Hester's Head

We arrived in Hong Kong in time for Chinese New Year's. This is my third time in Hong Kong and we have usually secured to a bouy smack dab in the middle of the harbour. Not this time - this time we were a mile or so outside the harbour. It might have been for our own safety as the New Year's fireworks were to be set off from a barge in the middle of the harbour. It also meant a 30 minute water taxi ride rather than a quick 5 minute ride. I didn't have a lot of plans for Hong Kong, but I ended up doing a few things and seeing a few things. Almost too many things.
Most Canadian ships arrange a visit to the Sai Wan War Cemetary with the Consulate. I had never visited it so I volunteered to go this time. I had also studied the fight for Hong Kong during World War II for my ILQ. There was a very small Allied contingent in Hong Kong as it was undecided whether to put enough forces there to defend it or to just provide a deterent. The Canadians, Indians, and Hong Kong Police lasted far longer than they were supposed to but they were still overrun. Many died during the fighting and many more died as prisoners of war in Japan.

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As you can imagine space is at a premium in Hong Kong. The Sai Wan Cemetary is set out very nicely along a hillside. Most other cemetaries are rows of vaults set on terraced hillsides. We conducted a very simple service with the Consul and his wife laying a wreath and our Commanding Officer and Coxn laying a wreath as well. The weather seemed perfect for the ceremony and I left feeling that this was the best thing I had done on the trip.

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After the bus ride back to the ship a few of us went for a walk looking for some shopping. I never seem to be in Hong Kong when anything is open. I'm not sure why that is, but this time it was because of the New Year's celebration. And this trip seems to be from one city with really tall buildings to another city with really tall buildings.

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We had dinner Ruth's Chris Steak House and then I called it a night. I had a room at the Marriott and the bed had seven pillows and a sweet duvet that I had to check out. I also had a big day planned for the next day. Three of us were going to go to Lantau Island to check out the world's biggest seated Buddha. It turned out to be a bigger day than we planned. We arrived on the island at noon - the Hong Kong MTR takes you everywhere - it'll get you to the Hong Kong Disneyland, the airport, most islands, even China (well, maybe not China - you need to take the KCR to get there - more about that later.) Cities with subways are great; the only thing about subways is that you don't get to see much while you are on them.
Anyway....
After arriving on the island we had some lunch and then got in line for the gondola ride to the Buddha. There was a sign that said the line-up was two hours long but we didn't believe it. It turned out to be the longest, windiest line-up ever. It was the solution to a maze. A left turn behind that building and back again, up an escalator, then more windyness. It was close to two hours before we got our tickets. Then we got in line to get on the gondola.

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That line-up was much shorter, but still long enough. The gondola was a good ride and had some great sights.

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But I would never do that line-up again. It felt like I had eaten a mass murderer for lunch and he wanted to come back up. Mike said that the only thing keeping him from killing people was that he didn't have an AK-47 and some hand grenades. It was agony. Next time I'll take the bus.

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There was a small village and some shopping where you got off the gondola. Took some pictures of the seated Buddha, some pictures from the seated Buddha, and some pictures of the year of the pig. There is a monastery near the foot of the hill that the Buddha sits on. You are allowed to tour the temples and wander around. Incense seems to be the biggest thing here.

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You can buy all the incense you want, as big as you want. You can buy incense 10 inches wide and several feet long.

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There was a Swallow Shop there where I planned (hoped) to buy some bird's nest stuff. Bird's nest is a type of bird's nest (bet you enver guessed that) that is made from the bird's saliva. 'Course I had to try it. I tried some of the bird's nest jelly - seemed ok. So I bought a mango and bird's nest drink and two chocolates. I tried the drink and now you won't have to. The bits of jellied bird's nest were awful. I mean terrible. Don't think of trying it. I was spitting the bits out. I haven't tried the chocolates yet. I have two - want one?
We took the bus back. No thanks to the gondola though the line-up is far shorter from the Buddha end. The bus ride turns out to be far better than expected. The bus follows a different route from the gondola - it follows the coast of the island and races up and down hills. The driver thinks he's driving an F1 car. I don't know how long these buses last, it's not an easy route for them to take. There are spots where the road is one lane wide and you have to stop and wait from the traffic from the other direction to pass. At one spot there was a cloud of smoke on the right. I was in the very back row and could see and smell the smoke. I looked down and expected to see flames shooting out from the brakes. At the next stop the driver even got out to check it out. It turned out to be ok and we made it (barely) back to the train stop. Our plan from there was to head to Kowloon and catch the New Year's parade. It was supposed to start at 8 so we thought we had missed it and decided to get some dinner. I saw a sign for Todai sushi, one of my favourite sushi places, but it turns out that it was no longer there. So we found a Korean place and had an awesome dinner. Our waitress was Jim and she was great too. A had some oxtail and white carrot soup. After some dinner we went walking and kept running into the parade. It turns out it started a few hours late. In our efforts to get to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a couple shot glasses we were turned back several times because of the parade. We finally gave up for a bit and shopped for some DVD's while we waited for the parade to end and the crowd to clear. We weren't able to see much of the parade except for a bit when they passed nearby on an overpass. We were finally able to get to the Hard Rock Cafe and I was surprised at how fast the clean up was taking place. It probably only took 30 minutes to clean the streets.
I was duty the next day, but I didn't mind as I was hoping that I would have the best seat in the house for the fireworks. The weather wasn't very nice for most of our stay in Hong Kong and it was at it's worst the last two days. I didn't bother taking any pictures of the fireworks - the cloud cover prevented us from seeing much other than some of the lower ones and the bottom half of some of the middle ones and the slightest glow in the clouds from the higher ones.
I had no real plans for the last day other than to wander around Hong Kong and maybe Kowloon. The craziest thing in Hong Kong is the bamboo scaffolding. I have a few pictures, here's one of a smaller building covered in it. I'll have a few more later.

