Hong Kong

Location: Hong Kong SAR, China

I'm glad I went to Beijing before coming here. Had I not, I would probably have been less impressed. This city is really amazing. It is very modern and worldly, but at the same time, distinctly Asian. There are probably more malls in this city than any other city in the world, because pretty much each large office building has its own upscale mall. This city is a shopper's paradise, with designer brands like Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, and others all over the place.

Hong Kong is made up of 4 main regions: Kowloon, the New Territories, Hong Kong Island, and Lantau Island. Most of the tall buildings in Hong Kong are on Hong Kong island, which is to the south of Kowloon. Ferries run every 15 minutes between Hong Kong and Kowloon.

We got into Hong Kong in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday. We were staying at the YMCA International House, so we took the train to what we thought was the right stop, a YMCA location right near the water in Kowloon. However, the concierge told us that the YMCA International House was actually 30 minutes walking distance north of that location. So we took a cab there. This hotel was not pleasant at all. It had a nice lobby, but the room was small and old, and the beds were hard as a rock. It may have been more comfortable to sleep on the floor. So let me just say, the Village People got it wrong-it is not fun to stay at the YMCA.

Thursday night, we ventured out to Hong Kong Island by ferry. We then made our way to the Peak Tram, which takes people to the top of Victoria Peak. From the top and from the ferry we got amazing views of the Hong Kong skyline:

As much as it pains me to say it, Hong Kong has a much nicer skyline than New York. What's more, every night at 8pm, a light show is held, with large spotlights and lasers shooting off the roofs of some of the taller buildings. We had dinner at the top of Victoria Peak, and headed back to Kowloon afterwards. The main street in Kowloon is Nathan Road; this area shows a different side of Hong Kong than Hong Kong Island. Here, the area is more distinctly Asian, with less of an international and pristine appearance. Local shops and restaurants sell local wares and foods. There were plenty of shops that had buckets of dried seafood things sitting out front, as well as restaurants cooking all kinds of weird things:

Those things in the second picture look like dried figs or dates or whatever, but they're actually dried seafood of some kind. Every time I walked past one I caught a whiff of whatever it was. It was kinda freaky; I don't know who's buying this stuff, but I hope their stomachs can handle it.

The Kowloon Peninsula is also where the hundreds of neon signs are located. It really is quite amazing; the streets are just full of them, advertising everything from Indian restaurants to electronics to foot massages:

We walked into a video game arcade off of Nathan Street, and stayed for about an hour or so. I don't know what it is, but video games are just on a whole different level in Asia. The people playing in this arcade were just so much better than I could ever hope to be at video games (that may be a good thing, depending on your point of view). I now understand why Nintendo decided so many years ago to release a "fake" sequel to Super Mario Brothers in the U.S., because they thought the real one would be too hard for Americans. The only thing I was good at was a horse race betting machine. I put in 2 Hong Kong Dollars, which gave me 20 credits. I did some betting, and won big on one of the races, putting me up to 138 credits. Unfortunately, I had not gotten a card for the game, and couldn't collect my winnings. So we called over a worker, who said something in Chinese that we didn't understand. So we decided it was just for the fun of betting-Ben then made some ridiculous bet, placing all the credits on all but one horse. Of course, that horse went on to win, and I lost all my credits. Just then, the worker came back with a card that would have allowed me to collect them. At least I learned that I'm not a bad gambler by skill; I'm just unlucky :-)

Anyway, we headed back to the hotel after this, ready to see more of Hong Kong on Friday...