Friday, Our Last Day In Hong Kong

Friday, April 5

We woke this morning to this lovely view from our hotel window:

Not only was it raining HARD--it was blowing sideways.  Our worst weather day yet.  We relaxed for a couple of hours, thinking the storm would pass through.  It did let up a bit, so we headed out into this wet and windy mess about 10:30.

We took the MTR back over to the Central area to wander around some of the interesting streets.  We'd been there on our first day in Hong Kong, but most things were closed because of Easter.  Today it was a bustling scene, and we explored a several block area full of antique stores.  I really enjoy looking at all the beautiful porcelain, furniture and jade.  Most of it was either too big for my suitcase or too big for my budget, but it was fun to look at!

The architecture in this area is a crazy mix of the old and the new:

After an hour or so of looking at antiques the weather was looking at least acceptable, so we decided we'd take the Star Ferry across to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. In a recent article in National Geographic, they listed a ride on The Star Ferry as one of the 10 best boat trips in the world--so how could we pass that up?

It was a bit of a walk to get to the pier, but not much of a wait to get on the ferry.  It's a quick 7 minute ride across Victoria Harbor, and the views of the city skyline are just amazing.  I'm sure it's really spectacular when the sun is shining--but we wouldn't know about that--haven't seen the sun all week!

Here's a view of the Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Harbor:

And the view leaving Central Pier:

David on the ferry:

Once we got to the Kowloon side, we just turned around and came back to the Island.  The next item on our list for today was a ride up the tram to the top of Victoria Peak.  We'd left  this until the last minute--we were still hoping for some good weather!

The bus we needed to catch was very near the pier, and it rolled in just as we walked up--lucky timing we though!  Except for we got on the wrong bus, which we didn't realize until about 15 minutes later!  Instead of catching bus #15C to the lower tram stop, we got on bus #15--which took us all the way to the top of Victoria Peak!  Oh, well--it was a very scenic drive to the top, and quite relaxing.  The bus let us off right at the Peak, next to a large shopping mall.  

We had a bite of lunch at a small noodle shop in the mall, and we really lucked out.  Turns out this small place was a Michelin restaurant and had been filmed for an Anthony Bourdain TV show!  We each had a bowl of the most amazing noodle/wonton soup e-v-e-r!  Our big total bill for lunch was $12!

Here's a pic of yummy noodle soup:

After our delicious lunch we walked out to the Peak Observation Deck--just look at this view (hah!) from the top looking down over Hong Kong:

After admiring that view for about 2 seconds, we went to find the line to ride the tram down the peak.  We found it--and it was a looooong line!  Luckily, it moved pretty fast, and soon we were on board and riding down hill.  Here's the Peak Tram (started in 1888!) at the station:

David on the tram:

When we reached the bottom we got off and found the bus stop for our ride back to the MTR station.  Of course, there was a line, and soon it started to rain again.  Lucky for us, we didn't have to wait too long for a bus.  It was a slow trip to the station--it was rush hour and the traffic was barely moving.  We could have walked faster!  That gave us time to talk about what to do the rest of the day and evening, and we decided we'd head back to the hotel and pack our bags and then have dinner in our neighborhood.  It's been a busy week in Hong Kong, and we have a 5:15 a.m. ride to the airport tomorrow.

After packing our bags we walked to a small restaurant near the hotel and settled in for a nice dinner of.............Pizza and pasta!   Sounds like a strange dinner for Hong Kong, but we have 3 1/2 more weeks to have Chinese!

Here's our pizza--it was really pretty good, especially the greens.  Moose's Tooth in Anchorage is still the best, though!

Of course we ordered a beer--but we sure weren't expecting one this B-I-G!  And no, I didn't drink it all!

We sat and talked about our week in Hong Kong.  Is it our favorite city? No.  Is it a city we'd like to visit again?  No.  Are we glad we came?  Oh, yes!  Hong Kong is an amazing world class city, and we feel lucky to have experienced just a small sample of what she has to offer.  We have found the people to be very welcoming and helpful, and the food was pretty good, too! (Well-maybe not the chicken feet!)

Tomorrow we are off to mainland China for 3 1/2 weeks! We are excited and a little bit nervous, too.  

I know we'll see some amazing sights, so stay tuned!