Hong Kong trip
Okay, I finally have a few minutes to update y'all on my trip last week to Hong Kong! This got quite lengthy, but it should recap just about everything. I crammed a lot into those four days. Pictures are posted here: http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=JeffISU
Monday 11/21
I departed around 8am, and flew from Des Moines - Minneapolis (1 hour flight), to Tokyo (12.25 hour flight), to Hong Kong (5 hour flight), all on Northwest Airlines. I had enough frequent flier miles to get a First Class ticket round trip, so it was pretty sweet. The seats each could lie almost completely flat (176 degrees), had personal 12" tv's with on-demand audio, video, games, and fantastic food.
Tuesday 11/22
Arrive in HK at about 10:30pm Tuesday due to the intl. date line. The airport is only a few years old, and is nice and fully featured, like Singapore's Changi. Gathered my luggage, and was through customs in about 15 minutes or so. Took the airport express high-speed train, and connected with the MTR (subway) to get to my hotel. There were about 10 different exits out of the station and I didn't know which one it was, so I just chose one at random - happened to be the exact one I needed - yay. Short 5 minute walk down the street to my hotel - YMCA. My parents paid for the room as a Christmas present. It was a nice hotel, similar to a nicer Holiday Inn in the states. Got to the hotel around 12:30am, so just went to sleep.
Wednesday 11/23
Slept well through the night and got up around 8:00am. Felt amazingly awake and alert :). Had some breakfast in the hotel, then started walking around. Nathan Road is the main road that runs through the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula (part of HK that's attached to China). Hong Kong consists of Kowloon, HK Island, Lantau Island (where the airport is) along with several thousand smaller islands. The street is filled with electronics stores, restaurants, antique shops, and more. Also, just about on every street corner, someone offers you a "cop watch" (fake Rolex), or their tailoring services. If you ever needed a suit custom tailored, HK has thousands of people willing to do it. A jacket, pants, two shirts, and a tie (standard package) was around US$200 - not too bad. Also walked into Chungking Mansions, one of the most infamous buildings on Kowloon. It is a huge high-rise building (maybe 12 stories or so) filled with guesthouses, and a few restaurants and shops on the first two levels. Rooms here are the cheapest in HK - as low as US$5-10/night, but with a few exceptions you really get what you pay for. Unlike in Thailand where these prices would give you a decent room, HK is simply more expensive. I went in to check it out - lots of money changers on the ground floor with good rates, a few indian restaurants that looked good, and lots of little shops. I bought a SIM card for my cellular phone and an additional overseas phone card. Using this, I got a local number in Hong Kong to make/receive calls, and could call locally for about US$0.03/minute or over to the US for US$0.06/minute - so really good rates.
Had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant on Nathan Road - had a curried beef with rice and tea - was about US$8. In the more touristy areas people spoke good English, but in some of the smaller restaurants and shops it can't always be expected. They had menus in English, but I asked one waiter for some extra rice, and was brought a glass of ice :). Instead of trying to correct them, I felt bad, so I ate some of the ice.. haha. I continued my walking journey into Kowloon Park, which was a neat park with lots of manicured hedges, ponds, and birds/swans. Walked over a large bridge spanning about 12 lanes of traffic towards the harbour. The bridge started to bounce a bit with each step. Walked down to the harbourfront area, along Victoria Harbour, which separates Kowloon and HK Island. There was an area called "Avenue of the Stars," similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which had stars for a lot of the major stars from HK, like Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Bruce Lee, etc. Then randomly this "fortune teller" guy came up and started talking to me about how today was my lucky day. Not in a hurry I listed (never asking for him to continue), and he went through a number of exercises, and predicted that all of my wishes will come true. I said "oh, wow," (but very unimpressed), and then he said he wanted HK$600 for his services (about US$77). Yeah, right. I felt guilty (don't know why), so I have him the equivalent of a few dollars US and left it at that.
