Hangin in Hong Kong

19 Feb 2010 2 Comments

by penniesforfree in Uncategorized

Well, Jessica and I went to Hong Kong for the past five days during Chinese New Year. It was fantastic. Hong Kong is a lot like Taipei except a lot different too. It felt more like what I think New York city is like, a little dirty and rowdy and full of all kinds of different people. We had a room at the YesInn hostel on the island and mainly stayed in Hong Kong just touring about and getting a feel for the city. There’s so much to do and so much to eat. Dim Sum, a style of brunch where little little dishes such as shrimp and pork dumplings, barbecued pork puffs, fish balls (like meat balls), taro cakes, and so much more, come around on carts. It’s incredibly delicious. Although, I thought I would be tough and ordered the chicken feet and realized that I am not so tough after all. Let’s just say there are limits to my love of exotic food. Other food of note was at an Indonesian restaurant where I tasted the best curry I think I’ve ever had. Yum.

The longest escalator system in the world is in Hong Kong. It’s 800 Meters long, not as one escalator but in several chunks that run up the hill in the city. The entire city is built basically on the edge of these very large mountain like hills that run down to the water, so everything is very leveled. In fact the city is sectioned off into labeled levels. The escalator’s function is to give people living in the midlevels an easy walking commute to their downtown job. To that effect, it runs down in the morning until 10 am and then begins going up until midnight, letting people getting out of work ride back up. Naturally, a lively night life area has sprung up around this moving walkway. We stopped off at a place and had the best mojitos I think I’ve ever had. They had tons of mint, ginger and were just delicious.

Kowloon lies just across from Hong Kong. We spent a few days there too, exploring. There is a place called Chungking Mansions which is the setting for the movie Chungking Express and is a hostel and home to a plethora of people of different nationalities and is also a giant shopping center, much like everything else in Hong Kong.

Lantau Island was home to the Tian Tan Buddha, an incredibly large Buddha that we visited via glass gondola. The ride was very fun but the two and a half hour wait was not. The Buddha was incredible though.

Well be back to work on Monday and are preparing for interviews to get jobs in China after our contracts are up here.

Happy Chinese New Year,

Lots of luck

.

Josh

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