good bye snow...

hong kong... (part 2)

Hello everyone!

I'm back, and ready to report the next part of my vacation. Last week was the most exhausting week yet... and I wasn't really up to much. I guess just the excitement of my travels took it's toll. Here I go... Hong Kong: Day Two.

Now what is a trip without, you guessed it... A BUS TOUR!! At 8 am dad and I boarded a bus with about a dozen other tourists and were on our way to explore Hong Kong Island. Our hotel was in Kowloon, which I think is the exciting part of Hong Kong... great food, great shopping, great sites... so we spent most of our non-tour time there. So it was good to get a taste of the island.


The first stop on this tour was Man Mo Temple. This was a tiny little temple, that is noted for being the oldest in Hong Kong. It was very cute. One thing that was interesting was that there are these insense coils and people could pay to write letters to the dead, and then attach it to this coil thing, and as the insense burned it was sending the message up to heaven. Another thing that we learned about Chinese Buddhists is that they believe that the dead still need nice things, like cars, and houses, etc... so people come to the temples with this really fancy origami shaped like these things, and burn them... which again, sends it up to the heavens.



The next stop on the tour was Victoria Peak. Hong Kong is very hilly. So to get to Victoria Peak, you climb on a tram, that goes up a quasi vertical railway, and it drops you off in the middle of a shopping center (400m up). From there you climb about a million elevators (522m up) and get the most breathtaking view of the city. I will show you in pictures but it was kinda cool, cause one side you see thousands upon thousands of buildings, super urban... and then you look on the other side and you find green stuff, and water, and mountain top mansions. Just take a look...





After checking out the view, the bus took us to Aberdeen, which was a little fishing village on the shore of this big urban center. We got onto a boat called a somtam. This weaved us in and out of all these houseboats, and people making a living from the water. It was a very interesting contrast to business in Hong Kong.



After that they took us to a jewelry factory. Lame. They trapped us there and encouraged us to buy stuff. We declined. The only interesting thing I got out of this was that I am a dog on the chinese calendar and it is my year. Woo Ahh!

The next stop was Repulse Bay and Stanley Market. Repulse Bay is Hong Kong's beach. It was really nice, but pales in comparison to Thai beaches. Also Stanley Market which was, as it sounds, a market where you can purchase all sorts of nic nacks. But once again, it paled in comparison to Bangkok's Markets... the stuff wasn't as good, and it was way more expensive that here.

And that brought us to the end of our tour. The bus took us back to the center of Kowloon. Dad and I wandered around looking for a place to eat... once again we ended up on Ashley Street, and had a fabulous meal at Singapore Restaurant. And - it only took me 2 tries to get what I ordered to be vegetarian. I hate when they put meat in things and don't write it down on the menu, grrrrrr.

Dad and I went back to the hotel, because he needed a nap. After his nap, we hopped on the metro in search of a vegetarian retaurant that was reccomended in my Lonely Planet. We wandered, and wandered... and I promise we weren't lost, we were exactly where we should be, but nothing was numbered... and this retaurant was nowhere to be seen. So I get the brilliant idea that maybe the restaurant is inside this plaza/mall thing that we keep walking past. So we go inside, ask a bunch of people where it is... they keep saying it's upstairs. And as it turns out, it's just another case of people saying they know where things are, but not actually knowing. So we decide to leave and try another vege restaurant that was in the book. However, we couldn't seem to escape the mall, we wandered around this tiny building, couldn't find elevators, couldn't find exits... we kept passing the same things. But then eventually we managed to escape this black hole!

Luckily, the other vegetarian restaurant was right where it said it would be. So we found that one no problem. And I guess it's true that things happen for a reason, because this place was so cool. First of all, we were the only white people in the joint. We sat down at this big family sized table, with a bunch of other Hong Kongers. Then we get the coolest and most expansive menu I've every seen... with fairly affordable prices. The menu had things like Vegetarian Squid, Veggie Chicken, a million kinds of tofu... all cantonese food, but all artificial meat. It's so nice being able to order anything on the menu. Also, I think I provided some entertainment for the others at my table as I struggled with my chopsticks, while trying to eat my dinner.

After dinner we wandered over to the temple street market, and the Ladies Market. The Hong Kong equvilents of the Bangkok markets, which again did not compare. But it was fun to wander around the streets and see the Hong Kong night life. Kowloon is a hopping city. After we grew weary of the market scene, we stopped at a bar along the promenade. We had a few drinks and then headed off to bed. Overall a successful first full day of our adventure.

More to report soon.

posted by Crystal @ 10:30 PM