Got to Hong Kong after a 15 hour flight, there's no way to cut it, that sucks. By the time we got to the hotel it was about 6pm. This was actually better than Russia because I only had to stay awake a few hours more and then I could get on a regular sleep schedule. We stayed at the YMCA which is in Kowloon on mainland China and faces Hong Kong island. BEfore you laugh, the YMCA is highly rated and has an outstanding location and view of the light show on Hong Kong Island http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHWmFkpondw. After dinner and a quick view of the light show, we were pretty cashed.
On Monday morning, we took the Star Ferry across the harbor. It's dirt cheap and affords great views of the harbor. We then walked down to check out the Reunification Monument which was erected when the island was given to China by the British in 1999.
We then headed up to Victoria Peak to check out the skyline. You take a tram up to the peak that is so steep the buildings built on the hill it goes up look like they are slanted!! Ok, that cheesy line is from the brochure. The views are amazing, unfortunately, the day we were there it was overcast so while we could see everything, it all had a shade of gray.
Afterwards, we went to the backside of the building to visit Repulse Bay and Stanley Market. We ended up only driving by Repulse Bay as we weren't going swimming anyways.
Stanley Market is a crazy, claustrophobic hodgepodge of stores that seemed to be in the alleys of a town called Stanley. Everything you possibly could want is for sale. Sometimes though, you just want a beer and that's what we did after walking thru for a while.
Despite Becky's best efforts to get me to do something that night, I was done and passed out pretty early. Mind you, I passed out from being tired, not from drinking.
The next morning, we got up and had some time to kill before heading to the airport so we headed to a temple where Taoists, Buddhist and another Easter religion all have temples. Lots of people with lots of incense sticks giving it up to a higher power. We then ran by a garden which was actually quite nice.
I do need to comment on the Hong Kong train system. Absolutely the best I have ever been on!! Normally on a platform, trains going one way are on one side and trains going to other way are on the other side. To transfer to a different line, you have to go up or down and then trek over to the other line. On the Hong Kong line, when you transfer, the line is right across the platform and you get off at different stations depending on which direction you want to go. Plus, you pay for where you go, not just to get on, which I guess has pitfalls as well. You press a button on a touchscreen, it tells you how much and then you have to swipe your card when you get in and get off. If you try to get off at a later stop, the gate wont let you thru. Lesson learned. A fantastic express train gets you to the airport in about 20mins for about $12 and you can check your bags at the train station. Love it !!! That system is going into a Sim City I'm gonna create.
Overall, we spent a perfect amount of time in Hong Kong, there's not a lot to see, just a lot to take in. The skyline is ridiculous. It's also about the easiest travelling you will ever do in a foreign language speaking country. Everything is in English, you can find whatever you want to eat and it's ridiculously easy to get around and safe, Hanoi was next and well, I can't say all the aforementioned apply.
I forgot to mention that we visited the Big Buddha too. I was set up for some sweet photos but it was raining that day. It was a hell of a hike up to him but it was really cool. You take a cable car up there and its quite a view. I remember seeing a special on the Discovery Channel about the complications involved in building it. It goes three mountains back and over a huge stretch of water
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