Steve's Day 2 - The Peak

(Steve)

Day 2 wasn't so much a full day as an afternoon - we spent the entire morning trying to keep from collapsing and never getting back up. Finally, though, Jill came by to tell us that her friend Neil had an apartment with a great view of the fireworks so we were going to go over there for dinner. Then we decided that since we weren't doing anything else we might as well go over a bit earlier and he'd show us around. When we got to his apartment, there was a lion dance going on. I could be wrong, but I think it's supposed to keep evil spirits from entering the building where it is performed. Unfortunately, we were a little late, so we missed the really cool semi-acrobatic part. The drumming and the giant fuzzy lion-puppet were still pretty cool though.

When the dance was over, Neil brought us for a short walk. We went through a little zoo which, surprisingly, was free. That was nice. And the jaguar was cool. No pandas though, which made me sad. We also got to go in a little temple, which seemed somehow out of place next to the 40-storey Hong Kong buildings. Finally, we decided to take the tram up to Victoria Peak, even though it was way too misty to see anything. Neil bought us the combined tram/Madame Tousseauds' tickets so that we could skip the line. Madame Tousseauds' was a lot of fun; I was very happy to see Indiana Jones there, and getting my picture taken with Ghandi was definitely worth it. Candice was really excited about getting a picture with Jackie Chan, but she would have had to pay for it - fortunately, she'd gotten her picture with the Jackie we'd seen at the ticket counter.
The girls did some shopping while we were up at the peak, and we got to see the completely-white view of the mist, and then we started the walk back down. Our calves were not happy with us the next day. Eventually we made it, though, but because of the mist the view from Neil's apartment wouldn've have been so amazing. We decided to go back to our hotel, and Neil saw us off from the MTR station (Thank you so much for everything, Neil!) We had dinner at TGIF's, and when we came out the street near our hotel was packed. We were just trying to figure out how to get through the crowd when the fireworks started. There was a utility structure in my way, so I went with my first instinct: get on top of it. I guess I started a trend; by the end it wasn't just our group up there, but also a family and several children who had been lifted up by their parents. I'm still happily surprised that we didn't get in trouble for it; back home that would have gotten us arrested. It was a great view though, and I got some impressive pictures (my camera actually has a fireworks mode? What?) I was sad when the fireworks ended, and a little surprised because it was still so early and so light out. Still, our second full day in China was a success. *End Day 2*