good bye snow...

hong kong...part 3

Hello All!

Man, I suck. I can't believe I'm still writing about October! Sorry faithful readers. I'll try to be better. I'm hoping that I'll at least be able to finish Hong Kong in this one brief post. But you know me!

Sidebar: I've been really starting to feel the pangs of homesickness lately. (Send more emails...cough...emails) So this morning I woke up and decided to call Jamie. So I called and he picked up, and it turned out that he was at a Thai restaurant with all my friends from home. So I got to talk to a bunch of them - which was nice. And then Jamie went outside to hear me better and he was standing beside a store called Crystal. It's Crazy!!

Back to Hong Kong.





Last I left off, it we were waking up to the morning of the 3rd day. We decided to go exploring another island. We took the metro to Hong Kong Island, and then a ferry to Lantau island, home of the giant Buddha. When we got off the ferry we hopped on a bus. Thanks to our Lonely Planet we were able to find our way around quite easily. We arrived at the side, and when they said giant they weren't kidding. We hiked up about a million stairs, and found ourselves at the base of the Buddha. It was magnificent. I was also surrounded by a breathtaking view, and a bunch of really beautiful Buddhist statues. Inside the Buddha was a museum, including a relic of the buddha. It was pretty great.



After that we hiked back down the stairs, and went to have lunch. Included with the price of admission was this AMAZING vegetarian meal. They brought us out a ridiculous amount of food. It was so good.



After lunch we took the metro back to Kowloon, in search of the walled city. This is a beautiful park that is surrounded by a brick wall. During the Second World War, this city was actually a community of people all crammed into this little plot of land. This piece of land was considered to be mainland China in the middle of Hong Kong.



Then... dad snoozed!

Dinner time - we when to this amazing restaurant at the Pennisula Hotel, called the Spring Moon. This place was fancy shamncy. We each ordered a set meal, and ate like Kings! It was so fancy to the point where, when the waiter noticed that I was left handed he moved my chopsticks holder from the right side to the left.

After dinner, we wandered around Kowloon a bit more, by this time it was pretty late so we headed back to the hotel so catch some z's.

The next morning we woke up, and headed into Hong Kong Island to go and meet Lisa who was coming over from Macau. We had some breakfast, and then waited... waited... and waiting. No sign of her.


So dad and I headed to the biggest building in Hong Kong to get some passport photos for our Cambodian Visas. Luckily, Lisa was able to text me and we met up at this mall. The three of us decided to go wandering around Hong Kong Island. We saw a church, and we saw some of the street life, some governement buildings, etc. Eventually we ended up at a botanical garden and zoo in the middle of the city. We saw some pretty cool looking animals, including a few strange breed's of birds. Eeeeeek!


After that Lisa and I wanted to go shopping and dad wanted to sleep. So Lisa and I headed to the malls and dad headed to the hotel. We found this incredible mall in Kowloon. It was HUGE! It had some really incredible stuff! I was restraintful.

We went out for Indian food. It was in this crazy hole in the wall... you had to ring a doorbell to get in. And then this man took us too a room that looked like someones dining room - but with lots of tables. Then we ordered, and our food got brought out, when we realized that we weren't eating anything that we ordered - in fact, we were eating someone elses meal.

After that we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning we did a little more wandering around, and then packed our bags to head to Cambodia! I'm pumped to write to you about Cambodia... I love love loved it!

But first, you know how awesome I thought the Metro system was.... well they have this line called the Airport express. We took a hotel shuttle to this station... and you can actually check your bags here, get your boarding passes, and all that stuff before you even get to the airport. Then the subway takes you straight to the airport terminal. It's amazing cause you don't have to lug your bags around, and you don't have to bother with cabs, or communication.

Amazing way to end off Hong Kong - this uber hi tech exit by metro - which is the lifeline of the city.

Overall, Hong Kong was an amazing experience. Very very city life! I had a wonderful time, ate some of the best food I've ever eaten in my life and got to hang with dad! Life is grand.

Parting question: If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life what would it be?

My answer is, predictably, Indian food. Mmmmm.

Love to all! PLEASE WRITE! Christmas (and my b-day) can't come soon enough. Miss you all... I will be back soon with my Cambodian adventures.

Love Crys

posted by Crystal @ 6:06 PM