#37 - Hong Kong Harborscape, China
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R2 Must DOs...
R2 PASSes...
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R Thoughts...
February 2008. Hong Kong was our layover on the way home from Manila so we extended it for 3 days so we could cross the harborscape off of "the List." as part of a one month trip to SE Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong). Again, maybe living in Cali with the beauty of our "harborscapes" tainted me and made me a harborscape "snob" but this was no breathtaking view. . . at least what little we could see through all of the smog! China's got a huge polution problem which has some of it's natives wearing masks as part of their wardrobes. And it's a CONSTANT part of their skies so there is no "good day" to go grab a snap of the view. I spent most of the time cleaning the lens of my camera thinking it had gotten foggy/dirty but it wasn't.
We happened to be there on the day that Hong Kong officially celebrated the New Year so there were NO crowds. It was quite nice. We also were helped by a very nice man when we found ourselves stranded at the mall with no money because the bank, of course, was closed as well. Our hotel had provided a one way ride to the mall but we were left to fend for ourselves. We tried walking but got lost. Fortunately, the first man we stopped to ask for directions spoke English and lived near our hotel so he not only paid for our trolley ride but walked us to the door! We tried to pay him in USD but he wouldn't accept. That was the most memorable thing about the entire trip in my book!
Since we only had 3 days there, we spent one day on one of the bus tours. If you have the time, I'd recommend arming yourself with a good tour book and seeing Hong Kong on your own. They have an excellent public transportation and because they were under British rule for so long all of the signs are in English as well as Chinese. The good thing about the tour is it ended with dinner @ a restaurant near the 2008 Olympic display and gave us front row seats to the nightly laser light show in Victoria's Harbor. This was pretty cool and not to be missed. At night you can pretend that the smog doesn't exist and that the lights appear dim because of the street lights below LOL.
But what Hong Kong is all about from the airport to the mall on ever other corner is SHOPPING. From high end designers like Gucci and Louis Vitton to the open air markets. Natives and tourists alike seem to spend all day, every day shopping. On the day when all other businesses were closed, the malls were still open. Our only regret is that it was our LAST stop before home so by the time we got there we'd already spent all of our money. Though, now that I think about it, maybe that was a GOOD thing.