So for Thanksgiving this year, instead of staying at school and sharing a meal with friends, I flew to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is only three hours away and by the time I ordered dinner and finished watching my movie, the plane was landing! Getting through customs was remarkably easy, but not as easy as finding public transportation into the city. As you exit customs, you simply walk straight ahead, buy a ticket at the machine, and step onto the train that takes you into Central Station Hong Kong - 24 minutes later you're there. I landed at 11:00. I was out of the plane, through customs and in downtown Hong Kong by 12 AM!
When I arrived to the hotel my college friend Amy, who would be my tour guide, greeted me briefly, but I was tired, so I went to bed soon after. The next morning we left the hotel for a dim sum lunch. We walked through Victoria Gardens to get to the restaurant. Victoria Gardens is a beautiful, Central Park-like, setting that I would like to go back and explore. But as I soon learned, when you travel with Amy, you do everything fast! So we zipped through the park and entered a mall. Most of the restaurants, as I would soon discovered, are located in malls. Since it was only 11:30, we were among the youngest people in the restaurant. The dim sum was delicious, though. What surprised me was that the dim sum in the States tastes as good. I was expecting the Chinese food to taste substantially different (i.e. better) than the States, but it was pretty close to what you can get at a decent Chinese restaurant.
After lunch we headed over to the funicular that takes you up to the top of The Peak, that famous overlook in Hong Kong that enables you see downtown Hong Kong and across the bay to Kowloon. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very good. By the time we got to the top the fog and rain had worsen and it was windy, cold, and wet. We opted for a cup of coffee instead. We did go to the lookout, but couldn't see more that the closest buildings. We couldn't see the bay at all.
After the peak, we headed over to the ferry terminal to catch a ride across the bay to the Kowloon side. From there you have the promenade with the most stunning skyline views. Again, the weather made them less stunning, but you get the idea
Amy wanted to have drinks at the Peninsula Hotel, the most famous hotel in Hong Kong - rich and prestigious. I was worried that in my shorts they would never let me in, which of course they did not. Still I was determined to have a drink there, so we went back down, across the street to the mall, and I bought pants at Brooks Brothers for a really good price. Back up we went and had our overpriced drinks. The reason Amy wanted me to go was to use the bathroom. The urinals are little pillars that stand against a huge plate glass window. There were buildings nearby in which people could look in and see you, so it wasn't very private! I was actually more impressed by the sink, which was a giant chunk of flat marble with swanlike heads placed around it. It was a beautiful work of art, if not entirely functional as a sink.
Buying the pants and drinking at the Peninsula threw off our schedule so by the time we got to the Peking duck restaurant, there was a huge line. We were given number 53 and they were only on 24! Over an hour later we were seated, but it was worth the wait. The Peking duck was delicious, and since it was Thanksgiving, I was determine to have my duck. Still, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 10 PM and I was wiped. I knew I had to get up early the next morning to Skype with my family.
Amy had us out of the hotel by 8:45 the next morning and we had a cab waiting for us. The cab took us far into Kowloon so we could catch the cable ride up to see the Giant Buddha. Amy had never made this trip because she heard the cable ride lost a car or two, and people got stuck. But that's when it first opened and nothing like that has happened since. The cable ride is actually quite impressive. It takes you over water, straight up several different peaks until you reach the summit. You can see the giant buddha in the distance and it's huge. The weather on this day wasn't great either, but the buddha must've been on our side because by the time we reached it, the clouds parted and blue skies appeared. We had to walk up a giant set of stairs to reach the buddha, but it was worth the view. Afterwards we went to the temple and lit incense for those who were departed. As always, I lit some for Martin who I know would've loved this setting.
The next part of the trip required a bus ride down the mountain to a small fishing village named Tai O. There we caught a boat ride to take us around the village and out into the bay to see pink dolphins. Tai O is called the Venice of Hong Kong. Though the houses were built over water, it didn't quite look like Venice! The boat ride out to see the dolphins was great. Pink fins were everywhere and it was cool to see such wildlife so close to a major city. When we returned, we explored the small village. Amy wanted to have coffee at this local coffee shop she read about in an article. The coffee shop was peaceful and relaxing. We got to sit outside and wave at all the boats as they motored by. Once refreshed, we decided to walk to a nearby hotel that used to be a police station. They renovated it in 2012 and now it has nine rooms that overlook a beautiful view. On the way, we stopped at a post office that houses over 50 cats. Amy loves cats and we had to stop and take pictures of them. The hotel itself was quite charming and we had a little mini-tour of the building which wasn't very long or very informative. We all wanted to see the rooms, but apparently they're fully booked all the time.
Finally, we boarded the bus back up the mountain to catch the cable car back to the metro. On the way back we opted for the glass-floored cable car. We both thought it would be scarier than it was, but it didn't add much more thrill than the regular cable ride. The one benefit of the glass-floored car is that you can skip ahead of the much longer line for the regular cable cars. An hour ride on the metro and we were back to the hotel for a short break before dinner. That night we were meeting a friend of Amy's at a good Chinese restaurant in Central. We end the night at another fancy hotel drinking overpriced drinks.
The next morning was Amy's final day. We got to sleep in a bit, which was good because we were both tired. When we left, we caught a cab to Hong Kong Station so Amy could check her bags for her flight later that evening. We then went off to explore Central, specifically an area called Soho, were there are a lot of galleries. First though we had lunch at a restaurant famous for its roast goose. We met another friend of Amy's who brought her husband and twin two-year olds. Eating lunch with one two-year-old is bad enough. Eating it with two is next to impossible. Amy and I were both grateful at the end of the meal that neither one of us had children.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down hills exploring shops and stopping along the way for coffee and wine. Around 5 I went and got a haircut at a cool old-fashioned style barbershop while Amy bought some t-shirts. When we reconnected we went in search of gay bar that was closed! Amy read about another bar called JAA Bar, and that was rather cool. It's own by a British lady and it was very small and intimate. At this point, Amy had to leave me. She got into a taxi and I walk to a restaurant called Tokyo Joe's for a great, albeit, expensive meal of sushi. I decided to go back to JAA Bar afterwards for a drink with a guy we had met there earlier. He paid for drinks, which was great!
I decided to head home and get some sleep. The next morning I successfully made my way to the airport and flew back to Seoul. Hong Kong is a great city filled with a multi-cultural mix of people, food, and culture. I would highly recommend it to my American friends.