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Hong Kong lives on a few different levels. There's street level.

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But there's also the subway below the streets. The connections to each subway station cover blocks of the city. You could probably walk at close a kilometre in any direction from the subway. There's also the elevated walkways. There aren't as many in Kowloon, but you can almost walk all of Hong Kong one floor above the street. I ran into one Buddhist monk who asked me for a donation. He gave me a small card and then a bracelet, had me sign his book and read his plea. Then he asked for a donation. Not just any donation, it had to be at least 100 Hong Kong dollars. What the hell? And he had his fingers on a $500 bill and was trying to yank that out of my wallet. Ten minutes later I ran into his cohort. It took me five minutes to extricate myself from that. He tried to give me the card - I showed him I already had one. He tried to give me a bracelet, I clutched my shirt so that he couldn't get it over my hand, he wanted me to read his plea, I said I already had read it. I patted him on the shoulder and tried to get away. Then the first guy shows up and I point saying I already donated to him. But the first guy said nothing, I finally pushed the second guy off and got away. That wasn't a good start.

I noticed this the last time I was here - on their days off the Filipina ladies get together where ever they can and kinda have a picnic. This is a picture of the bottom of the HSBC main building.

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The HSBC building is very cool - it is one of the most expensive buildings in the world. There is no bottom floor - you ride an escalator up into the first floor. There are mirrors, including one big one outside the building, that bring natural into and throughout. I took one picture standing beneath and looking up into the building but it didn't turn out very well. It wasn't open for me to go inside of course.

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I wandered around this area - one of the oldest in Hong Kong and saw a sign pointing to St Michael's Cathedral. This is the second oldest building in Hong Kong.

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I went for a tour here, it is a beautiful place and an amazing place. There is a small shrine that was saved from WWII that some prisoners of war had built from box lids, a cross salvaged from the trash and a jam jar to hold some flowers. There are no pictures to be taken inside, so I donated some money and bought some post cards. I then walked back to the Central MTR station and went to Causeway Bay. I took some effort and some directions to get on it, then I got on the wrong one anyway.

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I wandered around Causeway Bay. Saw some more cool bamboo scaffolding.

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And then had some lunch. I ate at a Japanese place that had abalone on the menu.

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It's far better than bird's next anything - I love abalone. I prefer abalone sushi, but this was a very good lunch. I can never remember why you can't get it in Canada or the US. Probably something to do with mercury levels or something.

And I finally found a Krispy Kreme doughnuts. After all my travels, and even searching for one, this is the first one I've ever run into. I had one of their standard glazed ones and a special one for Kung Hei Fat Choy. Not one of the red bean ones - I've had plenty of red bean things and didn't feel like I needed to have one at Krispy Kreme.

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One my way back to the MTR - through a completely different route no where near the exit I took to get out of the same station, I ran into this Love of Pigs. I think it was a combination of the year of the Pig and Valentine's Day. Don't quote me on that. I think the pigs were to be auctioned off later. Then I ran into another Krispy Kreme in the mall. My cup runneth over. (I didn't get more doughnuts)

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I then headed over the Kowloon. I thought of looking to see what they charged for iPods and do some other shopping around. I finally bartered one place down to a price that I was willing to pay and even paid for it when they told me that they wouldn't have any for two days. Did they know where I would be in two days? Too bad, because I wanted to know too. They were kind enough to rip up the receipt right there. Killed a millipede in the process too. There was a biggie that went running across the floor freaking everyone out. Those bastards are FAST! One guy was trying to catch it with a piece of paper. (I have no idea why - maybe he wanted it for dinner) but the guy I was dealing with saved the day and stomped on it. It stopped, seemed dead, but it certainly wasn't squashed. But it was still in place when I left. I took a picture of that too, but it was another one that was a bit to blurry to include. Sorry.

The New Year's celebrations never seemed to end in Hong Kong. A dragon dance could break out damn near anywhere at any time.

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I wandered around Kowloon a bit more. These last few pictures are mostly to show you the streets. More bamboo scaffolding, a Ferarri, etc.

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I headed back to the MTR and checked out about going to China. It was only C$6 and a 45-minute train ride. Every three minutes a train left for China.
But.....

If anyone asks I turned around and went back to the ship - The End.