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Wednesday
October 24th, 2007 |
Hong
Kong, Sunny – Max:
31; Min: 24; Avg: 28 |
Even
though our room looked out over the extremely busy Nathan Road, we'd slept all night. After
breakfast we
walked along Nathan Road towards the Star Ferry terminal and took the ferry across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island. We eventually found the bus station and the bus to
Stanley and its famous market. We sat upstairs and enjoyed the bus trip past the
racecourse, over the peak, past the exclusive Repulse Bay and up towards Stanley.
The bus trip is a great experience - great views of Hong Kong island and
amazement at how the drivers manage to manoeuvre the double-decker bus along the
small roads.
The
market isn't anything special - just like any other market in Asia with clothes,
bric-a-brac and art in a nicely confusing maze of alleys running down to beach
front. We bought a couple of scarves, but that was about it. We bought lunch in a
beautifully assorted supermarket with freshly made sushi and sandwiches. We
walked along the cliffs and found a bench to eat it all.
The
beach was empty and the children enjoyed a dip before we in the late afternoon
took the bus back to Hong Kong Park, once the grounds of Victoria Barracks, now
housing a large greenhouse and an aviary with more than 800 birds. Unfortunately
we arrived 15 minutes before closing, so there wasn't a lot of time to see the
many multi-coloured birds.
We
left the park and headed towards St. John's Cathedral, the oldest Anglican Church in the Far East, and perhaps the only one with ceiling fans. We walked
onto the Peak Tram Station, opened in 1888 reducing the travel time to the top
of Victoria Peak from 3 hours (carried by chair!) to 8 minutes. The queue was long but
once at the top, the view over Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon was very
impressive - despite the smog over the city. It really is a steep climb and you
can feel yourself being pressed back on the way up and pressed forward on the
way down - the track is 1.4 km long with a gradient of between 4 and 27 degrees,
rising from 28m to 396m above sea level. We waited for sunset and saw the
lights turned on in all the buildings, which is just as impressive, before
taking the tram back down. Unfortunately we were together with a group of
Chinese tourists on the way down who evidently believed they had the right to
get off the tram first, no matter who stood in their way - small children
included.
We
walked back to the ferry terminal, sailed across to Kowloon and walked through
the gigantic shopping centre. We finally realised that the restaurants were on
the first floor - which made it easier for us to find somewhere to eat. We
walked back to the hotel enjoying the warm evening air, tired after a long day.
NEXT
DAY (25th)
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