Leaving Hong Kong

Our three days in Hong Kong are over. My first posting on Hong Kong shared some of our wonder, surprise and adjustment to Hong Kong. During our travels we have discovered that it usually takes us a good 2 to 3 days to adjust and adapt to the new environment and culture. We found ourselves on the day of departure quite comfortable with the surroundings and wishing that we had more time to explore Hong Kong. We’re glad we came.

On our last full day I took the kids to Ocean Park to see the Chinese Pandas and enjoy a day at the amusement park. Kelli took a much deserved day on her own by catching up with friends on e-mail, doing some Christmas shopping and enjoying afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel.

Here are some last pictures. Some of them were taken by the kids.

Hong Kong Arrival

Busy, fascinating, crowded, vibrant, noisy, modern, Chinese, International. Hong Kong has been a big surprise to us. As Jack and Eliot would tell you, reciting from the list of largest cities in the world, “Tokyo is the biggest and Hong Kong is a lot smaller.” “It’s even smaller than Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Lima, but not Osaka.” All of these are recent stops on our exploration and as such there was some expectation that it would be less…well, less hectic given its size. We thought traversing the train/subway stations of Tokyo was an experience in parting a sea of people and that it prepared us well to visit to any large city in the world. How wrong could we have been.

The new airport was clean and orderly and we moved swiftly through customs and immigration. Our walk to the bus station, purchase of tickets and ride into the city were also extremely easy and calm in comparison to other places. Then we stepped off the bus onto Nathan Street in Mong Kok, Kowloon and the assault on the senses began. We navigated to the Hostel using my hand drawn map from their website (printing at times is hard to do.) Thankfully, searching for readable, i.e. English, signs in Hong Kong is a bit easier than in Japan. So, we didn’t have too much difficulty finding it. First, one time down the road in the opposite direction and then we looked carefully for such lofty landmarks as McDondalds and 7-Eleven. Near our destination we looked up at the building occupying the block that housed our hostel and took a deep breath. This is how much of Hong Kong looks. Not glamorous and shiny, but workmanlike and lived in. Endless blocks of tall buildings with window after window, air conditioning units and clothing hanging out to dry. We made our way to one of the two side doors and walked past what Eliot described as one of the worst smells so far on our trip. I think it is just strong fish sauce, everyone else has their own name for it. The hostel itself is fine and serviceable. Actually quite clean, but cramped. I had heard that hostel beds here in Hong Kong were hard and that is certainly true.

We all seem to be adjusting to the great number of people in such a small area and have been venturing our way around much of Hong Kong. So far, we went to “The Peak” to see Hong Kong at night, rode the tram/funicular down, ate dim sum, took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor and rode the wooden/electric double decker trams in Central Hong Kong. It is now only the start of our second full day here and we’ve managed to use every type of public transportation available; double decker bus, double decker tram, ferry, taxi, subway, and funicular. (Who says that one has to go to an amusement park for fun rides.) Actually, we’ve not used the surface train system yet. Maybe today.

A special thanks to Rob and Sandy who mobilized their worldwide network of friends to help us out here in Hong Kong. They’ve all helped make our stay great.