It was now the middle of the afternoon and I needed another snack and to rest my feet from walking all day long, so I stopped into The Peninsula Hotel, right next door to the YMCA. The Peninsula is a very fancy hotel, kind of the cornerstone hotel in HK - like the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Rooms are US$300-400 and up/night. A popular thing to do is to have afternoon tea in their lobby lounge, which is just what I did. I had a tea called "Peninsula Afternoon (some house blend)" which was very good, two scones that had raisins, butter, and jam which were fantastic, and a Sprite. Total was about US$22 for my light snack :). Excellent food and service, but more about just sitting and experiencing it than the food itself. Fun to do, anyway. Had a quick dinner at the YMCA - Malaysian beef satay, which was really good, but the peanut sauce wasn't as spicy as it usually is. Every night at 8:00pm they do a light show on the Harbour. Many of the tall skyscrapers on HK Island change colors, shoot out lights and lasers, in an approximately 15-20 minute show. It's pretty cool to see, and the city looks 10x as good at night (and it already looks fantastic during the day). Then headed out to the Temple Street night markets. Bought a few t-shirts (Beijing 2008 Olympics, Hard Rock HK, and a polo shirt) and some souvenirs for others. It stretched for several blocks, and seemed to go on forever. The merchants here weren't as pushy as in Bangkok or Beijing - they would help you if you looked interested or came into their stall, but wouldn't accost you in the street - I liked that. Took the MTR home and went to bed around 11:00pm.
Thursday 11/24
Having seem a lot of Kowloon yesterday, I booked an afternoon guided tour of HK Island, leaving from the hotel at 2:30pm. I had a couple hours, so took the Star Ferry over to HK Island. The Star Ferry is a collection of large boats that shuttle people from Tsim Sha Tsui to either Central (main business area) or Wanchai (slightly west of Central). They pack a ton of people on, and are great fun to ride. You get an excellent view of the harbour from there. The upper deck is only about $0.29, the lower deck around US$0.22 each way, so extremely cheap and fun. I just started walking down the main street, and went by a few of the larger office buildings until I found a shopping mall. Went in and found a nice cafe for lunch. I had Hainanese Chicken Rice (cooked chicken with spicy chili sauce to dip in) served with white rice and soup. The soup was typically bland as I remember it, but this one had a superb flavor - it even had chunks of cooked apple inside, which gave it a great flavor - again around US$8 including a Tsing Tao (Chinese) beer. Took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon to catch my tour.
The tour took us first over to Victoria Peak, one of those "must do" things in HK. It is situated at 552 meters (1810 feet) above sea level, and offers great views of HK Island and across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon. Next stop was the Aberdeen fishing village, on the south east side of HK Island. This area is home to a lot of fishing boats as well as the famous JUMBO floating restaurant. Many tours also do lunch/dinner here - it can seat around 2400 diners. Next we drove by Repulse bay, which is a quieter area with a nice beach and some expensive homes. Then stopped at a Jewelry factory, which gave us a tour of their production facilities and of course a chance to buy (no, nothing was purchased). Final stop was at the Stanley Market. This was a night market with all kinds of knock-off goods, but also some nicer artwork and stuff. I bought a small painted picture of the HK city view. Got back from the tour around 7-8pm to the hotel, then took the Star Ferry back to HK Island. Took the tram up to The Peak. The tram is a cabled tram car that's been around for a while. About US$4 for a round trip journey. Checked out the view at night, which again was stunning. Then went to check out the SOHO/LKF areas. SOHO (South of Hollywood Road) has tons of neat restaurants, and LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) is two streets in an L shape with a bunch of bars - lots of the expats hang out here. Had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in SOHO - had Malaysian beef curry with rice (I love these dishes), which again was outstanding for like US$7 including tea. Got back to the hotel around 12:00am.
Friday 11/25
Slept in a bit (until about 10am) and decided to head out to the island of Macau for the better part of a day. Macau used to be a Portuguese colony up until 1999 when it reverted back to Chinese control. Tried to walk to the ferry terminal from the Star Ferry port, but couldn't get there, so took a short cab ride for like US$3. Bought my ticket, then had about a hour to hang around until the boat departed (so I read some in the Lonely Planet about Macau). The transportation is a jet boat, and the seating inside is just like an airplane. They can serve you drinks if you want, and it was very comfortable. They covered the 60km (38 mile) journey in a bit under an hour, so was quite fast. The guy sitting next to me was returning to his home country of Norway and just passing through HK. He had studied in Australia for the past year, and spoke excellent English. So we hung out and walked around Macau for the day - arrived on land at about 1:30pm. Shook off the touts for taxis and services, and just started walking with the aide of the Lonely Planet map. Walked along the waterfront, some some neat colored Portuguese buildings, LARGE casinos, and one of the largest suspension bridges I've ever seen - almost 3km (almost 2 miles). As we were walking along the harbour we saw a group taking pictures of each other (I think Chinese, but not sure), and one of them tapped me on the shoulder and pointed for me to join their group - they wanted a picture with me.. haha. They cycled through about 3-4 pictures with various people and myself.. pretty funny.
