xiangji (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} xiangji) wrote,@ 2006-06-29 22:15:00 |
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Hong Kong Trip, Part 1
I thoroughly enjoyed my week-long trip to Hong Kong. Let me start off by saying I love big, modern metropolises, so I would not recommend HK to just anyone, even though there's something there for everyone.
From Beijing, the entire trip easily cost me a month's wages and likely cost me a bit more than that. But that's about the same cost as a weekend trip to Vegas back home, so I think a six-day visit to Hong Kong was relatively affordable and very worth the trip. It was a mixed blessing that I couldn't access additional funds from back home; I felt restricted in what I could buy and how much I could buy, but had I had access, I would have blown a good chunk of it on stuff. After all, this week was HK's Shopping Festival. What a time to go!
Anyway, on with the photos and narration. I may end up updating in installments like my Huangshan trip.
Our hostel was f*cking dodgy. We knew we wanted extra spending money, so something had to take a hit, and unfortunately, it was our accomodation. There were bed bugs and dead bugs on my bunk; Dan claimed that the guys' dorm reeked of that fresh locker room odor. We contemplated upgrading to the private rooms since they were significantly better, but that wouldn't have helped our bathroom/shower situation. The restrooms--which I never wanted to photograph, even for documentation purposes--were functional, and strictly so. The mildew-covered shower curtains weren't as off-putting as the bugs and moths that would frequent the walls and floors. In the middle of my second shower, I was actually hit in the face by a confused moth. Aside from those conditions, we were located near the top of a hill which were frightening (at first) to drive up to. The narrow, winding roads made me carsick everytime we went up and down the mountain.
The hostel's sole saving grace was its spectacular view of the city. Every morning we would wake up with a view of Kowloon, Lantau, and the boats that smoothly cut clean, alabaster lines into the water with their speed. At night, we would return and spend a few hours sitting, chatting, and enjoying the ambient lights of the skyscrapers and Tsing Ma Bridge. Despite the incredible amount of light coming from the city, we were far enough away to see most of the major stars in the sky, something you can't really see from Beijing or Los Angeles. Some mornings and evenings, the view was so lovely, it broke my heart.
We planned nothing for our first day there, intending only to poke around the city and find interesting places that weren't mentioned in our travel guides. Naturally, we gravitated towards the cheap market stalls...
...where homeboy here made us fresh fruit smoothies (sans the ice, unfortunately). It was satisfying, especially since I'd been craving fruit for a week, and our smoothies were packed with vitamin C goodness.
The city was peppered with huge TV screens in the public areas, mostly covering the World Cup highlights. I wish I took a photo of one such World Cup moment. People would crowd around a screen to watch a game they had already seen the night before and knew the outcome of.
As I had mentioned briefly before in my personal blog, Hong Kong gets high marks for cleanliness. Signs like this were common enough, and people listened. Beijingers could learn a thing or two from Hong Kongers. People still hawked occasionally, but they'd hawk into a trash bin. You just can't appreciate these small gestures from the general public until you've seen other parts of China.
We took several ferry rides when going between Kowloon and the island. The regular ferry was only HK$2 (about 25 cents), and the hour-long star ferry tour was $40 and well worth it. This photo was taken from the tour boat.
We also visited the Avenue of Stars, which is similar to the one in Hollywood but with HK film stars. I took a couple of photos of these and wished I took certain other ones of stars I recognized. I'm touching Andy Lau's handprint in this one.
This is another one of those breathtaking views that suffered from my camera's mere 3-megapixel quality. Professional and amateur photographers lined the Avenue to take night photos.
Another thing that had to take a financial hit was the food. This was one of the better meals we had here, which was about HK$30 (US $3.75).
Dan's action shot.
One of our best meals was promptly followed by our worst.
To be continued with more exciting and thoughtful commentary!
I thoroughly enjoyed my week-long trip to Hong Kong. Let me start off by saying I love big, modern metropolises, so I would not recommend HK to just anyone, even though there's something there for everyone.
From Beijing, the entire trip easily cost me a month's wages and likely cost me a bit more than that. But that's about the same cost as a weekend trip to Vegas back home, so I think a six-day visit to Hong Kong was relatively affordable and very worth the trip. It was a mixed blessing that I couldn't access additional funds from back home; I felt restricted in what I could buy and how much I could buy, but had I had access, I would have blown a good chunk of it on stuff. After all, this week was HK's Shopping Festival. What a time to go!
Anyway, on with the photos and narration. I may end up updating in installments like my Huangshan trip.
Our hostel was f*cking dodgy. We knew we wanted extra spending money, so something had to take a hit, and unfortunately, it was our accomodation. There were bed bugs and dead bugs on my bunk; Dan claimed that the guys' dorm reeked of that fresh locker room odor. We contemplated upgrading to the private rooms since they were significantly better, but that wouldn't have helped our bathroom/shower situation. The restrooms--which I never wanted to photograph, even for documentation purposes--were functional, and strictly so. The mildew-covered shower curtains weren't as off-putting as the bugs and moths that would frequent the walls and floors. In the middle of my second shower, I was actually hit in the face by a confused moth. Aside from those conditions, we were located near the top of a hill which were frightening (at first) to drive up to. The narrow, winding roads made me carsick everytime we went up and down the mountain.
The hostel's sole saving grace was its spectacular view of the city. Every morning we would wake up with a view of Kowloon, Lantau, and the boats that smoothly cut clean, alabaster lines into the water with their speed. At night, we would return and spend a few hours sitting, chatting, and enjoying the ambient lights of the skyscrapers and Tsing Ma Bridge. Despite the incredible amount of light coming from the city, we were far enough away to see most of the major stars in the sky, something you can't really see from Beijing or Los Angeles. Some mornings and evenings, the view was so lovely, it broke my heart.
We planned nothing for our first day there, intending only to poke around the city and find interesting places that weren't mentioned in our travel guides. Naturally, we gravitated towards the cheap market stalls...
...where homeboy here made us fresh fruit smoothies (sans the ice, unfortunately). It was satisfying, especially since I'd been craving fruit for a week, and our smoothies were packed with vitamin C goodness.
The city was peppered with huge TV screens in the public areas, mostly covering the World Cup highlights. I wish I took a photo of one such World Cup moment. People would crowd around a screen to watch a game they had already seen the night before and knew the outcome of.
As I had mentioned briefly before in my personal blog, Hong Kong gets high marks for cleanliness. Signs like this were common enough, and people listened. Beijingers could learn a thing or two from Hong Kongers. People still hawked occasionally, but they'd hawk into a trash bin. You just can't appreciate these small gestures from the general public until you've seen other parts of China.
We took several ferry rides when going between Kowloon and the island. The regular ferry was only HK$2 (about 25 cents), and the hour-long star ferry tour was $40 and well worth it. This photo was taken from the tour boat.
We also visited the Avenue of Stars, which is similar to the one in Hollywood but with HK film stars. I took a couple of photos of these and wished I took certain other ones of stars I recognized. I'm touching Andy Lau's handprint in this one.
This is another one of those breathtaking views that suffered from my camera's mere 3-megapixel quality. Professional and amateur photographers lined the Avenue to take night photos.
Another thing that had to take a financial hit was the food. This was one of the better meals we had here, which was about HK$30 (US $3.75).
Dan's action shot.
One of our best meals was promptly followed by our worst.
To be continued with more exciting and thoughtful commentary!
