Hong Kong Day 1, The Nicholas Tour

Sunday June 26^th

I got up early this morning and didn't some computing. Nicholas came to my hotel at 10am. I met Nicholas back in October in a travel agency in Quito when we were both trying to go to the Bellavista Cloud Forest and decided to go together to save some money. We had a really good time together exploring the forest and zip-lining.

We talked for an hour in my room and he wanted to see a few of my African photos. Then we set out on a tour of Hong Kong that he had devised.

The first thing we did was go for a Dim Sum lunch. We had shrimp, octopus, and few other dishes. Lucky for me he was there, as the whole menu was in Chinese and you had to tick off with a pencil the items you wanted from the list on the menu. An Australian family saw what we were having and asked Nicholas to help them as they couldn't figure out the menu.

We a subway to the Wong Tai Sin Temple. This is an old and important temple in Hong Kong and we watched as people lit incense as an offering and shook tubes of sticks until one fell out of the tube onto the ground. They then take this stick in to an expert to have their fortune read based on the number on the stick.

Nicholas was happy today to play tourist as well, as he had never been to this temple and brought along his camera. He enjoyed showing me around, seeing the sights of Hong Kong and taking photos of the skyline.

We passed a couple of local women who Nick explained were experts at casting curses on your enemies. You simply wrote the name of your enemy on a 3D drawing of a tiger and they would smack it with their shoe while chanting curses that would cause pain to your enemy. Kind of like voodoo.

We found an electronics plaza where he helped me find a new power cord for my laptop and I bought one last SD card for the camera.

After that we took the subway again for a long ride and three line changes to another area of Hong Kong where we boarded a mini bus for a half hour ride to Stanley Market. This is a tourist area in a very exclusive neighbourhood along the coast. We wandered through the market looking at all the shops until we emerged at the board walk along the coast. We walked, talked and admired the views until we got to a cafe where we sat and had a beer. We visited another small temple that was constructed for local fishermen.

Then we retraced our minibus and subway ride back. We took a double decker streetcar ride before we walked for a bit to the Peak Tram Entrance. This is a funicular that climbs 300m up a mountain to another very exclusive neighbourhood and a very tourist area that provides an amazing panoramic view of Hong Kong Harbour and is complete with a shopping mall and hundreds of shops and restaurants. There were lots of tourists here and we had to line up for about a half hour to buy tickets. We got up there just before dusk and had a chance to see the view in the daylight, although it was quite hazy. Then we explored the shops a bit and had a snack while waiting for the dark. The skyline is even more impressive at night as the buildings are lit up, some with special lights on them. We stayed there for a bit taking photos, before descending again where we took a taxi to the harbour.

Here we caught the ferry to cross the harbour back to the mainland. We then walked for a to find a restaurant for dinner. We decided on sushi and sat at the bar. We enjoyed salmon, scallops, tuna, edimami, and a few other dishes he chose. I love sushi and this was the first time I had had it this year. When the bill came we were pleasantly surprised to find that they had a promotion on for half price for diners who arrived after 10pm, which we did.

Finally we walked to a large skyscraper and took the elevator to the 20^th floor to a bar that Nick knew. It was a beautiful dark, bar with a warehouse motif and a commanding view of the skyline. We had a couple of drafts Stellas and talked until 12:30. Then he walked me back to the hotel through the streets. I had a great day, a terrific tour and thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with Nick.

From what I saw, Hong Kong is a very busy and clean city. They have an excellent, cheap public transportation system. Because of this, Nick has never felt the need to drive or own a car. We took subways, minivans, double decker streetcars, a ferry and a taxi, and only the taxi cost more than two dollars. The ferry was less than fifty cents!