We both noticed that Macau was considerably hotter than HK - at least it felt that way. We then walked through a fairly deserted downtown area to the Central Square, which was kind of a center of action. The streets leading up to it were all cobblestone, with a design in black stones every so often - a shell, animal, or something like that. Here there were a bunch of shops (including a Haagen Dazs and a McDonalds) and stuff. Some neat Portuguese looking buildings which was cool to see. Had lunch at a restaurant here called Platao - I had a garlic shrimp appetizer and a Portuguese vegetable soup, both of which were quite good. Continued walking around, looking at some neat old forts with a good view of the surrounding city, the ruins of the church of St. Paul, dating back to 1637. When passing by a shop with some Chinese dried goods, the owner was in the street giving out free samples of something - dried pork, maybe? I ate it, and it did taste pretty good. When she saw I liked it she pushed me over to buy some, but I really wasn't interested. Our walk concluded on the other end of the island at the A-Ma temple, overlooking the bay, which was neat. The sun was just setting at the time. We had dinner there at Restaurante Litoral, and had a fantastic Macanese pork with rice. It was served sliced and was extremely tender with a great flavor, but we couldn't figure out what was Macanese about it. We also had a Macau Beer which was decent, but not the best. Walked back, taking some pictures of the city at night along the way. There are lots of Casinos on Macau since gambling is illegal in HK, and they are all lit up like Las Vegas. Also lots of hookers standing around, and people hading out fliers for "escort services," but not so much that it was bothersome. When walking out to the A-Ma temple we passed through a lot of more local areas with tight winding streets. We got a lot of second looks - we got the impression that Western tourists were maybe a bit more rare here. Caught the jet boat back to HK, and parted ways. I went back to the hotel around 10pm, since I was pretty tired.
Saturday 11/26
Slept in a bit again (unintentionally) and got up around 10am. Breakfast at the hotel, then went over to HK Island and mailed some post cards to family. I met up with my cousin Cara who was going to be in Hong Kong for a month. She was doing a study abroad adventure all around the world, so it was fun to hang out with her for the day. Many of the areas and buildings on Hong Kong Island in the Central and other districts are connected via overhead walkways, similar to the skyways in other larger downtown cities. They allow you to walk from place to place without having to deal with traffic. First went to the International Financial Center, because I thought they had an observation deck up there, but the building was closed. So we walked around that mall a bit. HK Island also has the longest covered escalator system in the world - 800 meters (about 2400 feet, or less than 0.5 miles). It stretches from Central all the way up to the Mid-Levels (halfway between the harbour and The Peak). It goes down to the Harbour area form 6-10am, then up the rest of the times. Easier than everyone taking cars/taxis. They have spots every so often so you can get off and go somewhere else, and little signs to tell you where you're at on the journey - pretty neat. We walked along Hollywood Road (lots of antique shops), saw the A-Ma temple (one of the oldest/most famous), then had lunch in SOHO at an Indian Restaurant. I had naan (flatbread) with a chicken curry which had a fabulous flavor. Then took the MTR over to Times Square, a huge shopping mall in Causeway Bay area - east/central side of HK Island. Lots of shops, but they also had a Santa there to take pictures with. You donated HK$20 (about US$2.50) to get your picture, which we did - got our picture together with Santa, who was an American guy.
