It's 11:30 PM and the metro station is busy with hundreds of people. I'm on my way home after some drinks on Hong Kong Island with Keith, and lo and behold, I have found free internet inside the metro station. Crazy. Hong Kong is quite the place...I'm off tomorrow to Macau, so more updates once I'm there.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Hong Kong: Dragon's Back
On Thursday, I met up with Keith at 10:30 AM at a metro station near the east end of Hong Kong Island. Our plan was to go on a hike up Dragon's Back, on the eastern-most end of the island, then continue on to Shek O, a small town next to a beach. Overall, the day was a great success.
Before I get to the hike though, I will post some pictures of my breakfast - rice noodles wrapped around fried donut, some sliced fish congee, and a bowl of warm soymilk. This was a lot of food to start my day.
Keith at the trailead.
The trail on Dragon's Back
David and Keith on Dragon's Back
View of Shek O Beach from above
Pork chop rice plate at Thai restaurant in Shek O
Keith eating lunch.
Shek O Beach
Shek O Beach
Peal, Play, Win! Shir Appeal makes it all the way to the South China Sea!
Before I get to the hike though, I will post some pictures of my breakfast - rice noodles wrapped around fried donut, some sliced fish congee, and a bowl of warm soymilk. This was a lot of food to start my day.
We caught a bus from the MTR (metro) toward Shek O - this was easy, as Keith had arrived before me and had scoped it all out. This bus took us up into the hills, and we got off the bus at a trailhead. A Canadian guy named Shawn was on the bus with us, and did the same hike, though we didn't really talk to him much till later.
At first the trail was shady, walking along a mostly flat ridge through some jungle-like vegetation. Eventually this trail rose above the treeline onto Dragon's Back, which provide views both east and west. Up at the top, it was very windy, but as soon as we were protected from the wind, the sun was really hot!
The whole hike only took us about 1.5 hours, and soon we were back at the road (further down it) where we caught the bus again for the rest of the trip to Shek O. When we got to Shek O, we explored a bit, took a peak at the beach (which looked awesome), then decided to eat lunch first. There are a lot of Thai restaurants in Shek O, so we chose one that was crowded and close to the beach. Shawn ended up there as well, so he joined us at our table - we ordered from a lunch special menu. Keith and I had pork chops and Shawn had green curry - all were HUGE servings atop huge servings of rice - a ton of food for about $5 US each.
After lunch we went to the beach, where we stayed most of the afternoon - we swam, we lay in the sun, we swam some more. There were some rafts in the water that you could swim to, and the waves were kind of big as well, so they were fun to play in. Keith and I threw a frisbee for a while, despite announcements made in Cantonese, Mandarin and English that said "No dogs, ball playing, saucer throwing or kiteflying allowed." Nobody seemed to care about these rules though, since there were plenty of dogs, frisbees and soccer balls on the beach.
The water at the beach had a bit of garbage floating in it, but for the most part seemed very clean, and the sand on the beach was great. We rented an umbrella too, so we had some nice shade. The three of us met a woman named Meghan, who grew up and lives in Hong Kong - and we chatted with her for a while before we all left to go back to the city.
One last anecdote: when we got off the bus at the metro station, I really had to pee. There were no toilets right at the metro station, but there was a sign that says "toilets" with an arrow pointing a street with lots of stalls. Keith, Shawn and Meghan waited for me as I followed the sign...which led me two blocks to another sign, and then to another sign....and soon I was four blocks away. But sure enough, I was eventually led to a public bathroom. I was quite impressed with signage...I can't think of anywhere else I've been where the bathroom signs are so clear, especially when the bathroom itself is blocks away.
That's enough for this post...more later perhaps. Here are pictures!
Keith at the trailead.
The trail on Dragon's Back
David and Keith on Dragon's Back
View of Shek O Beach from above
Pork chop rice plate at Thai restaurant in Shek O
Keith eating lunch.
Shek O Beach
Shek O Beach
Peal, Play, Win! Shir Appeal makes it all the way to the South China Sea!
Hong Kong: Green Lasers and Rice Noodles
Hong Kong is a very busy city - exciting, but a bit overwhelming. I am staying in Mong Kok, which according to Guiness Book of World Records, has the highest population density in the world, at 130,000 people per square kilometer.
