I arrived in Hong Kong this morning at 5am, local time. A little shell-shocked, and more than a little numb, after making my way through customs I had 15 hours to kill before my flight to Kaohsiung. The first thing I did was pay $25CDN for a shower, it was probably the best money I have spent all day. If anyone out there is even considering a long haul flight, budget in the additional expense of a shower afterwards, it totally prepared me to face the very long day ahead of me.

Originally I had planned on taking a tour over to Lantau Island, specifically to visit Po Lin Monestary, home of the world’s largest outdoor Buddha. I realized though, that the tour would cost me around $100, and I was fairly certain that it was something I could do on my own for less. After hunting around the airport at 7am for information, I gave up, and went with my backup plan of going into downtown HK and visiting Victoria Peak.

Toronto really could do with learning a lesson or two from Hong Kong. WiFi at the airport is free, and available EVERYWHERE in the airport. While I was downtown, I came across a million signs that said “free wifi here”. The airport is linked by an express train that took me from the outskirts of the city to smackdab in the middle in less than 25 minutes, for about $15 CDN. Brilliant! Also, there is a massive bus terminal attached to the airport, with buses leaving every 5 minutes for surrounding towns and cities.

After taking the train into the city, I promptly got lost. I blame this on a less-than-acurate map from the airport, me being insanely tired, and HK being a retardedly chaotic city. Seemingly lacking in any city planning whatsoever, streets pop up and appear when you least expect them, winding and twisting, some at steep angles. By the time I found the Peak Tram station, I was exhausted and about five minutes away from giving up on going. The tram cost about $15CDN for a round trip ticket, and took about seven minutes to reach the peak. Im not sure if HK is usually a hazy city, but today the visability was less than pristine; I had a hard time getting clear photographs off.

While I was up on the peak, and writing in my journal, I asked an Indian man sitting next to me for the time. That lead to a conversation on where I was from. It turned out his son was living in Mississauga, on Terry Fox Drive, and did I know where that was? lol I was (and still am) amused.

The peak itself is a gorgeous park, with lots of plants and trees I would be hardpressed to identify. Hong Kong is surprisingly (to me, anyway) tropical, with palm trees and bamboo groves all over the place! Sadly, the peak is also VERY tourist-trappy, with the first thing you see being the gift shop. There are vendors all over the place selling crap and such to people willing to shill out for it. I was tempted to buy another cheongsam as they were about $20CDN, but then realized I didnt really have anywhere to put it in my luggage (need to address that fact before my return trip home… no room for souvenirs!). I really wanted to though, especially since this really lovely young woman customer chattered on enthusiastically at me in Cantonese about a red one in particular, pointing out the dragons (incidentally one of the few words I know; “lung”).

Despite feeling a little disappointed in the peak, I am really chuffed at myself for going it alone. I was terrified Id screw up somehow and end up in a rice paddy in the middle of nowhere, with no one understanding a word I said. The reality is that HK is a modern city, one with English on every street sign and train stop. Almost everyone here speaks at least a bit of English as well, and even though Id read that HK was a cold city, Ive definitely not found that to be the case at all. Once I gave myself permission to get lost in the city, I found I was able to get around just fine.

More photos are here.

No related posts.