On Saturday afternoon after most of the businesses/offices close around 1pm, Hong Kong people go out to shop and eat for enjoyment, since most don't have gardens or things like we do in the States. Therefore, the streets were packed with people, and it was pretty fun to just walk around and people watch. Took the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui and had dinner at a great Dim Sum restaurant. Dim Sum are small dishes, ordered to share with a group. The restaurant was packed with locals, so it was definitely the real thing. We had pork bun and a fried wanton which were wonderful. It was a very busy place, and they seat you wherever they have room - one across form each other in your party, but at adjoining tables if needed. Still, a great experience and OH SO TASTY food. Then went and caught the light show over the harbour, then she headed back to her hotel which was in the New Territories - between Kowloon and China, mainly locals out there. She took classes at the University out there. I ventured out back to HK Island in search of a Traditional (read: non-sexual) Thai Massage. I went to the building that I thought it was in (Entertainment Building), but it wasn't it, because I needed the 5th floor, but the elevator only went to 4th :). So with the help of the security guard, I walked down the street (into Lan Kwai Fong, actually) to the correct building and found the place. Had a nice 1 hour full budy then 1 hour foot massage for about US$35 total. She pressed kinda hard, but it was still relaxing. They were actually all Thai, so it was authentic. Relaxed, I headed back to the hotel and slept.
Sunday 11/27
Pretty much just got up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and checked out. Took the MTR and airport express to the airport, which was as slick as ever. Checked in at the counter, and had my bags checked and boarding passes in hand in about 30 seconds - very friendly and efficient. Also got to use the club lounge to wait for my flight and have some snacks. I was flying Continental first to Newark/New York (16 hours), then Northwest to Minneapolis (3 hours), then to Des Moines (1 hour). Continental from HKG - EWR was wonderful service. The dinner service consisted of you first being served a warm dish of nuts with a beverage, then an appetizer (prawns and beef), cleared the plate and served a salad, cleared that then had dinner (New York Strip steak - was absolutley huge and delicious), then dinner, then tea/coffee. The leve of service was phenomenal, but the IFE (in-flight entertainment/video) wasn't as good as Northwest, because all the movies started at the same time, they weren't on-demand (start/stop/pause when you want) lke with Northwest. Oh well :). My flight from MSP - DSM was delayed by about 30 minutes due to a maintenance problem (broken airplane.. haha), but I got an extra 5,000 worldperks miles because of the delay. I arrived in Des Moines at about 12:30am (now Monday 11/28), and got back to my apartment and everything at about 2:00am. I was exhausted, but this was an awesome trip.
Monday 11/21
I departed around 8am, and flew from Des Moines - Minneapolis (1 hour flight), to Tokyo (12.25 hour flight), to Hong Kong (5 hour flight), all on Northwest Airlines. I had enough frequent flier miles to get a First Class ticket round trip, so it was pretty sweet. The seats each could lie almost completely flat (176 degrees), had personal 12" tv's with on-demand audio, video, games, and fantastic food.
Tuesday 11/22
Arrive in HK at about 10:30pm Tuesday due to the intl. date line. The airport is only a few years old, and is nice and fully featured, like Singapore's Changi. Gathered my luggage, and was through customs in about 15 minutes or so. Took the airport express high-speed train, and connected with the MTR (subway) to get to my hotel. There were about 10 different exits out of the station and I didn't know which one it was, so I just chose one at random - happened to be the exact one I needed - yay. Short 5 minute walk down the street to my hotel - YMCA. My parents paid for the room as a Christmas present. It was a nice hotel, similar to a nicer Holiday Inn in the states. Got to the hotel around 12:30am, so just went to sleep.
Wednesday 11/23
Slept well through the night and got up around 8:00am. Felt amazingly awake and alert :). Had some breakfast in the hotel, then started walking around. Nathan Road is the main road that runs through the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula (part of HK that's attached to China). Hong Kong consists of Kowloon, HK Island, Lantau Island (where the airport is) along with several thousand smaller islands. The street is filled with electronics stores, restaurants, antique shops, and more. Also, just about on every street corner, someone offers you a "cop watch" (fake Rolex), or their tailoring services. If you ever needed a suit custom tailored, HK has thousands of people willing to do it. A jacket, pants, two shirts, and a tie (standard package) was around US$200 - not too bad. Also walked into Chungking Mansions, one of the most infamous buildings on Kowloon. It is a huge high-rise building (maybe 12 stories or so) filled with guesthouses, and a few restaurants and shops on the first two levels. Rooms here are the cheapest in HK - as low as US$5-10/night, but with a few exceptions you really get what you pay for. Unlike in Thailand where these prices would give you a decent room, HK is simply more expensive. I went in to check it out - lots of money changers on the ground floor with good rates, a few indian restaurants that looked good, and lots of little shops. I bought a SIM card for my cellular phone and an additional overseas phone card. Using this, I got a local number in Hong Kong to make/receive calls, and could call locally for about US$0.03/minute or over to the US for US$0.06/minute - so really good rates.
