Hong Kong

Hi there!

How are you all doing? Happy September – are you ready for fall? Mmm crisp apples, pumpkin pies, sweatshirt weather, Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes…please enjoy it extra for me this year! I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend as well. 

I’m two weeks on the road now, and it is absolutely flying by. Blogger.com and Facebook were both blocked in China, so I wasn’t able to get anything out until now, as I am hanging around Bangkok Airport until the metros open up. It was kind of nice being a little disconnected, however, I still had e-mail and chatting access on my little iPod, which has come in quite handy whenever there’s free wifi around. 

I started in Hong Kong two weeks ago, and I’ve been going full force ever since then, which makes me think I definitely deserve this upcoming week of vacation in Thailand with Sara. So, while we lay on the beach, drink adult beverages, and eat fresh fruit, you can read a little bit about my one-and-a-half-turned-into-three days in Hong Kong if you’d like. 

So, Hong Kong. I arrived bright and early Tuesday morning, with the intention to get in, get my visa processed, dump my stuff, and get a ticket into China as fast as possible, preferrably the next evening. Well, that didn’t happen. I got as far as dumping my stuff, when I got so nervous about not getting my visa processed (Chinese visa restrictions are scary – don’t tell me it’s not true. Not to mention ridiculously expensive) that I decided I should wait until I actually had my visa-ed, passport in hand before I booked a ticket out of Hong Kong. 

So that left me free for the day! I called my friend Joddi, who is working as a model in Hong Kong – I met her last year just as she was finishing up a teaching contract in Gwangju, and we’ve kept in touch. She was busy until the evening, so I had the whole day to get started exploring. 

My first few thoughts regarding Hong Kong, as I made my way to Central Station, were: “How are buildings even allowed to be that big?” mixed with “I can’t stop looking up.” So, you can get an idea of how I wandered myself around the impressive downtown district – skyscraper after skyscraper, with a bunch of fancy desiger stores thrown in the mix. 

Macau...supposedly?

From Central, my main objective of the day was to get up to Victoria Peak, which was highly recommended by my mom, who had lived in Hong Kong for three months a little less than 30 years before. I took the bus all the way up to the highest peak of Hong Kong Island, and was rewarded with a bird's eye view of the city below. On the other side of the peak, the scenery was completely different, with lush greenery leading down into a quiet bay. I overheard someone pointing out the island of Macau to whoever he was with...so of course I (discreetly) took a picture.

After wandering the souvenir shops and enjoying a coffee, I took the famous tram back downtown. The tram has been in operation since 1888 and is an important element of Hong Kong's history, or so said the little plaque thing in front of it. I spent the next couple of hours wandering the Mid-Level and Soho areas. These trendy neighborhoods with galleries, restaurants, and shops reminded me immensely of some parts of London, which of course makes sense as Hong Kong was under British government until 1997. Here and there, though, I'd catch glimpses of back alleys and streets that reminded me I was definitely still in Asia. 

That night I met up with Joddi and we had fun catching up about our lives and travels since we saw each other last over some Chinese desserts. I had to excuse myself early to go to bed though, as I hadn't had a proper sleep in four days. 

The next day was visa and train day, but first Joddi and I had made plans to meet up again - we decided on a little adventure to Stanley, an area in the southern part of Hong Kong. After a short bus ride, it seemed unbelievable that we were just a few miles from the city - Stanley had a cute little beach, a waterfront lined with shops, cafes, and restaurants, and a nice park. We enjoyed browsing the markets, taking some pictures, and stopping for a little snack, but the best part was just to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a few hours. In Stanley, it was easy to imagine Hong Kong as a sleepy little fishing island, just as it was a few hundred years ago. 

After Stanley I zipped over to Kowloon, my first time on the mainland, via underground subway as I was pressed for time. I burst into the visa office with just a few mintues to spare, my heart pounding as I was so nervous that there had been a problem.

“Hi, I’m here for my-“

“Reciept?”

Reciept produced. Breath held. She walked back to the desk, dug around for a minute, and procured…my passport with a shiny new visa sticker in it! I was going to China! 

I skipped out of the office (okay, not really) and navigated my way along the busy streets of more designer stores and fancy hotels with awesome harbor views to get to the train station. As I walked along the waterfront I looked back periodically to check out the never ending skyline, built among the hills of Hong Kong Island. Definitely an impressive sight.

At the train station, I discovered that I happened to be planning my train travels right smack dab in the middle of the Chinese summer holidays – no school meant lots of traveling, therefore nearly all the tickets for that evening and the next day were booked up. My only option was a 27 hour slow train to Xi An, which would delay my China time by a day. Instead, I looked into flights, as much as I had wanted to do the whole thing overland. But of course, travel is all about being flexible and changing plans as you go, so when I left the train station, I had an airline ticket ready to confirm for the day after. 

Hong Kong Skyline

Happy with my plan, as it was better than nothing, I walked back towards the harbor…and stopped in my tracks. During my time in the train station the sun had gone down, and in its place was a bright, glittering, electric skyline stretching as far as the eye could see. It was stunning, and I had to stop to keep taking pictures as I walked closer. I arrived at the edge right as the nightly Light and Sound show was starting, which wasn’t anything special but still fun to watch. After the show I found my way to the Temple Street Night Market, where I enjoyed some stir fried squid and some kind of vegetables – point and choose style. 

Dinnertime!

So, on my third and last day in Hong Kong, I decided to just relax a bit – after taking care of some things at the hostel I met up with Joddi for the last time and accompanied her on her daily errands – even mundane things like grocery shopping can be fun when you’re in a foreign country. We said goodbye after a wonderful three day reunion – who knows what the next country we meet up in will be?

That evening, I decided to take the Star Ferry across the harbor – what used to be the only means of transportation to Kowloon and has been in operation for over 100 years (the company, not the same boat.) The ride was fun, and only cost me about twenty cents. My main purpose for going back was just to see the night skyline again, so after wandering and killing time until it got dark, I staked out the perfect people watching/viewing spot. Soon dusk fell, and as the lights began to light up the hills and water, I thought about how lucky I am to be able to do what I’m doing – really a once in a lifetime opportunity – and that I had to remember to take advantage of it. Before the trip, I was worried about rushing things, being too anxious for the next thing I was going to see, and not ‘living in the moment,’ in my anticipation to get home. But, as I sat on that bench, looking out over the shining lights over Hong Kong Harbor, I can guarantee you that at that minute, I was completely in the moment. 

Next up, China! I’ll post soon – have a great rest of your week everybody!