An Amazing Start in Hong Kong

After a seemingly endless day of travel and a disorienting amount of time on planes, we disembarked into the Hong Kong international airport, and proceeded to immediately get lost searching for our coach to the hotel. After a lap or two of the airport and a little more waiting we were driving (on the wrong side of the road) towards the city, which seemed to come out of nowhere and soon surrounded us on all sides. Although we had no idea what time it felt like to us, it was technically around 9:30 pm or so, and looking out the bus windows we were immediately transfixed by the sheer amount of lights coming from apartment towers and business buildings no matter where we looked out the window. It was Chinese New Years Eve, but by the time we made it to the hotel and checked in we were too exhausted to go out anywhere, and instead just called it a night.

The hotel wasn’t on the actual island of Hong Kong, but rather Kowloon, and out the windows on each floor, by the elevator, and in our breakfast room we had a view across the water at the skyline. We settled on Victoria Peak as the first thing to do: we all wanted to see more of the city and it would give us the best view there is. A short walk from the hotel took us to the Star ferry pier, where for something like 30 cents we crossed the harbor to Hong Kong, and wandered our way to the bus stop that would get us to the tram station. It was 65 and sunny, and we were all enjoying the gorgeous weather and beautiful city, already impressed. The line for the tram was intimidatingly long, but even standing in a cordoned off crowd was pleasant in the sunshine we’d been lacking back home. Once we made our way to the front of the line, we packed into a trolley car which began its ascent up the mountain, at some points tilting upwards at what must have been a 45 degree angle, and eventually clearing the tree line. When the other buildings and trees fell away we got breathtaking views of the towers of the city, painted in pastel colors and with countless uniform small windows. I felt like I was going to fall backwards through my seat, or maybe the whole trolley car would just start rolling backwards down the mountain at any moment, but we made it to the top.

Stepping off the trolley we wanted to find the viewing point outside, started to wander the huge building we were let off into, and promptly got lost. There was somehow a four or five floor mall at the top of the mountain, and we took all sorts of escalators up and down passing restaurants and souvenir shops trying to find the door out, before finally realizing it was right near where we’d been dropped off. It was windier at the peak, but still perfect weather, and we picked a path that looked like it would have good viewing spots along it, as the plaza we’d finally found had more stores and not the view we were looking for, and headed out. The wide walking trail had steep mountain on one side, and empty sky on the other, but there was a layer of trees and brush and a stone fence before that. There were all sorts of families, older grandparents being led by grown grandchildren, friends of all ages out for walks together, and we could hear a mix of many different languages from the people strolling or exercising on the path. We came to a junction, and couldn't locate the path we wanted to take to get to the gardens and viewing point, but saw a much smaller, more worn stone path leading up into the woods and decided that one seemed to be heading in the right direction.

The cost of a breathtaking view is a massive amount of stairs, and this was our first encounter with them. Old and worn, Governor’s walk (we came across a sign that finally confirmed we were on the right trial) was mostly small stone stairs and steep inclines that were much more overgrown by the trees and bushes, but it finally let out into the garden and the view we’d been waiting for. The burn in our legs was instantly made worthwhile as we looked out over the misty harbor, islands, and towering buildings which were muted by the fog. We wandered the stone expanse and the garden, blown about by the wind, and took in the sight. We finally decided it was time to head back down, and promptly got lost. Walking down the narrow road wasn't a good idea as we almost were run over by a taxi, and the other path we picked kept going uphill again, but finally we made it back to the plaza and grabbed noodles for lunch.

The trip back down the mountain was just as steep, and by the time we’d taken the bus and the ferry back to Kowloon we were exhausted. After a nap we made our way to dinner in the hotel restaurant, and then out onto the packed streets for the New Years Parade. Four rows back from the front, we packed in with everyone else and stood on our tired feet, watching the floats and different groups get ready to go. One by one they made their way past us, few and far between at first, marching bands playing renditions of pop songs, men doing tricks on bicycles, huge groups of kids dancing in matching uniforms, floats for banks and companies and Disney, and dragons and roosters galore. After a while we were too tired to keep standing and watching the excitement, and headed back to the hotel for bed.

The next day we headed back to Hong Kong by subway - I was immediately impressed by their gigantic and efficient subway system. No squealing turns or screeching stops like the T back in Boston, and this one station that could probably hold every station from the T inside of it, with room to spare. As directed by the hotel concierge we got off at the stop to lead us to the bottom of the longest escalator in the world. In reality it’s a series of more regular sized escalators, but they take you up part of the mountain Hong Kong is built on, in the middle of the city, over sloping roads reminiscent of San Francisco with their hills, Boston with their winding paths, and New York with their size. We took the first part of the escalator, and then walked a bit to Man Mo temple. Probably because it was right after New Years it was extremely busy, people were swarming in and out of the courtyard and the temple itself. Looking in the door everything was hazy, the smoke from the incense being burned was so thick, and the smell was intense. There were spiral shaped sticks of intense hanging from the ceiling, burning slowly, and dozens in the hands of all the visitors to the temple. People purchased the sticks from a counter, lit them on large candles in front of shrines on either side o the temple’s back wall, sometimes bowed, and placed them in large basins of sand, sticking up so they could continue to burn. The temple was beautiful inside, all red and gold and with intricate designs along the door frames and on the wood, and I smelled like intense for the rest of the day.

We then returned to the escalators, going all the way up this time, and then decided to walk to the Hong Kong zoological park. We were up higher on the side of the mountain now, and took spiraling cement paths down to the road we needed, beneath suspended roads curving through the air, and had more spectacular views of the city. The thing that struck me the most about how beautiful it was was the colors of all the building we were seeing. First of all they were all gigantic, and the amount of people even one could hold was mind boggling, much less the literally countless number of them that surrounded us, but they were painted in colors I’d never seen on high-rises in the US. Not just blue glass or steel or grey brick, they were pastel blue and green and pink and bright purple and light orange, and lots of the apartment buildings were similar in style. When we made it to the nature conservatory we saw some meerkats which were a hit, lemurs, a bunch of different birds, and then turtles which Charlie didn't like, and monkeys that creeped me out. We each just avoided a few exhibits, and then we headed back down all the escalators to our subway station. The glass doors slid open, and, exhausted, we started to try and find the station that let out right near our hotel, and promptly got lost. Hence why I’m pretty sure all of Boston’s T stops could fit in this subway station - I think we walked across all of it in both directions. But somehow we made it back to the hotel eventually, and out to a local Macanese restaurant for dinner. Charlie was feeling sick with a cold, so it was Hannah, Mr & Mrs Babson, and me, and we shared a bunch of delicious dishes.

Wandering around Hong Kong and Kowloon, I loved the way the city was bordered by so much nature, be it mountains or ocean, and overwhelmed by the size of it all. The city never seemed to end, the high rises went on so far in each direction, and each one was massive- the amount of windows in the city, of rooms and places and people, was mind boggling, and I’d love to come back here because theres no way we saw nearly enough in these few days. Everything we did see was gorgeous and fascinating and exciting, and an amazing start to our trip.