Had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant on Nathan Road - had a curried beef with rice and tea - was about US$8. In the more touristy areas people spoke good English, but in some of the smaller restaurants and shops it can't always be expected. They had menus in English, but I asked one waiter for some extra rice, and was brought a glass of ice :). Instead of trying to correct them, I felt bad, so I ate some of the ice.. haha. I continued my walking journey into Kowloon Park, which was a neat park with lots of manicured hedges, ponds, and birds/swans. Walked over a large bridge spanning about 12 lanes of traffic towards the harbour. The bridge started to bounce a bit with each step. Walked down to the harbourfront area, along Victoria Harbour, which separates Kowloon and HK Island. There was an area called "Avenue of the Stars," similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which had stars for a lot of the major stars from HK, like Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Bruce Lee, etc. Then randomly this "fortune teller" guy came up and started talking to me about how today was my lucky day. Not in a hurry I listed (never asking for him to continue), and he went through a number of exercises, and predicted that all of my wishes will come true. I said "oh, wow," (but very unimpressed), and then he said he wanted HK$600 for his services (about US$77). Yeah, right. I felt guilty (don't know why), so I have him the equivalent of a few dollars US and left it at that.
It was now the middle of the afternoon and I needed another snack and to rest my feet from walking all day long, so I stopped into The Peninsula Hotel, right next door to the YMCA. The Peninsula is a very fancy hotel, kind of the cornerstone hotel in HK - like the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Rooms are US$300-400 and up/night. A popular thing to do is to have afternoon tea in their lobby lounge, which is just what I did. I had a tea called "Peninsula Afternoon (some house blend)" which was very good, two scones that had raisins, butter, and jam which were fantastic, and a Sprite. Total was about US$22 for my light snack :). Excellent food and service, but more about just sitting and experiencing it than the food itself. Fun to do, anyway. Had a quick dinner at the YMCA - Malaysian beef satay, which was really good, but the peanut sauce wasn't as spicy as it usually is. Every night at 8:00pm they do a light show on the Harbour. Many of the tall skyscrapers on HK Island change colors, shoot out lights and lasers, in an approximately 15-20 minute show. It's pretty cool to see, and the city looks 10x as good at night (and it already looks fantastic during the day). Then headed out to the Temple Street night markets. Bought a few t-shirts (Beijing 2008 Olympics, Hard Rock HK, and a polo shirt) and some souvenirs for others. It stretched for several blocks, and seemed to go on forever. The merchants here weren't as pushy as in Bangkok or Beijing - they would help you if you looked interested or came into their stall, but wouldn't accost you in the street - I liked that. Took the MTR home and went to bed around 11:00pm.
Thursday 11/24
Having seem a lot of Kowloon yesterday, I booked an afternoon guided tour of HK Island, leaving from the hotel at 2:30pm. I had a couple hours, so took the Star Ferry over to HK Island. The Star Ferry is a collection of large boats that shuttle people from Tsim Sha Tsui to either Central (main business area) or Wanchai (slightly west of Central). They pack a ton of people on, and are great fun to ride. You get an excellent view of the harbour from there. The upper deck is only about $0.29, the lower deck around US$0.22 each way, so extremely cheap and fun. I just started walking down the main street, and went by a few of the larger office buildings until I found a shopping mall. Went in and found a nice cafe for lunch. I had Hainanese Chicken Rice (cooked chicken with spicy chili sauce to dip in) served with white rice and soup. The soup was typically bland as I remember it, but this one had a superb flavor - it even had chunks of cooked apple inside, which gave it a great flavor - again around US$8 including a Tsing Tao (Chinese) beer. Took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon to catch my tour.
