Living the Travel Channel

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

We got up late, so our first meal was more of a lunch. We picked this alleyway eatery just a block from our hotel. The waitress didn’t seem too happy about serving foreigners, but it worked out.

We crossed the harbor on the ferry in order to take yet another Big Bus tour, the blue line this time which traverses the Kowloon part of town.

A word about using the metro train system in Hong Kong — be prepared to walk, a lot. After finishing the blue line tour, we needed to get back to the other side of the harbor and foolishly thought it would be easier to take the metro than to walk back to the pier and take the ferry. Unfortunately, the metro system required a long long goose chase walk through underground tunnels. Would have been shorter to walk to the pier.

We also took the Big Bus night tour. We got off at the night market stop and walked through the night market. It was mostly disappointing and nothing we would want to buy. Although, the Star Wart Millennium Falcon was tempting (we also saw a Star Wnrt version). It would not fit in our suitcases, so we skipped it. We can probably find this in Shanghai anyway.

So, after another metro ride back to the island side of Hong Kong, we stopped into a restaurant close to our hotel and had a third meal. This is the sweet and sour pork, which we technically did not order, but it was very good.

Friday is our last day and will be mainly packing and getting to the airport. So, to sum up our Hong Kong experience and advice:

• Come when it is cooler, not in the miserable summer months.
• Be prepared to walk and walk and walk, sometimes at a steep angle.
• The Big Bus red and green line tours are worth it, but skip the blue line and the night tour.
• Eating can be very expensive unless you head for the alleys and eat at the scroungy looking places where locals are eating.
• The Butterfly Hotel on Wellington is a good choice.

See all the pictures here.

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

We started our day with breakfast at a dim sum restaurant just down the street from our hotel. A tasty and a fun adventure. About half-way through our meal a family sat down at our table. It was a local family with a teen daughter and her caucasian friend. It was fun to watch them tell her how to make tea. As you can see from the picture above, we were given a teapot. This is not the local way. The covered dish (gaiwan) in the upper left corner of the picture is used to make tea. It is filled with loose tea leaves and water. The first tea is poured out as it is thought to be too bitter (and possibly other ceremonial reasons). The father showed her exactly how to hold the gaiwan with the lid tipped to pour the tea into her cup. The first tea is poured out into the larger bowl (center top of the picture) and then the waiter has to come back to pour more hot water into the gaiwan. The waiters at this restaurant were quick and sloppy, so it wasn’t long until the table was wet.

Next we went down to the waterfront to get on the Big Red Bus tour. As you can see it was a sunny day. Later it was the exact opposite.

We took the Green Line route first which took us to the opposite side of the island to Repulse Bay, Stanley, and Aberdeen. We got off at Stanley to do some touristy shopping and have a little snack. When we got back on the bus, the lower level was full, so we had to go up to the top deck (which is uncovered and not air conditioned. It was extremely hot while we were at Stanley (I have a sunburn to prove it), so we weren’t too happy to be going up top. However, it started to rain, no, I mean RAIN, as soon as we got up there. That took the temperature right down, which was nice. It did make it difficult to see much or take pictures, though.

At the end of this tour, we took a short break and then got on the Red Line bus for more.

You can see all the pictures here. I hope you like looking at sky scrapers.

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

We are in Hong Kong on a six day layover on our way to India. It is hot and humid, but we will venture out anyway and do our usual, casual wandering.

Hong Kong is on very mountainous land, so the streets are steep and every inch of land is valuable. The city is a forest of skyscrapers and all the alley ways are being used as retail space.

The coolest thing is the elevated escalator and stairs that makes it easy to get up the hill. This is only a block away from our hotel. During morning commute time, the escalator runs down the hill so that people can get to work. The rest of the day it runs up the hill. We walked down the hill on the street level and I thought “ugh, all these steps have to be retraced up the hill to get back to the hotel.” No! It was quick and easy to get back.

We haven’t done anything particularly touristy, yet. Just went in search of a pharmacy to shop for things we cannot find in Shanghai, ate food, and sweated a lot.

See the pictures here.