Another Perspective

Photos: Hong Kong: Victoria Peak and Around

Note: I’ve added a link list to the right, with links to the travel blogs of people I’ve met abroad. As I meet more people who have blogs, I’ll add their links. So far, there’ Mara and Justin’s blog (which will include South Korea and eventually South America) and Jeff’s blog (which will be about Hong Kong and Thailand for now).

This morning I awoke from a deep sleep around 7:30am, put on my eye mask and slept lightly until about 9am. Then we were up and getting ready for the day. First event of the day: trying congee for breakfast. I was a little worried because it looked… well, I didn’t think I’d like it. I was surprised, then, when it was actually quite tasty! Congee is a thick rice soupy kind of dish and you select what kind of meat you want in it. Mika asked me if I would like pork, or beef, or chicken, or the insides of an animal. As you might imagine, I quickly turned down the innards idea, instead choosing pork. As a side, Mika ordered me fried rice noodles.

While I didn’t finish the congee, I did like it quite a bit, and I loved the rice noodles. After  breakfast we hit a bakery where at Mika’s suggestion I got a “milk bun,” which I saved for later. Then we went back to her apartment, I grabbed all my stuff, and we headed for the bus stop. There we parted ways, me boarding the 5C bus to Tsim Sha Tsui and she waiting for her bus to meet a friend somewhere else. We hugged good-bye and promised to keep in touch.

About half an hour later, I hopped off the bus near signs for the Hong Kong science museum and proceeded to use my map and crossed fingers to find Jeff’s hotel.

Jeff is currently in a graduate school program for global business management, through a program/school called Thunderbird. As part of his degree he does two week-long “study abroad” programs. Earlier this year he went to South America and now his second program is in Hong Kong. His group was lodged in the Panorama Hotel near the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. His mom flew in this morning and had booked a room at the same hotel, inviting me to share her room with her since we’d be touristing around together.

So, around noon today I arrived at the Hotel Panorama, went up to the 17th floor and dropped my jaw at the room Jan had procured. It’s a corner room with a view across the channel to Hong Kong Island! The room itself is spacious and comfortable, with internet (yay!) and a nice bathroom, where two walls of the shower are windows looking out at the same view as the room.

It’s odd to have such a severe switch in experiences. From “rugged traveler” who takes buses, sweats a lot, isn’t quite sure where the next meal or bed will be, it’s quite the change to be in a hotel where the staff rushes to your table to make sure you’re all right, taxi around, and have all the nifty things that come with a nice hotel room (internet, shampoo/conditioner/body wash/whatever else you need).

Well, Jan had just checked in so we both settled and chatted, getting reacquainted, before heading down to join Jeff for a lunch buffet on the first floor. The food was very nice and we got to hear a bit about Jeff’s class and their plans for the day. His class was going to Hong Kong Island to scale Victoria Peak (via tram), see a temple, visit Aberdeen and Stanley Market, and then come back. Since Jan had arrived just that morning, she and I decided to head over to Hong Kong Island, meet Jeff at the top of Victoria Peak, and then decide what we wanted to do from there.

Jan was so impressive! She had just gotten into Hong Kong at 7am and although tired, she braved the MTR (subway) with me to Hong Kong Island. Luckily, it was a little familiar to me since Mika and I had been just the day before, so I was at least a tiny bit familiar with the landscape. (In retrospect, I think that being able to take Jan somewhere I’d been before helped me feel a little more situated in Hong Kong.) Well, we made it to the tram before Jeff’s class and we just went right on up. And up, and up, and up! The tram’s angle going up the mountain was severe; buildings actually seemed to be going slightly sideways! We were pushed back into our bench seats, feeling like we were going almost vertical. It was really a trippy tram ride.

Once we got to Victoria Peak, it was time to bypass the awful building and take the escalators up to the viewing area. I think there were five floors of the building, which was essentially a mall full of tourist shops: clothes, gadgets, purses, trinkets, food, souvenirs, and so on, floor after floor. Pretty garish, really. But up top – oh my! It was a breathtaking view that finally helped me get oriented in terms of basic Hong Kong geography.