The tour took us first over to Victoria Peak, one of those "must do" things in HK. It is situated at 552 meters (1810 feet) above sea level, and offers great views of HK Island and across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon. Next stop was the Aberdeen fishing village, on the south east side of HK Island. This area is home to a lot of fishing boats as well as the famous JUMBO floating restaurant. Many tours also do lunch/dinner here - it can seat around 2400 diners. Next we drove by Repulse bay, which is a quieter area with a nice beach and some expensive homes. Then stopped at a Jewelry factory, which gave us a tour of their production facilities and of course a chance to buy (no, nothing was purchased). Final stop was at the Stanley Market. This was a night market with all kinds of knock-off goods, but also some nicer artwork and stuff. I bought a small painted picture of the HK city view. Got back from the tour around 7-8pm to the hotel, then took the Star Ferry back to HK Island. Took the tram up to The Peak. The tram is a cabled tram car that's been around for a while. About US$4 for a round trip journey. Checked out the view at night, which again was stunning. Then went to check out the SOHO/LKF areas. SOHO (South of Hollywood Road) has tons of neat restaurants, and LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) is two streets in an L shape with a bunch of bars - lots of the expats hang out here. Had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in SOHO - had Malaysian beef curry with rice (I love these dishes), which again was outstanding for like US$7 including tea. Got back to the hotel around 12:00am.
Friday 11/25
Slept in a bit (until about 10am) and decided to head out to the island of Macau for the better part of a day. Macau used to be a Portuguese colony up until 1999 when it reverted back to Chinese control. Tried to walk to the ferry terminal from the Star Ferry port, but couldn't get there, so took a short cab ride for like US$3. Bought my ticket, then had about a hour to hang around until the boat departed (so I read some in the Lonely Planet about Macau). The transportation is a jet boat, and the seating inside is just like an airplane. They can serve you drinks if you want, and it was very comfortable. They covered the 60km (38 mile) journey in a bit under an hour, so was quite fast. The guy sitting next to me was returning to his home country of Norway and just passing through HK. He had studied in Australia for the past year, and spoke excellent English. So we hung out and walked around Macau for the day - arrived on land at about 1:30pm. Shook off the touts for taxis and services, and just started walking with the aide of the Lonely Planet map. Walked along the waterfront, some some neat colored Portuguese buildings, LARGE casinos, and one of the largest suspension bridges I've ever seen - almost 3km (almost 2 miles). As we were walking along the harbour we saw a group taking pictures of each other (I think Chinese, but not sure), and one of them tapped me on the shoulder and pointed for me to join their group - they wanted a picture with me.. haha. They cycled through about 3-4 pictures with various people and myself.. pretty funny.
We both noticed that Macau was considerably hotter than HK - at least it felt that way. We then walked through a fairly deserted downtown area to the Central Square, which was kind of a center of action. The streets leading up to it were all cobblestone, with a design in black stones every so often - a shell, animal, or something like that. Here there were a bunch of shops (including a Haagen Dazs and a McDonalds) and stuff. Some neat Portuguese looking buildings which was cool to see. Had lunch at a restaurant here called Platao - I had a garlic shrimp appetizer and a Portuguese vegetable soup, both of which were quite good. Continued walking around, looking at some neat old forts with a good view of the surrounding city, the ruins of the church of St. Paul, dating back to 1637. When passing by a shop with some Chinese dried goods, the owner was in the street giving out free samples of something - dried pork, maybe? I ate it, and it did taste pretty good. When she saw I liked it she pushed me over to buy some, but I really wasn't interested. Our walk concluded on the other end of the island at the A-Ma temple, overlooking the bay, which was neat. The sun was just setting at the time. We had dinner there at Restaurante Litoral, and had a fantastic Macanese pork with rice. It was served sliced and was extremely tender with a great flavor, but we couldn't figure out what was Macanese about it. We also had a Macau Beer which was decent, but not the best. Walked back, taking some pictures of the city at night along the way. There are lots of Casinos on Macau since gambling is illegal in HK, and they are all lit up like Las Vegas. Also lots of hookers standing around, and people hading out fliers for "escort services," but not so much that it was bothersome. When walking out to the A-Ma temple we passed through a lot of more local areas with tight winding streets. We got a lot of second looks - we got the impression that Western tourists were maybe a bit more rare here. Caught the jet boat back to HK, and parted ways. I went back to the hotel around 10pm, since I was pretty tired.
