa, but after
that we didn't rush anything. We walked around for a bit, had breakfast, then took the ferry over to Hong Kong Island. We took the tram up to the peak and walked around the Peak Walk path. If you recall, I did this during Mid Autumn Festival week last September. One can't come to Hong Kong without taking the old tram up the hill, so I didn't want Chelsea to miss out on it. And I was happy to do it again. The first time it was a million degrees and extremely hazy. This time it was pleasantly warm and much clearer.
After walking around for a few hours, we were both tired and hungry. We decided to splurge and eat at a fancy Japanese restaurant at the Peak Tower. We had a wonderful view of the city and the food was excellent. Chelsea got tempura shrimp and veggies (with various starters, soup, etc) and I got the biggest most delicious oysters I've ever had along with some excellent salmon (and the same various starters, soup, etc). It made me chuckle nervously when the waiter handed me the bill and it said $450(HK). I had to remind myself that
What!?!
But Chelsea just got here! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. the meal was still a good deal at $56US. We couldn't have had a meal like that in the US for less than a $100.
After the meal we headed back down the hill. It had been a warm day, but when the sun went down so did the temperature. We stood shivering at the shuttle stop waiting for a bus that would take us back to the ferry for almost half an hour before we realized the bus wasn't coming. An older Chinese couple had learned from a cab driver that there was a traffic jam and the bus was stuck in it. They asked us if we would share a cab with them. I thought they were going to Star Ferry as well, so we jumped in. When the cab stopped we all piled out, the nice couple bid us farewell and rushed off. It was at that moment that I looked around and saw that we were not at Star Ferry. I didn't know where we were, and I was fuming. I went inside a shop or something (I can't exactly recall) and asked how I could get to Star Ferry. I was told it was
Yes, please.
If you're going to have puppies on the trail, have the common decency to take them home with you. a fifteen minute walk. The fumes rose even higher. I immediately thought Chelsea and I had been scammed into splitting cab fare. I was furious. I had an 'I hate China' moment. But then I saw we were just above a metro station and it dawned on me that perhaps this is what the old man had tried to tell me in his not so perfect English: that we should take the metro back instead of catching the ferry. The fumes died down. We took the metro back to the hostel and all was well.
We had planned to walk down to the Temple Street night market, but we were too tired (and I was feeling really sick). We passed out in our sketchtastic hostel room that smelled of ancient Slim Jims instead. Good times.
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Chelsea
non-member comment
Hey
You didn't tell them about the "scary beggar" we ran into in Hong Kong. ;)