Hong Kong: Lightshows and Roller Coasters

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I think I got a total of two hours of sleep the night before leaving on this trip. A combination of packing and getting ready plus tying up the loose ends at work kept me up. I was juggling a lot of different things and it was hard to shut off at 12:30 when I finally finished. It took me over an hour to start sleeping, and then I had to get up at 3:45am... So it was one of the shortest sleeps of all time.

Still, it was easy to motivate myself to get up, and wake Vanessa up. We're on our way to the Philippines via Hong Kong, and it should be a great trip. In Asia, I've only been to Japan and Vanessa's never been. We were both excited to experience something different.

But first, we had to escape Edmonton. We called a cab and grabbed our bags and were on our way. It had snowed a bunch over night, and it was cold, so it was nice to see what we would be escaping.

At the airport, we were sitting near our gate but not at it, and we didn't hear any announcements except the final boarding call, so we moved pretty quick after that!

I slept for about half the flight to Vancouver.

We had a very lengthy layover in Vancouver, and it gave me some time to get some stuff done. I needed to buy a book for the trip, so we picked up a couple. I phoned banks and credit card company to let them know I'd be out of the country, and we still had plenty of time left.

So we got drinks at Milestones. I got two beer, Vanessa got a double shot of whisky. The positive thing about long layovers at airports is it's socially acceptable to drink in the morning. Plus we'd been awake for over eight hours already, so it was time.

The flight to Hong Kong took a whopping14 hours. I thought the in-flight display was wrong when after watching three movies it said there was still eight hours left before arrival. It felt like time was not moving at all. We drank beers, ate two dinners, and I finally fell into a good sleep about two thirds of the way through. I managed to get three to four hours of solid sleep, but I still felt pretty zombie-like when the plane landed.

Immigration was very speedy, with no questions asked. They don't even stamp your passport. Because of how often people travel back and forth to mainland China, it would fill up a passport too quickly.

We grabbed our bags and went through "customs" which was just a doorway into the airport. We tried to grab a map but all they had were Japanese and Cantonese maps left. There were apparently some English maps on the other side of customs, but we didn't notice.

Oh well, a map's a map. We bought octopus cards, which are the rechargeable transit cards for Hong Kong, and caught bus to city. It was a double decker bus, and we rode on top right at the front for a good view on the way in to the city. It was a bit tense when the bus would pull into a stop behind another bus, and the driver would stop about six inches from the back of the other bus. And they don't stop very slowly. I guess they get a lot of practice.

The bus stops were displayed on a screen (in English), so it was easy to know when to get off, even though we couldn't read our Cantonese map. Actually, all the signs we saw were in English, so we shouldn't have too much trouble navigating the city.

It was raining pretty good when we got off the bus, but at least we managed to get off at the correct stop. We oriented ourselves on the map and found the hostel using the directions I had downloaded before we left home. It was early evening and just after dark, so Vanessa went to sleep right away, but I decided to go for a quick walk first.

I think it's actually brighter here at night than during the day, thanks to all of the extremely big and bright signs everywhere. The streets and sidewalks were pretty congested. Because it was raining, there were umbrellas in the way everywhere I tried to go, and people couldn't move too quickly through the crowds. I actually had thought Tokyo would be congested like this but it wasn't. Maybe Hong Kong's a bit more dense, but it definitely has a different feel.

I like it so far. It feels different from any place I've been, and definitely more “Asian,” whatever that means in my mind based on my preconceived notions. But I'm sure Hong Kong is far more western than just about everywhere else in Asia. After all, I did find a Crocs store on my short walk around the block.

I was excited to do some more exploring, but I fatigue won and I went to bed.

We both slept well, and woke up at eight. No sign of jet lag all day, so high fives all around!

We had a 7-eleven breakfast, and that's thanks to the fact that 7-elevens are almost like the ones in Japan, with decent fast food options. No, honestly, it's true.

We decided to go to the Ocean Park amusement park for the day. Because why not! We took the MTR (subway) to the Admiralty, and then a bus through a tunnel under the mountain to Ocean Park. Public transit is pretty slick here.

It was raining a little bit, but we decided to go for it anyway. It rained off and on all day, but that seemed to keep the crowds away and we walked onto most rides or just had a short wait.

And we went straight for the rides when we got inside. We took the Ocean Express straight to Thrill Mountain! Vanessa's not a big roller coaster fan, but I actually got here to ride them. We started with a gentle one for kids, and then one called the Hair Raiser! It was a lot of fun, but pretty intense. We were upside down about four or five times, and it's right on the top of a mountain so feel like you're heading right off the edge on many of the turns. I rode it again later in the day. It's pretty awesome!

The craziest thing was that the ride photos were printed and framed before you even got off the ride! People stand at the exists to sell you your pictures. The wonders of technology!

But Ocean Park isn't all rides, and it's part zoo. We checked out the polar exhibits with seals, penguins, and arctic fox displays.

Our day was soundtracked by Christmas music. “We Wish You a Reggae Christmas and a Reggae New Year” was my personal favourite.

We stopped for lunch at a park cafe while it rained. They had to stop the rides, so we had to too wait for the rain to stop anyway. When it did stop, I rode the Dragon, but it wasn't quite as good as Hair Raiser. We also rode the log ride, walked through the amazon rainforest rainforest exhibit, and I rode the tower drop ride, which was pretty crazy. It's half way up the mountain, and my seat overlooked the open ocean. Then it drops! It was pretty wild.

