latter for budget's sake, and decided to take a couple of days there to get to know the city. We did some research on hotels and came up with the Butterfly in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of HK. It was a new, very modern and comfy boutique hotel, and they were offering 3 nights for the price of 2. We had 3 nights there, so perfect! The flight on Cathay Pacific was luxurious compared to our spartan trips on Air Asia – food, wine, in-seat movie system – nice! There's a great train system in HK, and we arrived at our hotel in about 30 minutes after clearing immigration and customs. For once, our hotel splurge was worth the price – a decent-sized, well appointed room with AC, cable TV, broadband wifi, fridge, coffee maker and even a microwave, not to speak of the large shower with steaming hot and powerful water. We never wanted to go outside!
We did make it out the next day, though, to the Museum of History, which was free on Wednesdays (and thus swarming with locals and tourists). It was very well set up, with interesting displays on HK ethnicity, culture and h
istory. We learned about marriage rites, fishing techniques, gods, theater, etc. Most interesting, though, was the history of the city including the Opium War, from which Great Britain took control of the island, and the horrors of the Japanese occupation during WWII.
Hong Kong reminded us a bit of New York – tall, modern buildings, busy sidewalks, hot and humid, just like a NYC summer, only more so. If New York's Chinatown were to continue to expand into the financial district, then you'd end up with something very similar to HK.
The next day we got up early and took the scenic (and cheap) Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island, where we took a 100 year old tram up to the top of “T
he Peak” - a very touristy lookout point, but rightly so, as the views were truly beautiful. We were lucky, as we narrowly missed the early morning rain, and the skies cleared as we headed up the peak.
The Avenue of Stars was fun as well. On the waterfront, it is modeled on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, with inlaid stars and hand prints of famous figures from Hong Kong cinema. I'm sad to say that I was only familiar with a few, but it was fun to see the stars for Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat.
Perhaps the one thing I'll remember most of Hong Kong, though, are the never-ending shopping malls. There must be more high-end shops per capita than any other city in the world. Getting from here to there will almost always necessitate walking through one or more of the fancy 
mega-malls – they're absolutely everywhere. They're huge, and they're oh-so-modern and chic. After a year and a half of living out of a backpack, though, we were hardly in consumer mode, and had no urge to shop. The AC inside was nice, though.
Finally the day arrived for us to go. Such an odd blend of excitement to see our city, our apartment, our family and friends mixed with fear of culture shock, unemployment, and generally being able to “fit in.” I'm writing this several days after arriving home, and I still feel odd and very unsure of what to do with myself. More on the travails on re-entry later though. Hopefully we'll have the gumption for one last installment of the blog discussing our feelings on being back.
Talor: My skin was shot, my knees had dropped and I had put on 10 lbs... yes, it was time to go home. After three days spent in KL, which was surprisingly quite pleasant (because we hardly
went out) and productive (worked on the blog), we were ready for one last hurrah in Hong Kong...
If it was one of the the first stops on our tour of Asia, HK would have been so exciting, but given that it was our last before going home, it just wasn't all that. First of all, HK is all about consumerism... everywhere you go, there are mega-malls after mega-malls for all budgets, but especially high-end. It's also all about eating, which normally I have no problem with, but surprisingly, a lo
t of the eateries we went to, the menus were in Chinese. Let me clarify... there was always a Western Menu, but the more interesting stuff and cheap stuff was on a Chinese-only menu or written on the walls in Chinese. It was frustrating given that the staff couldn't tell us what the specials were. But we managed to get a taste of HK... indulged in Yum Cha (tea with dim sum) and an oyster pancake, deep-fried and yummy!
After our weather break in Perth and pleasant temps in Kuala Lumpur, we were back in the super hot and humid territory again. It was all too tempting to hole ourselves up in our way-too-comfortable room at the Butterfuly on Prat, but not wanting to wa
ste the two short days we had, forced ourselves out to see the sights and be tourists again... hit the HK museum, the Jade Market, an old temple and the square where folks congregate and socialize under the banyan trees. But above all, I will remember HK for the amazing views of the skyline from the waterfront. Every single time we walked to the waterfront, it was like “WOW!”
Two days passed in the blink of an eye, but it was time to go home. I felt ready... sorta...
Our photos... |
| Hong Kong |
