Hong Kong: Day 1!

We're in Hong Kong!

We got in late last night.  When we got to our hotel we were hungry so we walked outside to check out some of the restaurants... there was a sushi place and a oyster steak house and a bunch of places with seafood and noodle pictures out in front, but Dax found a falafel / pizza / indian food place called Ebeneezer's, so we actually had falafel and vegitarian pizza on our first night in HK!  Hahah, we'll get more adventurous as the trip goes on, but in the mean time, it was nice to have a familiar meal after a 14 hour flight, a train ride, and a slow cab ride through the extremely trafficked streets of Kowloon on a Saturday night.

Train Map From Airport

We're staying in Kowloon, which is across a narrow channel from Hong Kong island itself.  Tsim Sha Tsui, where our hotel is, seems to be the main shopping district of Kowloon (hehe, unless all of it is that way!).  There are blocks and blocks of Giorgio Armani, Channel, Burberry, Tiffany's, Rolex, all juxtaposed by flea-marked style hand bag and clothing shops in alleys and small storefronts.

We walked the short distance to Victoria Harbor today and caught the Star Ferry across the channel to Hong Kong central.  We tried to take a bus to the Peak Tram terminus, where we could catch the tram up the mountain, but we got on the wrong bus and ended up taking it all the way to the top of the peak.  It was fine though, because you only need to take the tram one way, and we took it down.

Dax took video on his new camera while we rode on the Star Ferry

At the top of Victoria Peak we ate sushi and admired the glorious view.  The average tall building in Hong Kong is taller and narrower than any building you'll see in San Francisco, but from the top of Victoria Peak, even the tallest buildings look like toothpicks!

Hong Kong from a boat on Victoria Harbor

At the bottom of the tram, we found the correct bus... a two-story open air short but wild ride through the narrow streets of Hong Kong!  I held on to my hat, it was such a thrill.  It also happened to take us right passed one of the most impressive Apple stores I've ever seen.  I needed a USB to ethernet adaptor for my Air, so we had the perfect excuse to check it out!  It was busy busy busy but the mission was accomplished in 10 minutes flat.  Ah, Apple... <3

Hong Kong Apple Store!

Done with our adventure, we walked back to our hotel, picking up some snacks on the way... yogurt,  cereal, milk, tea, oranges, and mango jellies... ate, watched "Hollywood TV" and passed the bleep out.  But whoops, it was only six o'clock!  Hehe, now it's 2am and we're wide awake.  Eek! Jetlag!

That's it for our first day of adventure in Hong Kong!