Lost and Confused, but found again

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Hong Kong can be a very confusing city. Well at least for us. On our first day of exploration we could not find anything we set out to find without a lot of work. Our first plan of action was to visit the museums on the bank of Victoria Harbor near the Walk of Stars. Some how we ended up getting out on the farthest MRT station from the water that their was. See MRT stops here branch off in many directions creating a vast network of underground tunnels. So during our walk we stumbled upon Kowloon park which was quite interesting. They had a public pool, some exotic birds, and nice water features. Anyway back to our mission. We then stumble around some other street for about another 45 minutes until we see the walk of stars, which we previously did not know existed. This is Hong Kong's version of the star walk, with many Hong Kong stars names and hand prints. On our quest for the Space museum we walk down this walk star walk at least 2 times, passing the museum each time. We finally found it and decided to watch a film in the Planetarium. We chose the one on Einstein. It said it was a planetarium show, which we thought meant it had a show with the planets and constellations. NO! it was a show about relativity with bad 3d animation and boring dialogue. It was so disappointing. And the worst part is, if we had waited another hour we could have seen a show about sharks that uses the entire dome as a screen. That would have been awesome. Maybe next time.

The highlight of the day was taking the vehicular up to Victoria peak. This is a mountain top on Hong Kong Central Island. We stayed up there until night fall. HK skyline is the greatest skyline in the world. The buildings have dancing lights of all colors.


Day 2 Ocean Park

Since we found out that it would be a couple of days until we could leave for the mainland we decided to spend day two at Ocean Park. This place is quite a big attraction in Hong Kong, well until Hong Kong Disney opens up, that features one of the largest aquariums in the world. They also feature two roller coasters and a few other rides. Again Zara and I were utterly lost the entire day while in Ocean Park. This place is divided into the highlands and the lowlands. We spend most of our day lost in the Highlands trying to find the lowlands, see the highlands are on the side of a mountain and to get around you must go up or down three extremely long escalators. When I say long I mean 3x the size of escalators in a mall in the U.S.A. See we figured to get to the lowlands we had to take these escalators down to the bottom, when in all actuality we had to take the cable car to this area. There was a long line at the cable car, so we figured we would avoid the line and use the escalator. Long story short we finally got to the other side of the park with an hour left to look around, luckily the bottom did not have that much to offer and we were able to see everything interesting.

The roller coasters at this place are not the greatest in terms of thrills, but the view is something unbelievable. They are on the edge of the mountain and overlooking the sea. It is worth going on them just for the view. This place also has an amazing aquarium with many types of fish, jellyfish, and even squid. The aquarium is four stories height and has viewing points at all levels, showing viewers the different type of life at different depths of the ocean. They also have a shark tank with at least 6 different types of sharks. The room is set up so you can walk through a glass tube right into the tank. Ocean park is worth the price if you are going to Hong Kong and have a few days to spend. We enjoyed it.

Since we walked so much up and down the escalators we were tired and went to bed quite early.

Day 3

Again we were hoping to leave for the mainland on this day but we could not get tickets, so we stayed in Hong Kong one more day. Every morning in Hong Kong Zara and I ate breakfast at Deli France, which is just what it sound like. They do not serve Chinese food, and I felt quite bad for not eating the local cuisine. So we, for our final day and a farewell Hong Kong meal, went to a Dim Sum place. Dim Sum means snack food and is a very popular Cantonese dish. It was created to eat while drinking tea. To get to this place we showed the Chinese characters written by the hostel owner to complete strangers hoping they would show us the right way. When we found it the restaurant was complete insanity. It was a Saturday and all of Hong Kong was there. There was a line about 25 meters long and nobody spoke English. Tried asking one of the waitresses what to do and she told us to wait, then led us to a table with two other women sitting with us. I think we skipped the entire line, but nobody seemed to care. One of the ladies spoke a little English and helped us ordered. When ordering Dim Sum you must pick quite a few dishes and sample a variety of foods. We ordered shrimp dumplings and bamboo shoot dumplings. The food was great, probably the best meal we had in Hong Kong.

After lunch we wondered through the flower market and bird market in the city. The flower market was quite nice, but we were familiar with many of the blossoms sold there. The bird market was something completely different. Bird buying and training is some what of a hobby in Hong Kong, and many men take part in this pastime. So at the bird market you see many Chinese men very excited to talk to and play with the birds for sale. Some men even bring their own birds with cages for a walk to the market. They just hang out there and talk to other bird owners. There are many types of bird for sale there, African Greys, Macaw's, and local varieties. Very beautiful and fun to watch.

Next we decided to watch an American movie. I know this sounds bad but I must justify why we did this. When you travel as long as we have been you get a little homesick. It is also nice to sit and relax while watching a movie in a familiar language. Plus watching a movie in a foreign country is as much of a cultural experience as anything else. First off the popcorn is different. In Thailand they had caramel popcorn, Germany sugar popcorn, and Hong Kong chocolate popcorn. Aaron you would love this popcorn. It is like a sweet cereal with hard chocolate coating. The best I have ever had. Also the audience reacts differently to movies, plus there are Chinese subtitles during the film. Well War of the Worlds was great and worth our time. And we would not have had it any other way.

Finally to end the night we went back to the walk of stars to watch the firework and laser show that is held every Saturday. This is where the lights on the buildings are in perfect sink with each other, dancing and flashing with the music. There are also lasers on the tops of the buildings that go off with the beat. At certain key times the fireworks from the buildings are launched making a grand spectacle. I am amazed that the city could organize something like this. To get different business to light their buildings up in sink with music is quite stunning. This show draws quite the crowd. The bay was lined with many people watching the event. It was a great way to finish off our first visit to Hong Kong, and anything that we did not do we can try and do with the one or two days we have before we go home.

On the tenth we leave for Shenzhen and from there we take a flight to Hongzhou.

till then

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Photos

People at Night
I have never seen so many people out and about, having a good time and not angry or frustrated with the ammount of people around.

Kowloon Park
Happy accidenent stumbling onto this place

Deli France
Our daily start.

Jackie Chan's hands
On the Star Walk

The peak at night
Great view, and nice ride up.

A all too familiar site
I hate these stairs

Tracks
This is the track of one of the roller coasters at ocean park. It is supposed to be a mine cart on the loose, sounds like Thunder Mountain to me.

fish
This tank was view from the top down and this fish only looks up. How convient. He was part of the Goldfish Pagoda, which had many varieties of goldfish.

Dim Sum anyone?
This was the setup at the dim sum restaurant. We also have a picture of the menu but it is hard to read.

Dried fish
Many places through Asia sell dried fish. This is the best photo we have of it.

Bird Market
A girl and a bird.

Hong Kong Skyline
This is the best photo we could get. Jay I am sorry it is not better, I recommed going to see it yourself. The fireworks show is amazing.

Comments

[Aaron]

I cannot believe you opted for War of the Worlds over Batman Begins!!!