We also rode the river rapid ride which had a neat feature for people walking nearby. They had water guns you can use to spray people as they go by. It was mostly kids trying it. The kids were trying to get everybody wet, but it's a pretty weak stream out of the water guns, so I don' think that's the best stategy. Because I'm a jerk, I took a turn and instead of trying to get everyone wet, I'd target one person in the raft and keep the spray just on them as they went by. You can't get everyone wet, but you can get one person very wet! (P.S. I'm a jerk.)

The park also has a Yangtze River exhibit, which was neat, and a jelly fish exhibit which was, uh, very weird. The jelly fish are kept in individual cylindrical pods, and there's a light show set to music. It's 1 part science fiction, 1 part... I don't know what. It was weird.

We took the cable car down the mountain to the lower part of the park and visited the panda panda exhibit, which has a collection of red pandas and sleeping pandas.

The aquarium was cool, and you can walk through a glass tunnel underneath the tank and look up at all the hammer head sharks and manta rays. It must take some planning to stock the aquarium with fish that won't eat each other.

That was our Ocean Park experience, and we spent pretty much the entire day there. We took the bus back to Central, and then hopped on the MTR over to Kowloon, across from the island. After grabbing some snacks from a grocery store and a 7-eleven (honestly, they're pretty great here) we strolled along the harbour to check out the city light show.

Every night, the buildings on Hong Kong island are lit up in a light show that's set to music. It's not every building, but it's a lot of them. And people gather across the harbour in Kowloon to watch.

Afterwards, we took the famous Star Ferry back to the island, and walked to hostel. These ferries are old, but the people of Hong Kong love them and have fought to keep them around and a part of the transit network. It's also a pretty near free way to take a boat tour of the harbour.

So that was a pretty full day, and we had another good one the next day, after a traditional 7-eleven breakfast.

We wanted to check out the outdoor markets in Kowloon, but we got there before it opened, so we went for a walk instead. We crossed boundary road, which used to be the end of the Hong Kong territory until 1997 when the British ceded Hong Kong back to China. China expanded the territory quite a bit. I'm not sure if the city beyond boundary road existed before 1997 or not, but it might have.

Then it started to rain really hard. We took shelter on a covered bench in a park next to a soccer field. It was the equivalent of sitting at a bus bench, except there was no bus coming to rescue us.

When it let up a bit we walked to a dim sum restaurant that we'd looked up that morning. It has a Michelin star, so you you know it was pretty darn good. Actually, many dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong have Michelin stars, so it's probably the cheapest way to eat at a Michelin star restaurant. It cost us about $20 (Canadian) all together.

Then the markets opened, and we strolled through the stalls selling knockoff watches, knockoff bags, knockoff Lego, and iphone cases. There are many, many markets in Hong Kong, and some are very specialised. There's the ladies market, the goldfish market, the bird market, the night market, the flower market.... and probably about a dozen more.

And in addition to the markets, different streets are dedicated to different things. So there are areas that sell just sporting goods, and all the sporting goods stores are concentrated on that street. The goldfish market is on a street that's almost all pet stores. There's streets with stuff for the home, so if you need flooring or a toilet, you know where to go and you can shop around easily.

We walked around a stationary store (probably in the stationary store district) and saw how much cheaper school supplies were. We joked that it would be worthwhile to fly to Hong Kong to buy a decade's worth of school supplies for your kids. It probably (definitely) wouldn't actually be cheaper when you factor in the flight (maybe closer than you might think) but it's certainly a good excuse to make a trip to Hong Kong in the future.

We also walked through some weird mall with tiny stores and Christmas music in search of a candy store we saw signs for. We didn't even end up buying any candy...

Then we took the metro back to Central and went inside the Bank of China building. You can take the elevator about half way up for a view of the city. It's a pretty small viewing area. Really, the building is all business and it feels a bit strange to go into a corner of one floor while business men and women are using their scan cards to go through the door to their offices.

But you can't beat free. Now, the better view is probably from the top of the mountain, where you can take the peak tram. We're were going to do it, but it was pretty cloudy, and then it rained again. We'll be back in Hong Kong at the end of our trip for a day, so we can try again and hope for better weather in a few weeks.

Instead we went to the Mid Level Escalators, which are as magical as they sound. Covered escalators and moving sidewalks (or travelators as they shall be known) whisk you through the streets and up the side of the hill past shops and restaurants. We were looking for a pub for a drink but even at happy hour it was expensive.

We took the metro back to the hostel and hung out on the rooftop with a couple of Irish doctors. We were hoping to get some sushi, but the conveyor belt sushi chain I Googled was gone, and the other sushi restaurants in the area were pretty expensive. So we took what we could get elsewhere, and went back to the rooftop and talked to an English teacher working in China. Sounds like an experience.

Hong Kong's pretty neat, and I could definitely have spent more time there. It's actually a lot bigger than you'd think, and most of the territory is actual forest, which was a surprise. They have a keen sense of conservation when it comes to this limited green space, and so it remains undeveloped. Skyscrapers are built right next to virgin forest. There are no suburbs. There's even supposed to be some hiking and camping you can do out there, so there more to Hong Kong than just the city.

But it's off to the Philippines tomorrow, and the real adventure begins!

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Photos

Lightshow
Even before the lightshow, it's still a lightshow.

Loose Seals
Oh, no. They're alright.

Sleepy Foxes
Pretty Adorable.