Two days in Hong Kong

After being encouraged to visit by a number of my friends since starting college at USC, I finally got the chance to visit Hong Kong (even if it was only for two days)!  Ironically, none of the people who had encouraged me to visit them were there at the time, but luckily, we still had a local in our architecture group who was able to show us around between obligatory family dinners.

We got picked up from the airport in one of the nicest tour buses I've ever seen (cushy black leather seats!) and checked into our hotel, one of the nicest YMCA's I've ever seen.  When I think of a YMCA, I think of a hostel with a community gym and swimming pool, but this was a full scale hotel.  Our room was on a high floor and had nice views looking across the water from Kowloon (where we were staying) to Hong Kong Central (the financial district).  We only had two nights in Hong Kong, so we didn't stay in the hotel long before heading out to explore.

We went out for dinner at a place recommended by the hotel and it was nice to finally be able to speak English with someone outside our group.  We were able to order without looking at pictures and pointing to things on the menu or making a Chinese friend do it for us.  The language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, but pretty much everyone knows English and Mandarin as well.  After dinner, a group of us walked a while to a night market where you can probably find any knock-off imaginable.  Some people bought lots of stuff but I didn't see anything I had to have.  I think that if it were something I really wanted, I would have already found a way to buy it back at home.

I was about ready to call it a night after we got back to the hotel, but I'm glad I didn't because a group of us ended up going out with the Hong Kong local in our program and she took us to a bar area in Central called Lan Kwai Fong.  It was lots of fun and highlights included a Russian vodka bar inside a freezer where everyone donned fur coats (strange with the heat and humidity outside), a bar where you could order flaming towers (a giant tower of glasses that has been lit on fire where you drink from the glass on the bottom through a straw), and a bar where we bought jello shots in syringes.  We got back late and went to bed for our city tour the next day.

The morning started with a bus ride to Hong Kong Central and a cable car ride to Victoria Peak where you can see much of the city below you.  After a brief photo op and history of the city from our guide, we headed down the back side of the peak to an area called Stanley, which was on the beach and included another market to explore.  From there, we headed back to Central to explore some of the buildings such as the Bank of China Tower and HSBC Building, but unfortunately, it was a weekend so everything was closed.  Too bad it couldn't have been planned better.  We stopped for authentic Hong Kong dim sum for lunch where we ordered all of our food off of trolleys, then walked back to the hotel.  After lunch, we took a subway and explores yet another market, returning to the hotel early.  We had a ridiculously early departure time for Vietnam the next morning.

Of the three cities we visited in China, Hong Kong is the one I'd most like to go back to.  We were there for the shortest amount of time and there were numerous areas we didn't get to explore.  Hopefully, I'll go back someday when more of my friends are there to meet up with and take me everywhere I missed.

As usual, Hong Kong pictures can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2506047&id=3431093&l=2d8a58f3f5