Wandered down Nathan Road for a while, which is a street filled with shops, lots of people and neon signs. Junky looking and crowded but not nearly as crowded as I expected. We spent a while in a very pretty park and then went off to find ChunKing Mansion, a place filled with low cost apartments and rooms, including some hostels. We went up to check out one hostel and it was absolutely dreadful. It gave me the creeps even being in the building. We had considered staying in one of those hostels before Jeff told us about Lantau Island. Thank God we are over there and not in Kowloon. We also checked out the YMCA in Kowloon which is very well known and very nice (it cost about US$0.90 per night). We took the ferry back to Hong Kong about 1:30PM and went to see the Botanical and Zoological Gardens (very nice) and then took the tram up to Victoria Peak. The tram ride is straight up a very, very steep incline, and there are lots of shops and restaurants at the top. We walked around the streets at the top of the Peak, taking in the views of Hong Kong Harbor, and the city and Kowloon. The houses up there are worth millions of dollars and most have gates with guardhouses to keep out unwanted guests.
We were originally going to stay longer up on Victoria Peak to see the city at night but we were tired so we came down about 6PM. We went over to Hong Kong Park to see the aviary but it had closed at 5PM, although the park is open until 11PM.
We caught the 7:10 ferry back to Lantau and I got to see some of the city lights from out in the harbor before I fell asleep for the rest of the ride back to Lantau. Jeff and Peter went out to a birthday party tonight so we got food at a Greek take-out place to bring home for dinner. Just the dogs, Angus and Rush were there to greet us when we got home. Jeff had left his computer on so we could check out our email for messages, and I got to send a message to my distribution list. Nice treat to have access to email.
3/02: I forgot to write about the women in the corridors to the ferry that we saw yesterday. Almost all the westerners have house help in Hong Kong. They are mostly Filipino and are mostly women, although Jeff and Peter have Joe as their helper. Joe is great - he cleans, cooks and does errands. He is about 26 years old and has a wife and a daughter back in the Phillipines. Most helpers have Sunday as their day off and they gather in parks and other places (e.g.; halls along the way to the ferry) to meet with their friends. Peter told us that the women we saw probably had Saturday off versus Sunday. We also saw lots of them in one of the parks on our way home last night. They sit on newspaper or cardboard, eat food, play cards and visit with each other. Peter also said they send most of their money back home to support their families in the Phillipines. Another interesting thing I saw a lot was bamboo scaffolding. I never thought bamboo was that strong but apparently it is, and is used quite extensively by builders over here.
Today we got the 10:30 ferry to Mui Wo and then a bus out to Ngong Ping. It was a 45 minute bus ride on narrow, hilly roads with lots of construction going on. Very pretty ride with views of the hills and the harbor. We planned to do 4 things at Ngong Ping - see the big, bronze Buddha, the Po Lin Monastery, hike to the top of Lantau Peak (the highest point on Lantau Island - 3,086 feet), and check out the hostel. We accomplished all 4 things. The SG Davis Hostel was just off the Lantau Trail so we stopped there first. It seemed very nice and clean, but it is definitely in an out of the way location. Again, I'm glad we are with Jeff and Peter in Discovery Bay for the convenience of getting everywhere. We started hiking up to Lantau Peak at noon and I got there at 1:30. Shari, as usual, arrived quite a bit before me; she is a much better uphill hiker than me. The path reminded me of the White Mountains. It was very steep, rocky steps, all misty (no view) and windy near the top. It was also very hot and I definitely felt the heat and the steepness of the climb, but as usual I just kept plugging away and I eventually got there. Near the top some young Asian girls gave Shari and me some sort of Asian type chewy sweet - 2 flavors, green tea and brown bean. It was good. We gave them 2 Cliff bars which they seemed to enjoy. The hike down was much easier than going up.
Once we got down to the bottom, we walked up the 271 stairs to see the Buddha up close. It is the world's largest outdoor bronze statue of a seated Buddha, 79 feet high and was completed in 1990. We went inside the exhibition hall and then back down the steps and quickly toured the monastery so we could catch the 3:20 bus back to Mui Wo. We got there in plenty of time to get the 4:30 ferry back to Discovery Bay; the next one was 6:30 and we didn't feel like hanging around waiting for that one. We were pretty dirty and sweaty and liked the idea of getting back for a shower. I'm now all cleaned up, sitting on the patio, writing notes and drinking beer. Ain't life grand!
Every once in a while I remember that I'm 11 hours ahead of back home, so sometimes it's a different date here. Right now it is the same day, Sunday, March 2nd, but it is 7:35PM here and only 6:35AM at home.
3/03: Up early as usual and caught the 9:06 ferry to Hong Kong central. Our main objective today was to walk up to Victoria Peak, but we went through the aviary in Hong Kong park on our way up to the peak. The aviary is a series of elevated walkways with birds flying all around you. The hike to the peak was 1.5 miles with a 1,300 foot elevation gain. A very steep walk in pretty hot, humid conditions. Needless to say, I was drenched with sweat by the time I reached the top (about a 50 minute walk). Thank God for Gatorade! Shari and I walked around the top of the peak on Lugand Road, about a 4 mile walk with lots of views of the city, the harbor and the outer islands. Unfortunately it was very hazy today so not very good views. I certainly felt the walk down from the peak in my thighs and shins, but I'm glad we did it. On the walk down we went over to see the Hillside Escalator. Hong Kong has an 800 meter (2,400 foot) escalator that was built in 1993 to allow commuters to get from mid-level to central Hong Kong to ease the congestion on the streets from people trying to get to work. The escalator moves only in one direction at a time - it goes down before 10AM and up after 10:00AM. About 34,000 people use it a day. We didn't get to ride it on our way down from the peak because it was going up, but we walked down the steps beside it. Pretty neat.
We took the 2:50 ferry back to Discovery Bay, bought some wine and dessert for dinner and got back to the apartment about 4PM. It is so nice to be able to take a shower after a day of walking in the very humid weather. It will be nice to be in early fall weather in New Zealand. We also confirmed our flight to Auckland when we got home today. Our flight doesn't leave until 9PM tomorrow, but we just plan to hang out at the apartment and go for a walk with Jeff and the dogs.
