The view of Hong Kong from the Peak.

Hong Kong was quite an experience, since Jane beat me to posting our itinerary, I get to post random stories.  We took time to do a couple things that my Mom and Dad suggested.  We ate at the Spring Deer restaurant which my Dad suggested, and it was delicious, although I had to duck my head in parts to get through the door an up the stairs.  A really good set of flavors, focusing on the ‘savory’ taste.

Outside the Spring Deer restaurant.

We also had drinks at the top of the Peninsula hotel as my Mom suggested, in a bar now called Felix.  Way too posh for my tastes, and they quickly identified that we were not their standard client.  Maybe it was my ratty travel pants and windbreaker.  They gave us the bill after one drink, as a kind of “When you are done with that, you can leave” gesture.  The view was quite good from up there.

Even got the waiter to take a picture, probably to help get us out of there.

One thing I don’t get about China is the pushing and crowds.  We had to wait for a good amount of time for the Peak Tram to the top of whatever Peak it was.  I have to say, it irritates me to have the all the Asians and Indian looking folk cut in front of me if given the opportunity.  I end up having to throw my weight around a little and use my frame to block them out like I was playing basketball.  I guess in countries that have such high populations they don’t even notice they are bumping into one another anymore as they are just so used to it.

The crowd waiting for the Tram.

At the top of the peak, I expected an experience very similar to what was on top of Table Mountain in Cape Town.  Nope.  I was wrong, it was a little mini city up there, in which we had to buy a second ticket to get to the viewing area.  Paying to get to the Peak of the mountain wasn’t enough, you must pay extra for the view. These people really know how to capitalize on the experience, its just not my cup of tea.

Even at the top, surprised there wasnt a 7-11.

As Jane said, the waterfront skyline here is awesome.  There are really crazy shaped buildings that are huge.  Every night they do a free lightshow to music that happens on both sides of the Bay/channel, so regardless of which side you are on you can see a lightshow on the other side.  I can’t even imagine the amount of coordination that took to pull off.

The lightshow on the harbor.

A cool building in HK Downtown.

They have a little ‘Walk of Stars’ here like Hollywood.  With stars on the ground for chinese actors like Connie Chung, Bruce Lee and Chow Yun Fat(sp?).  It happened to be Bruce Lee’s birthday(I think) when we were there, and they have a large statue of it.  I took a HDR photo of it and cheesed it up quickly, will make it better when I get home.

The juice kids rock. Bruce Lee.

Jane and I went to Stanley beach to check it out, and we had a nice little meal in the very western feeling shore restaurants.  We walked through the street market, which every town seems to have and found a little beach section.  Washed up on the beach, was a dead puffer fish and this outboard motor.  I thought it was pretty random that an outboard motor is just washed up on the beach.  I mean, I think there would be some kind of valuable parts to salvage from it.  I have seen people selling everything in the markets.

Motor on the shore.

There is a tremendous amount of 7 11s here.  Just about every other block has one, its amazing.  I went into one, and it even sold SUSHI!  Ugh, no way I was going to eat that.