The bad news: Thursday, as I was leaving work, a mere 12 hours before our flight, I got an email from Fred who lives across the hall from us. He lived in HK for 15 years. All it said was, "don't stay in Kowloon. I will write a list of things to do in HK, but the most important thing is don't stay in Kowloon." I immediately called Matt. Turns out we stayed in Kowloon.
The good news: We loved Kowloon.
We stayed on the 22nd floor of a very plain hotel. We had a view of the bay and a view of the HK skyline across the water. Friday, after an early morning three and a half hour flight, we checked in and took the Star Ferry over to Kong Kong Island. The ride wasn't that exciting, but approaching that skyline was pretty cool. We ended up walking around the CBD for hours, and we met up with Kurt and Amy downtown. They had been on a three week tour of China and HK was their last stop. They're Matt's Peace Corps friends that I love, and they're the reason we went to HK originally.
We ended up going out with their group for their last night of group activity. This included watching the light show of the skyline from Kowloon. My favorite part of the light show was when they introduced each building and that building did some special light/laser trick. There was one that was my favorite, but the name was too long for me to remember - something like the "People's Republic of Blah Blah Building." It was funny. The energy generated from that light show could definitely feed a small country, but it was cool.
We had dinner with the group. It was at a restaurant that displayed all of the seafood before it was cooked. The only problem was that it was ALL still moving. Yuck. We ate veggie, and one of our dishes was really good. It did confirm that we don't really love Chinese food - or at least we're sick of it.
Saturday morning we had the dim sum experience. We went to a big restaurant down the street from our hotel, and we explained how Matt and I prefer vegetarian. He seemed to understand...until all of the food came. Apparently we ordered about ten dishes, and we ate shrimp or pork in everything (except for these super good yellow filled buns and the random dessert that he brought us). It was damn good. Really good. We kind of decided that dim sum with shrimp resembles a ball sack, pretty closely.
We then walked and walked and walked. We took the long escalator all the way to the top - up the hill behind the skyline. It goes from the MTR (like the MRT, but with two letters switched) halfway up the mountain. It's many pieces of escalator put together into an (effective) people mover. We walked through the botanical gardens, saw primates, reptiles, and then we went back to Kowloon so I could visit a fruit/veggie (and of course meat and dried fish) market and we could re
st.We had a super nice dinner and then took the Peak Tram up to the peak behind the HK skyline. It was really overwhelming. I didn't really think that cement and skylines could excite me, but it really did. It feels so exciting and alive. The buildings aren't like New York, where they all seem to look the same - each looks different, and it's as if they're each so proud of their existence. It makes me proud too. We really enjoyed being up there. We even had sorbet/ice cream.
Sunday Matt and I checked out and trekked around Hong Kong Island. Obviously we had whole wheat organic blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and then we headed off to Stanley - a city on the south side of the island. It was very ex-pat-y, but it was pretty on the water. They had a crazy market there. Lots of clothes and stuff. We then went to Aberdeen, which seemed to have no ex-pats. We just walked around for a bit. I saw fish getting dried. That was the highlight for me, since I always see dried fish here, but I don't really understand how they all get dried.
We took the bus to Causeway Bay, where Matt stayed when he was in HK last year for work. That's what I would expect Hong Kong to look like. It was like Chinatown on drugs - all of those signs and the same products, but much more like the rest of New York looks. We then took one of the old trams to the other side of the city.
I'm exhausted and have to go to sleep, but I wanted to note a few things.
First, thanks to Fred (neighbor), Lisa (cousin), and Joanna (colleague), who all gave advice on what we should do. They all win. It rocked.
Second, it was surprising to me that many people didn't speak English in Hong Kong. I thought the Brits held it? The drive on the left - doesn't that mean you should speak English? Just kidding - but it really was surprising.
Third, there was vibe and authenticity there. I really have been craving that.
We really appreciated the internationality of HK. We think it might be the second most international city that we have been to - second to NY. We appreciated that we could get Italian food, Middle Eastern food and pancakes (and dim sum).
On Sunday, there were literally thousands (maybe millions) of Philippino and Indonesian maids on the streets. It was CRAZY. I have never seen anything like it. They all come out in Singapore on Sundays also - they cover Orchard Road. There, though, it was a whole different level.
Click here to see the rest of our pictures.
Shana Tova to all of the Jews (and Jill)!
By the way - Hong Kong means Fragrant Harbour. History for another time...
Oh, and what is WRONG WITH MICHIGAN FOOTBALL????
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