HKG Skyline

Although Hong Kong is not on my list of favorite cities, it does have one heck of a skyline. Here is a day view of the island from my hotel on Kowloon.

A couple of night views from my hotel room...

Night views from the place Tamura-san, Kimura-san, Patrick and I went to dinner one night.

The top of Victoria Peak gives the best views of the island, so one night I took the cable car up.
In the late 1800s there were 30-40 families calling Victoria Peak home and it was not extremely accesible. In 1888, the Peak Tram became the first cable funicular in Asia, extending 1,350 metres and connecting five intermediate stations.

Despite it being an overcast day, the views looking over Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were spectacular.

View of the backside of the Peak...all the cargo ships waiting to get into Hong Kong Terminal.

I think that view is a great way to say goodbye to Hong Kong...and on to India...!

Big Buddha

On Sunday I was off to Tian Tan Buddha. Getting there was half the adventure as Big Buddha resides on Lantau Island. To get there I took an hour ferry followed by a 45min bus ride, and to get back I took the cable cars to the metro. The Tian Tan Buddha was finished in 1993, is 34 meters tall, weighing over 250 tons, the statue is the biggest, bronze, seated Buddha in the world and one of the world’s top ten Buddha statues. There are gates and a huge bank of flags at the foot of Big Buddha's mountain and even a little "tourist village" with shops and restaurants.

Checking out the temple...

Onwards to the Buddha!

Bye Bye Buddha.

Next Stop Hong Kong!

Last time I was in Hong Kong it was only a couple days at the end of a work trip to Shenzen so I was only able to do a few of the highlights...the Star Ferry and Lan Kwai Fong....and not surprisingly those were my first stops on this trip! After dinner at what I would call "Little India" in Kowloon (read that as extremely authentic Indian food...apparently to prepare my stomach for my next stop on this crazy adventure). And then it was off to the Star Ferry to head over to Hong Kong Island. (Side note: In both my trips to HKG I didn't make it out for a ride on a junk....someday...someday).Post Indian feast it was off to Lan Kwai Fong. Patrick decided that the first stop would be for shots as the Ice Bar as a tribute to those very cold Chicago winters! After a very late night, I decided to head for dim sum at the Luk Yu Tea House. It definitely had the "old world China vibe" and was a good start to the day before heading out to the markets. I don't really get the concept of the markets...all the vendors for a particular product are right next to each other within the same few blocks. Doesn't seem like the best commercial/competitive concept, but it is quite a sight. First up was the flower market!

I loved all the orchid shops, so many varieties and so much volume.

Next was the Goldfish Market. Now, I've been to my fair share of Wisconsin state fairs, but I have never seen so many goldfish in one place. These weren't for winning though, they were for buying.

Then the Bird Market. This was pretty sad, all the birds in cages...especially with all the free ones flying around.

I'm not quite sure what the point was, but this lady kept rearranging the cages.

Then, I headed to the Jade Market...which did have a lot of jade, but had plenty of other jewlery as well.

Finally the Women's market which was full of all kinds of clothing, purses, pottery, etc. I had a hard time limiting myself to only a few purses! Then I was market-ed out and caught a picture of these men playing mahjong in the park which was a great change of pace from all the craziness of the markets.

Reunion in Shanghai!

I finished the vacation part of my trip by heading to Shanghai for a few days to see Kendrick and Gina, friends of mine from Copenhagen. The last time I had seen them was when we had overlapping trips to Dubai to see Virginie and Ceasar which included a trip to Oman together. Kendrick and Gina had been transferred to Shanghai for work and while there had an adorable baby boy named Magnus who I may or may not have been blog stalking for the past 6 months.
Sadly, Magnus and Gina were very sick so I had to keep my distance but it was great to finally meet Magnus and to catch up with Kendrick and Gina. I toured around Shanghai, hitting all the main sites…The Bund is a must, it is a long promonade along the east bank of the Huanpu River. It was an overcast day, but there were still good views looking across to the west bank at the Oriental Pearl Tower which is the world's third tallest TV and radio tower. I was in Shanghai on the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations and the YuYuan Gardens (from the Ming Dynasty) were filled with red lanterns, rabbits, and people!
I'm still not exactly sure what all these figures in the water were, but all the locals were entralled making it rather difficult to push my way through the crowd. Within the grounds is a tranquil inner garden which was a nice break from the crowds.

And then back out to the crazy cartoon rabbit decorations! Kendrick took me out for Shaghaiese food and it was delicious. He taught me the proper way to eat the sticky crab dumplings by first biting a little hole to suck out the broth - yum!Next up was taking in the city lights from the top floor of a Marriott....complete with gin and tonics, with cucumber slices. I think it was actually Kendrick who got me into drinking gin and tonics when we were back in CPH, so this was the natural choice for an after dinner drink...or two...before we headed for 90min massages. Amazing way to end the night, I almost fell asleep on the table!
The following day, Gina and I headed to Xin Tiandi whihc means "New Heaven and Earth." It is composed of an area of reconstituted traditional shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys, some adjoining houses which now serve as book stores, cafes and restaurants, and shopping. We had a great time browsing through the stores and enjoyed a fabulous lunch.

....and then it was off to Hong Kong!