Dang, I love Hong Kong! I left Seattle bound for Hong Kong through Tokyo on Thursday afternoon in the midst of the high wind storm that was approaching over the Olympic Range. Already there were some high gusts in Seattle. I really didn’t want to be delayed by these winds; I was more than ready to return to the East. We took off with warnings of turbulence from the pilot. It was really nothing though and soon we were cruising high above the cloudy Pacific. I landed in Hong Kong at nearly 11pm local time and arrived at the Shangri-La some time after midnight. What a relief to step into this hotel after my stay at the unnamable extended stay hotel in Redmond. OK, it’s not that bad, but the Shangri-La is one hundred times better and twice the price. This time, I took only half an Ambien and went to bed; it was around 1:30am.

I awoke at 7:30 fully rested and completely adjusted. I couldn’t believe how good I felt. I had zero jet lag effects and I still do as I write this some three days later. What did I do differently? I slept a little more on the plane – about an hour from Seattle to Tokyo and for most of the flight, about four hours, from Tokyo to Hong Kong. I also drank a lot of water.

After a superb western breakfast in the restaurant, I returned to my room to catch up on some emails. I then checked out, leaving my luggage with the concierge, and started walking along the edge of Victoria Harbor and the Avenue of Stars towards the Star Ferry Terminal, Octopus card (the Hong Kong mass transit card) in pocket. It was 11:30.

Huan Huan is one of the characters of the 2008 Olympics

Dragon in Kowloon

It was a great day to be out and about so I headed to the main island intent on taking the Peak Tram to the top of Victoria Peak for some birdseye views of the city. I’d never done that before. As I walked along the water, I watched for the Indians looking to tell my fortune. Sure enough, more than one approached me along the way. They have a keen eye for spotting Westerners and sauntering casually up to them and starting their magic routine. I saw an Indian leaning against the railing, casually eyeing me. He lazily lifted himself up and casually wound his way through the crowd to approach me. “Sir, you are very lucky.” A wave of the hand and I kept walking. I hopped on the ferry bound for the central district of Hong Kong. Once there, I lazily wended towards the Peak Tram. I was so glad to be back in Hong Kong, I must have had a smile on my face the whole time.

Inside the tram and the rice bowl

There was a big line waiting to hop on the cable tram. I chatted a bit with some other foreigners while in line. I had checked the weather a couple of days before leaving for Hong Kong and decided that the forecast was good enough to make a trip to Victoria Peak for some pictures. It was a little hazy, of course, but the views would still be good. The cable car climbs steeply up the mountain and only takes a few minutes to arrive at the top. The station is a small shopping center with an observation deck. It’s shaped like a rice bowl! It’s about $2.60 to go to the observation deck, but it’s not any better than the view from the windows on the lower floors. Here are some pics.

Views from up high. The picture on the right is a summit I want to hike to, to the west of Victoria Peak.

I wandered some more to a larger shopping center behind the rice bowl. I’m not a shopper at all, but I came across a quality item at the Hard Rock store. Check it out (below). I asked if the guitar was for sale. It wasn’t (like I would really buy it). I found another shop with some interesting little souvenirs. I’m a lousy shopper, but I found some good stuff and bought it. I won’t give the surprise away here though.

One of Yngwie’s axes

Another thing I didn’t realize was that Halloween is popular in China. I guess that’s not as surprising as some of the other holidays that the Chinese have marketed for commercial purposes. The funniest has to be Easter; hardly anyone knows what it really is.

I wanted to walk down Victoria Peak, but I’d bought a return ticket and it was only good for the day. I thought maybe I could come back in the coming weekend for some night shots with the unused ticket. But, no, I took the train back down and then wandered some more among the narrow streets and alleys. I was also looking for a neat church I’d remembered seeing. I couldn’t find it this time. Next time. I found the Central Station and dropped down to catch the subway back to the Shangri-La where I was to meet a driver to go into mainland China. I met the driver right at 4pm and collected my luggage.

I tried to speak Chinese to him during the ride and it was at this point that the reality of my language skills hit me like a splash of water to the face. I’d forgotten a lot of vocabulary! So, I’ll be calling my Chinese teacher soon to rectify the problem. One of my goals while in China is to become fluent in Chinese. I know I can do it if I can just keep disciplined in my study and practice. My hypothesis is that Chinese has a steep learning curve, but once you’re about to crest the hill, the learning should really accelerate. If I can ever master the tones, I’ll be good. We passed many huge apartment buildings and again I was in awe of the quantity of people living here. Undoubtedly this is the most populated spot on earth, but the traffic was better than Seattle on most days. This part of Asia has 100 times the population and 1/100th the cars. Don’t think that there are never traffic problems though; just not as common.

Just a few apartments ’round town

We crossed the new beautiful white bridge, which was under construction when I left, over Shenzhen Bay and into mainland China…