HongKong, Central and the Peak
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2008
1
17
20
Trip End
Oct 03, 2008
Hong Kong,
China
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Made my way out through HK Park, which was a lovely park just down the street fromt he hotel. Then on to the Peak Tram, were I met this young man from France, Michael, who had also been travelling around France, however, on his own for the last month. I think he was just happy to speak french again, as his english isn't very good, and you can barely get Engllish in China, never mind French. So we wound up visiting the peak together. It was a pretty good view. We tried to walk around but went onto a foot path instead of the road. But it was hazy enough we couldn't see the south side terribly well, so we didn't try to find the proper route.
Made our way down, and decided to continue walking around as his plans for the day were the same as mine. So we walked around the Central area, seeing all the wonderful architecture, and rode the Central Elevator up into the mid-levels. While around all the bing bank headquarters, we went into the HSBC Building. The ground level is totally open, as a covered public square.
We had lunch sitting on a step, consisting of some buns from a bakery. There is a distinct lack of public seating around, we noticed.
We went to visit a Taoist temple with huge springs of incense hanging from racks all over the central area. The air was thick with the incense smoke, and that is saying something in a place and hot and humid as Hongkong.
me at the Peak!
We walked down through various little streets, checking out markets, like on Graham Street and the Western Market around the whole central area. Late in the afternoon, we parted company as he rutrned to the Kowloon side to his hotel and I headed back to mine.
I had a cocktail in the lounge, udring their happy hour, then decided to check out the downtown area at night as there is a significant restaurant and bar area. I took the double decker tram down a few blocks and I wound up at an English pub, and while I was sitting at the bar (thinking of you, Bob F), I started up a conversation with 3 ladies who work in HongKong for a bank, but who are originally from Taiwan. We chatted a little about Taiwan and China, and their attitude, which they though was common for their generation, was that they weren't concerned with the big picture politics of whether Taiwan is or is not part of China, they just wanted to be happy and have freedom. They also missed Taiwan enourmously and went home whenever they could. They also commented on the very long hours they had to work.
I then met a bunch of british ex-pats who were working in the finance and construction engineering industries. They thought HK was a great base for travel all around Aisa when you could do it, but that HK itself was very much like being at home. It was all very interesting to learn about their points of view.
I then took the tram home to the hotel. I love the double decker tram! It is wooden, and very tall and narrow and rattles as it speeds along the tracks.
