Hong Kong Day 1

by Brianin Hong Kongon Posted on

hmmmm…. Hong Kong and Macau…. I have to say, I didn’t know much about either place before deciding to go, which made this purely a sightseeing trip.  I wanted to burn some leave before starting my new job and after finally getting my leave approved (sore subject) I had a little more than a week to plan everything.  Plane tickets were relatively cheap and the flight was not long at all (<$500 & <5 hours).  I don’t think I was quite prepared mentally for this trip, which added a different element of surprise when I got there, but in the end I think I left pretty satisfied.  

Woo! made it
Train system was pretty easy to figure out, airport express took me straight to Hong Kong station near my hotel. Bought a round trip ticket which stayed good until I took it back to the airport a week later.
The no eating/drinking signs are in a lot of public transportation places I noticed so good to know if you don't want to pay fines!
Supposed to have a free shuttle included with my train ticket and I saw that it drops off at my hotel so I waited... and waited... at least 40 minutes.... could have walked to it faster than that, but live and learn.
Holiday Inn Express SOHO... electricity is different!
Man Mo Temple... again, I'm not very religious so I go just to look and see... first stop since it was right up the street from the hotel.
Very cool and different inside...
Side streets
One of the things all the guides say is to check out Victoria Peak so I thought it'd be a good idea to do it on the first day at sundown so I could get a good overview of the city and where I'd be going the next few days.... the line was VERY long.
The car that takes you up to the lookout. People will literally shove their way into the car so they can get a window seat facing the town on the way up....
It's a pretty steep climb... hold onto something if you're standing!... On a side note, selfie sticks were never more annoying than on this trip.
Get up to the top, go through the mall a couple floors more and then you reach the lookout area.
Looking at the back side
Hong Kong (near) and Tsim Sha Tsui (far)
Pretty awesome at night.
I guess that IFC building is supposed to be located at an acupuncture point of the world??? Which is why it's shaped like a bunch of needles.... or so the free audio guide says... haha I'm such a tourist here.
I have to admit, my first few hours in Hong Kong kind of got on my nerves, with the heat, crowds, rudeness.... but then this place and view calmed me down and I was able to reset my mind and accept it for what it was. Once I changed my mind, I was able to enjoy the following days much more easily.
After I had my fill of the night view from the lookout, I waited in another long line to take the car back down the hill, then walked down to the waterfront from there.
A few of the more famous buildings.... hey that's the building Batman jumped off of! The lights on the buildings really are something else....
Lung Wo road... I think
I guess the taxis are colored differently depending on the areas they serve... here they're all red obviously. These are coming from the ferry terminals near by.
Mid-Level escalators! Something like, the longest stretch of escalators in the world? And I guess there was some love story about a couple who met while riding them.
Notice they only function in one direction at a time
The escalators do go through a few lively streets at night
Getting to the top of the escalators was pretty anti-climatic... so I took a picture of these rubbish cans... I don't see them in many places and most of them are all unorganized and overstuffed so I'm not sure how much use they are....
I guess the SOHO area has a lot of foreign restaurants (and foreigners) which is not what I came to Hong Kong to see so, not yet knowing many popular restaurants, I walked around for a bit trying to find something that seemed more local.
First real meal, just at a random restaurant called Double Happiness, both spicy and tangy and pretty darn good. Walked around a bit more after eating but was pretty tired for a first day so headed back to the hotel.
Exchange rate was about 7.5:1... so a drink wasn't really any cheaper/more expensive generally speaking. This trip in particular I had issues converting money in my head for some reason... maybe it was the lack of planning and mental preparation?
Can you spot all the missing floor numbers?

To be continued!

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