Over the past few days, I've been walking all over the place. On my first night here, I went exploring with Willa - we took the metro down to the Temple Street Market, then walked back to Mong Kok from there, stopping for dumplings and coconut juice on the way. On Wednesday I did more exploring - after a delicious breakfast of rice noodles, I headed into Hong Kong Island proper, where I rode the tram, then met up with Keith.
Keith and I had lunch, then took the escalators up to the hills and then walked around the botanical gardens and the zoo before heading back down through another street market.
I took the ferry to Hong Kong Island and back - it's quite cheap and takes about 5 minutes, and the view of the harbor and the skyline on Hong Kong is pretty amazing. I'm glad the guidebooks recommended that I take the ferry, since I might have otherwise taken the metro.
It was dusk by the time I crossed back to Kowloon on the ferry, and from the waterfront walkway in Tsim Sha Tsui, I watched as the lights of the skyscrapers came on, and the sky grew darker.
At 8 PM, the nightly light show started - music blared out from speakers all across the waterfront, and about 20 different skyscrapers on the other side of the harbor participated in the big event - choreographed lights and lasers shooting up to the sky. I guess it was pretty cool to see, but it's also kind of crazy that this show happens every night. Overall though, I think the general skyline is impressive on its own.
After this, I headed to a wonton place I had read about on chowhound. I posted a picture of this in my last post too. The wontons were really good, and I had another kind of dumpling there as well, which had shrimp and some other vegetables in it too.
Being here is funny - it actually doesn't feel that foreign to me. I have found myself sitting by myself in restaurants here, surrounded by Cantonese with no English spoken...but it's also the kind of experience I seek out all the time in the US. In San Francisco, Boston and New York I've put myself in similar situations, so the sounds and tastes here - as well as the lack of English - is actually quite familiar. Markets on the streets are similar to what I've seen in South America, India and even the US, and the busy streets are reminiscent of Times Square in New York - except here the busy streets continue on for blocks and blocks.
The food here has been good so far, and there's a lot of it - but I don't get the sense that it's as much of a food city as Kuala Lumpur, or from what I hear, Singapore. It will be interesting to see how food here compares to Macau and Guangzhou, where there will be some big similarities but some differences as well I think.
That's enough for this post...I will now try to upload some pictures if I can navigate the Chinese on the computer.
Over the past few days, I've been walking all over the place. On my first night here, I went exploring with Willa - we took the metro down to the Temple Street Market, then walked back to Mong Kok from there, stopping for dumplings and coconut juice on the way. On Wednesday I did more exploring - after a delicious breakfast of rice noodles, I headed into Hong Kong Island proper, where I rode the tram, then met up with Keith.
Keith and I had lunch, then took the escalators up to the hills and then walked around the botanical gardens and the zoo before heading back down through another street market.
I took the ferry to Hong Kong Island and back - it's quite cheap and takes about 5 minutes, and the view of the harbor and the skyline on Hong Kong is pretty amazing. I'm glad the guidebooks recommended that I take the ferry, since I might have otherwise taken the metro.
It was dusk by the time I crossed back to Kowloon on the ferry, and from the waterfront walkway in Tsim Sha Tsui, I watched as the lights of the skyscrapers came on, and the sky grew darker.
At 8 PM, the nightly light show started - music blared out from speakers all across the waterfront, and about 20 different skyscrapers on the other side of the harbor participated in the big event - choreographed lights and lasers shooting up to the sky. I guess it was pretty cool to see, but it's also kind of crazy that this show happens every night. Overall though, I think the general skyline is impressive on its own.
After this, I headed to a wonton place I had read about on chowhound. I posted a picture of this in my last post too. The wontons were really good, and I had another kind of dumpling there as well, which had shrimp and some other vegetables in it too.
Being here is funny - it actually doesn't feel that foreign to me. I have found myself sitting by myself in restaurants here, surrounded by Cantonese with no English spoken...but it's also the kind of experience I seek out all the time in the US. In San Francisco, Boston and New York I've put myself in similar situations, so the sounds and tastes here - as well as the lack of English - is actually quite familiar. Markets on the streets are similar to what I've seen in South America, India and even the US, and the busy streets are reminiscent of Times Square in New York - except here the busy streets continue on for blocks and blocks.
The food here has been good so far, and there's a lot of it - but I don't get the sense that it's as much of a food city as Kuala Lumpur, or from what I hear, Singapore. It will be interesting to see how food here compares to Macau and Guangzhou, where there will be some big similarities but some differences as well I think.
That's enough for this post...I will now try to upload some pictures if I can navigate the Chinese on the computer.
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