I went to Hong Kong for a weekend about a month ago. I realized that I didn't describe it in detail for the blog.
I flew by Dragon Air with 6 other teachers to Hong Kong's International Airport. We arrived around 1 a.m in one of the nicest airports I have ever seen. We walked through security and entered into a high-tech world. I saw the blurry images of other travelers as they walked past heat-imaging screens. The airport was huge. It had a tramway inside the airport to take people to the furthest gates.
We had trouble withdrawing money from ATMs. Our Thai bank cards didn't work. We had to use our leftover baht to get Hong Kong dollars in automatic money exchange machines. Luckily our cards worked the next day. We found out later that our bank freezes transactions for a few hours each day.
Hong Kong is not cheap. Eight Hong Kong dollars are worth about one American dollar. It's really not cheap when you earn a Thai paycheck. 40 baht equals one dollar. So many things are about five times as expensive in Hong Kong as Thailand.
We rode in two red, spacious BMW taxis from the airport to our hostel on Kowloon Island. It was a long ride. We rode over a bridge and there was almost no traffic. I shared a very cramped room with three other people. The bathroom was the size of a closet. And the elevators in the building were strange. One elevator went to even floors and the other went to the odd ones.
When I noticed bamboo used for construction, it reminded me of Rush Hour 2. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker go to Hong Kong and get into trouble again. In one scene, they find themselves holding onto collapsing bamboo scaffolding. I wondered how Hong Kong would feel. It would be different than the movies. Every movie about Hong Kong I've ever seen has some international crime lord in it and Jackie Chan kickin' some martial arts butt. There was no sign of the mafia or Mr. Chan. But I saw an ad for his statue in a wax museum on Victoria Peak.
I had a good breakfast the next morning. I ate rice dumpling filled with pork and an "ox tongue" donut. The donut was very long and greasy. It was too much food for breakfast.
First, we went to the Hong Kong Art Museum in Kowloon. We saw beautiful gold and jade exhibits that spanned many different Chinese dynasties. I liked the golden earrings and helmets worn by royalty. I also liked the jade statues of pigs, horses and especially dragons. And there was a very nice statue of an old wise man was supposed to bring long life. Chinese calligraphy has always been impressive to me. I never realized how many styles there were. Each calligrapher had his own style. Some drew in straight, quick strokes. Others drew long, twisting characters like snakes. I read that each style added new and different emotional meanings to the characters. Then we walked into galleries of Chinese paintings. Lin Jen-tong was a nature painter and a plum blossom fanatic. He drew them in green, red and white colors. Sometimes he put them in snow. Sometimes in streams. Other times he drew them with grand mountains behind them. A modern picture had Chinese junks (ships) in the harbour in front of the Hong Kong skyline. We rode across the real harbour in the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island.
We walked the steets of Hong Kong. It was very clean. We saw the Ribbon Market which had no surprises. Just ribbons. Other markets had silk clothing, tourist t-shirts, and fake Rolex watches.
Hong Kong Island is hilly and many streets are steep. To get anywhere in Hong Kong you have to go up or down. To deal with this problem the people of Hong Kong built the longest escalator in the world. It just keeps going and going.
We got off on Noodle Street and had lunch. A nice woman ordered for us in Chinese. We had some spicy beef soup with noodles.
I'll continue writing later.
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