At 8:30 this morning we met with the Kuoni rep Sou Chan in the lobby of our hotel, and she gave us a few ideas on how to conduct our day. Then we took our leave of her, so happy to go about things without a guide for once.
We headed straight to the tube station, Causeway Bay to Admiral. Both one way tickets were HK$8 (£0.59/$1.09). Once departing Admiral station, we headed up the hill towards the Peak Tram. Personally, we don’t know why they bother, because we had to follow a maze of roads and walkways for about 15 minutes till we found it. Victoria Peak and the surrounding environs is considered the Uppercrust part of town. Not only are the streets immaculate, but we experienced a long line of luxury vehicles and nothing else; Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Jag, Mercedes, Mercedes, Mercedes.
We jumped on the old-fashioned wooden tram train which would take us to the top of the mountain which overlooks all of Hong Kong. The train climbed the hill at a constant 45 degree angle, all the while showing the magnificence of the city below.
Within 15 minutes we had reached the top, which was a suprisingly vast amount of stores and restaurants. The highest viewing area didn’t open till 10, so we walked around the lower area that showed the opposite side of the mountain. Having discovered a McDonalds nearby, we decided to share a cappuccino McFlurry, since we had never seen it before, and it was already very hot on the hill.
At 10am sharp we were at the foot of the escalator to the high viewing area. Hence, we were the first up to the top to take some awesome photos. The view from the top of Hong Kong Island, and Kowloon across the bay, was simply spectacular.
The viewing area started to get crowded in about 20 minutes, so we caught the tram back. For the rest of the day, we decided to see what the other side of the bay was like, so we walked past the magnificent buildings to Central Ferry Pier, and took the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui East ferry station on Kowloon.
Immediately upon leaving the station we were set upon by men on the street offering tailoring services, and they would proceed to plague us throughout the day, everywhere.
Regardless, we finally found Nathan Road which headed precisely north, through the Jade market (although we didn’t stop) and had lunch at a cute restaurant we discovered on the main road, serving Hong Kong cuisine. It was full of Chinese students in their adorable school uniforms, which told us two things:
A) it was inexpensive
B) it was good enough for Chinese people.
We had a wonderful lunch for exactly HK$60, including drinks, and headed up to the Ladies Market, where we spent the next few hours. It is an enormous street market that features things like watches, handbags, scarves, cell phone accessories, and pretty much everything else you could think of, including stuff for guys.
We spent a small fortune but acquired between us 4 rings, 3 watches, a passport holder, wine accessories, a belt and a fabulous handbag. Because of the strict anti-counterfeit laws in Hong Kong, many of the street peddlers carry no stock in-market, but instead try to lead you to their local store, which is never on the ground floor. We have a strict policy of never going upstairs to a hidden location, as it's simply not safe, so we received a lot of pleas but never gave in, and we never saw the hundreds of items they promised.
We had a wonderful dinner at another Yoshinoya (the same restaurant we had dinner yesterday) and found ourselves visiting the Temple Street Night Market.
We didn’t buy anything though, having really exhausted our resources during the day.
It was about this time that Kelly's Teva sandals began to give out and her feet were killing her, so we took Nathan Road back to the bay. Quite awhile of frustration whilst we were lead through impossible impasses, closed roads and pedestrian free zones, but we did finally make it to the Hong Kong Space Museum and Cultural Centre precisely at 8pm as the music started. We then experienced a spectacular light show as we were introduced to all the major buildings across the bay on Hong Kong Island. Over the loud speaker, a female voice welcomed us to this show they have each evening at 8, and as each building was named; ING Building, Wan Chai Tower, The Centre, Cheung Kong Centre, Grand Hyatt, Exchange Square #1 and #2, and the multi-faceted spiked peak of the Bank of China to name of few, they lit up in hundreds of colors and shone lasers from their roofs. The laser show went on for 13 minutes, with music and all. It was incredible.
Afterwards, we took the ferry back, this time to Wan Chai so we could walk back to our hotel in about 15 minutes. It was a beautiful summer evening and we took our time walking back through streets lit up as bright as day.
Hong Kong is the most unusual and wonderful city. It is a perfect combination of East meets West. Cantonese is the most widely spoken language but most speak at least a modicum of English, to our relief. It has many of the charms of China, as well as the low cost of goods and services, but with much less poverty then we saw on the mainland. Not having any of the Communist influence of China, people enjoy a much higher standard of living, with some living in affluence on and around Victoria Peak. Most buildings in the skyline on both sides unabashedly display their company names in vibrant lights on two hundred foot high signs at the top, so the entire skyline is awash with virtual advertisements. This is the city that New York, London, Paris aspire to be; clean with little crime and providing a good life for its citizens. This is the futuristic metropolis we have so far only seen in movies. Having never been to Tokyo, we wonder what that must be like in comparison.
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