A trip to the "Peak"

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Saturday, June 30

We made it to Hong Kong late Friday night - did not get to the Salisbury YMCA until 11:30 PM. From the time we got out of bed at JFK on Thursday until we went to bed in Hong Kong came to 30 hours (actual time) - a long trip.

The YMCA Salisbury is really nice - we were upgraded to a harbor view room! We got up at 7:00, had breakfast and were on the street by 9:00. Took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island and walked the pedestrian skyways along Connaught Road to the Mid-Levels escalators. Lots of ‘Official” activity for the 10th anniversary celebration and there were police blockading/redirecting pedestrians due to security.

The escalator is really cool and a LOT better than walking up those very steep streets. We got off to explore some of the markets near Peel Street, then hopped back on up to Hollywood Road. We walked down Hollywood Road to the Man Mo Temple which was interesting - you could cut the incense smoke with a knife! We then walked up Ladder Street - a bad idea - walked through the SOHO area and hiked our way to the Peak Tram station. I’m guessing it was a 3 mile walk in nice, humid/overcast 90 degree weather.

We had to wait in line for about a ½ hour to get tickets - but the Tram ride was a neat experience. The view from “The Peak” is absolutely awesome!! The weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful view. We had lunch at a nice Cantonese restaurant in the peak complex. We had a window table and 20 minutes into the meal the fog rolled in and it started pouring rain! Could not see anything - visibility probably went down to 30 feet. WOW - were we lucky with the weather!!!

Nancy and I walked through the shops in the peak complex and the Galleria Mall across the street. We took the double-decker #15 bus back down to the Star Ferry piers. It was about a 45 minute ride and we got to see quite a bit of Hong Kong island. Took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon, went to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner.

We walked Nathan Road to the MTR station (the subway) - we needed to buy an OCTOPUS card (which is a prepaid/stored value electronic card) for fare payment. After figuring out how the subway/MTR system works - thankfully all the signs here are in both Cantonese and English - we went to the Jordan Street station. All the stations are like underground cities with stores, shops, tunnels, stairs and … about 15 exits! Have to do a lot of sign reading to end up coming above ground in the correct place. We were looking for a particular Cantonese restaurant, and after finally finding it - naturally, we decided we did not like it. We ended up going to a small restaurant on Nathan Road and had a nice, inexpensive Cantonese dinner. Then we took the MTR back to the hotel and called it a day!

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Photos

Star Ferry
Cheapest tour cruise on earth

Kowloon
Looking at Kowloon from Central piers.

Peel St.
Shopping street/market.

Man Mo Temple
Small, but active and crowded.

Incense
Incredible amount of burning incense.

Ladder Street
The name says it all!