Saturday 11/26
Slept in a bit again (unintentionally) and got up around 10am. Breakfast at the hotel, then went over to HK Island and mailed some post cards to family. I met up with my cousin Cara who was going to be in Hong Kong for a month. She was doing a study abroad adventure all around the world, so it was fun to hang out with her for the day. Many of the areas and buildings on Hong Kong Island in the Central and other districts are connected via overhead walkways, similar to the skyways in other larger downtown cities. They allow you to walk from place to place without having to deal with traffic. First went to the International Financial Center, because I thought they had an observation deck up there, but the building was closed. So we walked around that mall a bit. HK Island also has the longest covered escalator system in the world - 800 meters (about 2400 feet, or less than 0.5 miles). It stretches from Central all the way up to the Mid-Levels (halfway between the harbour and The Peak). It goes down to the Harbour area form 6-10am, then up the rest of the times. Easier than everyone taking cars/taxis. They have spots every so often so you can get off and go somewhere else, and little signs to tell you where you're at on the journey - pretty neat. We walked along Hollywood Road (lots of antique shops), saw the A-Ma temple (one of the oldest/most famous), then had lunch in SOHO at an Indian Restaurant. I had naan (flatbread) with a chicken curry which had a fabulous flavor. Then took the MTR over to Times Square, a huge shopping mall in Causeway Bay area - east/central side of HK Island. Lots of shops, but they also had a Santa there to take pictures with. You donated HK$20 (about US$2.50) to get your picture, which we did - got our picture together with Santa, who was an American guy.
On Saturday afternoon after most of the businesses/offices close around 1pm, Hong Kong people go out to shop and eat for enjoyment, since most don't have gardens or things like we do in the States. Therefore, the streets were packed with people, and it was pretty fun to just walk around and people watch. Took the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui and had dinner at a great Dim Sum restaurant. Dim Sum are small dishes, ordered to share with a group. The restaurant was packed with locals, so it was definitely the real thing. We had pork bun and a fried wanton which were wonderful. It was a very busy place, and they seat you wherever they have room - one across form each other in your party, but at adjoining tables if needed. Still, a great experience and OH SO TASTY food. Then went and caught the light show over the harbour, then she headed back to her hotel which was in the New Territories - between Kowloon and China, mainly locals out there. She took classes at the University out there. I ventured out back to HK Island in search of a Traditional (read: non-sexual) Thai Massage. I went to the building that I thought it was in (Entertainment Building), but it wasn't it, because I needed the 5th floor, but the elevator only went to 4th :). So with the help of the security guard, I walked down the street (into Lan Kwai Fong, actually) to the correct building and found the place. Had a nice 1 hour full budy then 1 hour foot massage for about US$35 total. She pressed kinda hard, but it was still relaxing. They were actually all Thai, so it was authentic. Relaxed, I headed back to the hotel and slept.
Sunday 11/27
Pretty much just got up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and checked out. Took the MTR and airport express to the airport, which was as slick as ever. Checked in at the counter, and had my bags checked and boarding passes in hand in about 30 seconds - very friendly and efficient. Also got to use the club lounge to wait for my flight and have some snacks. I was flying Continental first to Newark/New York (16 hours), then Northwest to Minneapolis (3 hours), then to Des Moines (1 hour). Continental from HKG - EWR was wonderful service. The dinner service consisted of you first being served a warm dish of nuts with a beverage, then an appetizer (prawns and beef), cleared the plate and served a salad, cleared that then had dinner (New York Strip steak - was absolutley huge and delicious), then dinner, then tea/coffee. The leve of service was phenomenal, but the IFE (in-flight entertainment/video) wasn't as good as Northwest, because all the movies started at the same time, they weren't on-demand (start/stop/pause when you want) lke with Northwest. Oh well :). My flight from MSP - DSM was delayed by about 30 minutes due to a maintenance problem (broken airplane.. haha), but I got an extra 5,000 worldperks miles because of the delay. I arrived in Des Moines at about 12:30am (now Monday 11/28), and got back to my apartment and everything at about 2:00am. I was exhausted, but this was an awesome trip.