Well, we finally arrived at 8 a.m. Hong Kong time--which was 7 p.m. at home. As your day was beginning to wind down, ours was just beginning. The time difference is 11 hours. So, with very little sleep in the last 25 hours we would spend another 12 hours enjoying our first day in Hong Kong.
We went through customs with out a problem. We were just about the last ones so that when we went to go pick up our luggage there was no one there and we could see our huge blue bags, that held our backpacks, turning around on the conveyer belt. What was weird was that we didn't have a care in the world about time. We didn't need to hurry up to get out of the airport to move onto wherever. It is a very freeing thing to not to have to worry about time.
We had our money exchanged. It was nice to have $90 and get $648 back, except that we had to pay $65 for lunch.
We got out of the airport. We had instructions on how to get the bus to Discovery Bay. That was where we would be staying while in Hong Kong. Laurie knew someone from work that had friends in Hong Kong. They offered their place to stay, which was great. It would save money and we could get some insight to places and sights to see. Discovery Bay is on the Island of Lantan, which is actually larger than Hong Kong central. It is also where the airport is. We got our bus and got off at Disco Plaza, were our host for the week would meet us. His name is Jeff and he is originally from Boston. We told him that he could spot us because we would have big huge backpacks on. From Disco Bay we took a taxi to their apartment. In Dicovery Bay there are no cars. You can only travel by bus and taxi. Well, you can also travel by golf cart, bikes, or by foot. It is funny to see short little garages under their tall buildings. These house their bikes and golf carts.
We met Jeff's housemate, Peter, and "houseboy". It is common to have "houseboys" over here. Most of them are Filipino and they work here because of the good money. Most of the time their families are back home and they send the money home. They don't get to see them often.
Jeff's home is very nice. It is a tri-split level, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Laurie and I were living in style. The apartment had a small yard which looked out toward the bay, mountains, and buildings. It was suggested that even though we were tired we should stay up all day to get use to the time change. Laurie and I decided to hike over to MuiWo. It is not like the normal hiking back home. First of all it is on paved sidewalks. We hiked by these "homes" which were mostly no bigger than a large master bedroom. Peter referred to them as the "quaint fishing villages". The hike took us by the Trappist Haven Monastery, where the monks have taken a vow of silence. Laurie and I went into the chapel that was there.
The hike proceeded to a small hill top which had a pagoda on top. This gave marvelous views of a few different bays. The end of the hike took us to MuiWo, where we had lunch at China Bear. We went by one of the places we had thought of staying and realized that we were very happy to stay at Jeff and Peter's.
After lunch we walked around trying to find the waterfalls. We went through back allies where there were little stores and we saw people sitting at these tables and all we could hear were clicking sounds. They were playing Mahjong. They have these tiles that they play with, but that is all I could figure out. They play so fast. We went into this market where they have cages of chicken waiting to be beheaded for someone's dinner and they had small tubs of all kind of fish to be gutted and filleted. Talk about fresh food.
After our tour of the streets we caught the ferry from MuiWo to Discovery Bay and walked back to the apartment. Jeff said that we were going to have a barbeque and some friends would be coming over.
We had more food than either Laurie and I planned because we had a big lunch. We met Jeff and Peter's friends and we had an enjoyable evening. Most of the people were English with one from South Africa.
The weather was a little overcast, warm, and a little humid.
That ended the first day of the trip.
March 1, 2003
Laurie and I did the typical sightseeing stuff today. We took the ferry over to Hong Kong Central. That is considered the main island, but it is not the biggest, but they have the biggest buildings. As we got off the ferry we took a series of walkways that are over the streets. It really is quite neat. That way you don't have to deal with the traffic, plus there are less people. The other thing that they have is a series of escalators that take you up the steep roads. The total of it is 2400 feet and you can get off at different spots. We're actually on it when I spotted Stanley Street. I was told that this would be a good place to buy a camera. My camera died right before I left for my trip. I was told to compare prices and haggle with them for a better price. I completely forgot because it is not in my nature. It wasn't until after I walked out the store that I remembered that I was suppose to.
After buying the camera we wanted to go to Kowloon. We took the Star Ferry. The Star Ferry has been shuttling passengers across the harbor since 1898. When we got over to Kowloon we just started to walk checking the sites out. One of the streets we walked down is Nathan Road. It is a fairly narrow street and when you look up the street you see a bunch of neon sign jutting out from the buildings. They have a bunch of "touts" that offer anything. Most of them seem to be offering tailoring, which if they noticed my clothes, would know that I certainly didn't care about them. Maybe "tailoring" means something else. They also have pavement "hawkers" which are people soliciting their goods. We passed the Kowloon Mosque that has four minarets and large white marble dome. From there we went up to Kowloon Park, which is free. We walked through the aviary and duck ponds.
We decided we should start heading back. We passed the YMCA. It is not like what we think of the YMCA, but it is a hotel and educational facility. It does have work out rooms, also. I know someone who stayed there so I wanted to check it out. It was quite nice.
From there we passed Chung King Mansions, which is a rundown building that has guestrooms, sweet shops, and other type of rooms. Laurie had noticed a sign that said "hostel". We decided to take a look. It certainly was not what I expected. It looked more like a flop house for the homeless. It certainly would have been an adventure of we had stayed there. I don't think it is one listed with the HYI.
