High Low Up Down - 1st Full Day in Hong Kong

In true fashion the four of us could not do just a little activity for the day. The pictures do not even begin to describe the activity and walking we did today. There is no such thing as a simple walk in Hong Kong. The Island in particular is full of ups and downs to get to anything. The morning started with Breakfasts for all at the respective stayover locations.

Then Katy, David and Lisa met up with J&J and the Conrad. From there a quick elevator ride down a few floors takes you to the Pacific Place Mall. This is a galleria style up scale shopping mall. Nothing cheap and no bargaining Janie.

From this mall we learned of where to catch the buses and subway. Very convenient and typical big city.

Then we walked the skywalks to see how Gary gets around and stopped into his office building. Very impressive buildings everywhere in Hong Kong. They are tall and skinny and close to each other. Even so the area seems more open and lighted then NYC for example.

From there we got on what is known as the mid level escalator. This is a series of escalators that is in the down direction for morning rush hour and the up direction for the balance of the day. There were probably 20 or more escalators in a row. This is where the people who live in the surrounding buildings use to get down to the work area and then up when heading back. We are talking city block after city block up the side of the mountain escalator. Almost no way to describe.

We got a lot of information from Katy as we worked our way of the escalator to Hollywood street. We then moved west to the Man Mo temple. Amazing the amount of incense burned. Smoking would be an easy thing compared to working in this place all day.

From there we hiked back to a cross street (Peel) and headed into what is known as the "Wet Market" See for youself in the picture and you'll understand (meats, seafood, fruits, etc.). Stand after stand of traditional chinese cooking ingredients. An open market with all the sites and sounds that you would see on the Discovey and Cooking Channels.

If was amazing to watch the shopping of all the local folks as they bargained with the shop keepers for what they wanted. Too some it would make you swear off the food, but it really was appetizing in a strange way (OK not for all of us).

Katy needed to head home, so we said our goodbyes until tomorrow and headed back up the mid level escalators to see what we could find. At the top we decided that we needed to head down (a lot of steps without an escalator) to the water front to grab a ferry to Kowloon to stick with our plan for the day.

We found our way to the Ferry Docks and using our new trustee transportation passes took a ride across the channel to the Kowloon side. Going across the bay on the Ferry between the "Central" docks on the island side to the mainland side gave you another view of the area and was relaxing and a chance to cool the feet. We saw a traditional Junk, Ferries, Crusie ships, freigters and all in the channel.

This picture shows you a Junk as well as the Kowloon portion of Hong Kong from the ferry. The ride is pretty quick overall and we found ourselves on the Kowloon side on our quest to find the Pennisula Hotel. Katy suggested 2:00 p.m. tee for the ladies

After a few quick blocks we found the hotel. The girls settled in for Tea (hot chocolate) and finger sandwiches at the very beautiful Pennisula Hotel. Too foo foo ish for David and Jeff as they tracked to a McDonalds to test whether the food was the same and plan the balance of the day.

The verdict is in from the brothers as the same. Like a lot of chinese servings the frys and drinks were smaller. With our dueling front sides we didn't complain. During lunch the plans were set for the rest of the day.

The boys caught up with the ladies who were just finishing their tea and snacks. We then adventured around a bit to find the subway (quite a bit of construction in the area) and then with fingers crossed headed off to a park quite a ways from the city for a change of pace. We successfully made it to the Diamond Hill stop and found the Nan Lian Garden. Open to the public was a highly groomed garden showing off chinese gardening and architecture.

In addition we came across a porclien display that the ladies really enjoyed. David and Jeff had earned the brownie points on the tea and garden stops! Before heading off to the next location a quick stop in the puplic restroom was a must. Hmmm - not everything is like the good ole US now is it! Public bathroom stop. Yes this is common for doing your #2 business.

Even with that the bathrooms are pretty darn clean. That was a surprise from what we had heard prior to coming to Asia. Of course the little break David had to take at the top of the escalator in a closet size bathroom was a little less then ordor free, but still on the whole cleaner then most some of us have seen in the USA. Must be all the bathroom attentdants?

From the garden we got back on the train and since it was getting later moved on directly to the Temple Market (market on Temple Street) skipping the Ladies Market. After getting off the subway we were farther north then we thought and wondered onto a traditional market place that looked very similar to a city market in the US. We concluded this must be the distribution point for everything we were seeing in the shops and street stalls. It was late, so the area was being cleaned up, but you could figure out this a busy place by day and somewhere to avoid at night.

We made our way down to Temple Market where everyone was setting up a stand for block after block after block. You could again find all the things we've seen at stands before, but a few new things that made Janie and Lisa blush! Couldn't put those pictures on the blog, so see Janie and Lisa outside a stand.

About 2/3 of the way down through Temple market the gang stopped at a street food location (lots of people and tuorist) and got a beer and snack. The snack sounded really good "Fried Pork". In the street that means essentially fried pork fat, as pork can be any chunk of the pig (only bad food we have had here as everything else has been great).

David and Jeff pecked there way through the plate to

get any morsial of meat. The beer was cold and along with tiring feet and backs the break felt good.

During the little break we got a chance to see more of the locals and tourist busy getting their meals. This is a daily event. We learned that many people live in apartments that are not much bigger then a small hotel room. So they many times work late and come down into the city for eating. It is not like going out in the USA, this is part of the everyday life and the food is awesome (normally). Quite the city life for sure.

We then made our way back down to the bay to watch a light show that they do from the buildings every night and get a gorgeous view of the city skyline at night (cameras not good enough to do the view any justice). Every night at 8:00 p.m. they do a 15 minute light show with spot lights and lasers including background music. It was not as empressive as we expected, but still a neat thing to see, especially the night time skyline.

We then headed back to the subway and crossed under the channel to Hong Kong island. There David and Lisa found the bus stop back to Katy's and Jeff and Janie headed up the hillside to the Conrad. Suffice it too say it was a wonderful action packed day with all sore and tired. Bed was easy for us all this night. What a great start to our HK leg of the adventure. More tomorrow planned and we'll add som more pictures from J&J camera. You'll want to skim back through all the posts to see any pictures we have added.