The main areas of Hong Kong seem to be Kowloon, the New Territories, and Hong Kong Island. There are some outlier islands that are part of Hong Kong, such as Lantau Island, but in general those are the big sections. From Victoria Peak, you could see Victoria Harbor, the channel, Kowloon and beyond to the New Territories, I think. On the back side of the roof viewing area, there was a fantastic view of a harbor, which I think might have been Repulse Bay, that made me suck in my breath and expel a “oh, shit,” that made Jan turn quickly to see what was wrong. We just stared at the view, spellbound and amazed.

We walked around the view area for a bit, getting a bit windblown but enjoying the sights. At one point, Jan pointed down to a pathway far below and then waved. Apparently, Jeff’s group was there and she could pick him out! So we waved and I took a picture (my camera has pretty decent zoom!), then waited for the group to come up all the escalators. When Jeff finally made it up, he had five minutes to look around before he had to meet up with his tour group again. At that point, Jan and I decided to just mosey around Hong Kong City by ourselves, instead of chasing Jeff’s class around. I really think it was the right decision, because although Jan was a real trooper, it probably would have been way too much to try to figure everything out and spend the entire day touring.

First we grabbed a cup of fruit, which led to my first encounter with dragon fruit. Later I found out that the rind was a bright pink color, but the insides are white with black seeds, making quite the exotic polka dot flavor. The texture, to me, is a something between kiwi and cantaloupe, and the flavor is a very understated, mellow sweetness. My new favorite fruit!

So, next the plan was take Jan to the Bank of China building. On our way, we detoured through Hong Kong Park, which was green and pretty and easily paced, although with lots of steps. We saw the aviary and some exotic birds inside. Eventually we walked out of the park and suddenly we were in that park that Mika and I had sat in after our visit the day before to the Bank of China. So now I knew where I was a little better and was able to lead Jan to the Bank of China, just in time to dodge the droplets of rain started to come down.

We admired the photography show on the first floor, which had amazing nature pictures of all kinds, and then we headed up to the 43d floor to view the city from there. While not as impressive as the Victoria Peak view, it still helped put the city into perspective. Jan was starting to wear down at this point so we decided to head back to the hotel in Kowloon. A nice lady saw our confused looks as we tried to figure out how to navigate to the MTR station, since all the sidewalks had barriers between them and streets, and there were no crosswalks anyway. The woman actually walked us to a corner where we could see the MTR station, which was just so nice. We hopped on the train, got to our stop, turned a corner and then we were back at the Hotel Panorama!

Later, I met Jeff and some of his classmates for dinner. Jan stayed in the room, relaxing  and unpacking and in general unwinding from her travel and our day’s trip. Anyway, Jeff’s group eventually found an interesting looking, slightly higher end restaurant and in we went. We ordered a lobster dish that we could all share, a sauteed spinach dish, garlic shrimp with rice, chicken and an eggplant dish with pork sauce. On the other side of the room, a group of very loud, happy and probably drunk Chinese guys were having a great time drinking and eating and shouting their laughter. We watched when a casserole dish, which first seemed to have boiling stuff inside, was brought out for the men at the other table. It turned out to be live prawns, hopping and jumping about inside the clear dish. The waitress poured wine into the pile of prawns and they started to settle and move a lot less. Then, they dumped the entire container of LIVE prawns into a vat of boiling water. Whoa!

Our food was pretty good, but not amazing. We all had a good time, though, and tried a new dessert of gelatin with beans inside. I liked them but I’m not sure about the others. Some of Jeff’s classmates didn’t seem very adventurous in terms of trying the new foods we weren’t familiar with, but for the most part everyone seemed to enjoy the meal.

And then, I was ready for bed. We all walked back to the hotel and bid each other tonight. I went up to Jeff’s room and hung out for a bit, then headed up to Jan’s room and sacked out. Jan, of course, was dead to the world.

--Z