Hong Kong

Our flight to Hong Kong left at 7:40 AM. We got up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time. We didn't go to bed until about 1 AM the night before, so we were all quite tired. Our final Taiwanese breakfast was something John put together quickly, but was still delicious: wheat buns eaten with dried fish powder, buns with taro filling, wax apples, jujubes, tangerines, and Asian pears.
Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful. I slept most of the way. The only high point was breakfast. We had fruit juice, a warm roll, and noodles with egg and ham. It was quite tasty. From the Hong Kong airport, we took a shuttle to our hotel, the Marriott Hong Kong Sky City hotel. The hotel was practically within walking distance of the airport. It just opened the week before. One of the benefits of a newly opened hotel is that the staff are falling over themselves to help you. We checked in early - around 10 AM, so they did not have the room we'd reserved available. To "help" us, the staffer put us into a deluxe suite on the top floor. Our suite had two rooms and two bathrooms! The bathroom in the living room had a toilet and sink - a powder room. The living room had a couch and some comfortable chairs with a flat screen TV. The bedroom had a king-sized bed and another flat screen TV. The bathroom had a bathtub and a shower. The shower had two heads: one conventional shower-head and one located on the ceiling above the shower. Everything in the room was high quality furnishings. The room also had a beautiful view of the harbor.

After freshening up, we took the MTR to Hong Kong station. Directly next to the station is the International Financial Center (IFC). The IFC consists of two skyscrapers and a mall filled with designer shops. The 2IFC is the tallest building in Hong Kong and the seventh-tallest building in the world. It is 415 meters tall and has 88 stories. In the IFC mall, we saw my favorite London sandwich shop, Pret a Manger. I insisted that we eat lunch there. I had a smoked salmon & rocket (arugula) sandwich and Scott had a Swedish meatball wrap. We also had a mango/passion-fruit smoothie and a package of chocolate chunk cookies. We both thought it was a good lunch. Scott approved of my love for Pret a Manger.



After lunch, we walked from the IFC to the Peak Tram station. We walked through Hong Kong's financial district. Next to the IFC is Exchange Square, home to the Hong Kong stock exchange and an impressive-looking building. Down the street is the HSBC building. Built in the 1980s, it is notable, because it has no internal support structure. It is supported by five exterior steel modules. Inside it is very open. You can see to the top of the building from the base.

L: The Exchange Building on the left, 2IFC on the right; R: HSBC Building

The Peak Tram station has a large cable car that takes passengers to Victoria Peak. The Peak is the highest mountain on Hong Kong island, at 1,810 feet. In the late 1800s, the Peak area became a popular place for wealthy British residents to build their homes. The path up the peak was so steep, that it could only be traversed by sedan chairs carried by local Chinese residents. The Peak Tram opened in 1888. It is a large cable car, holding up to 120 people, that runs on a 1300 meter track. The track is very steep - at some points it seems almost vertical - although the steepest part is really only 27 degrees. It takes about 7 minutes to reach Victoria Peak. At the Peak, are two shopping malls, mostly filled with cheap tourist junk.

The Peak Tram Car

We walked around the Peak Galleria for awhile and bought some cheap souvenirs. Then we walked up Mount Austin Road to the Victoria Gardens. Many expensive apartments are located along Mount Austin Road. We saw numerous Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, and BMW cars in the apartment garages. We even saw a Maserati. The Victoria Gardens were not particularly impressive. There were some pretty flower gardens and many people were there with their families and dogs. What made the Gardens impressive were the views - simply incredible. There were fabulous views of the harbor, of Hong Kong's Central district and the entire city.


R: 2IFC Tower

Tsing Ma Bridge

After taking lots of pictures of the view, we walked back to the shopping area and looked around the mall. We had a light meal of clam chowder, garlic bread, and a chocolate chip cookie sundae at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. I was a bit embarrassed to eat at a very American chain restaurant in Hong Kong, but the view made it worthwhile. We had a table next to a window that directly overlooked the city. It was gorgeous. We also spent a lot of the meal talking to two British tourists who were sitting next to us. They were on the first leg of a month-long trip that was taking them to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and Los Angeles. After dinner, we went up to the Sky Tower, located outdoors on the roof of the Peak Tower. The view was fabulous. Hong Kong at night is gorgeous. I took many pictures and a few turned out well. It was very windy and uncomfortable on top of the Tower, but I so enjoyed the view that we stayed longer than we would have otherwise.


There was a long line of people waiting to go down the tram. To prepare for the cold and windy wait, we bought hot chocolates from Starbucks. It helped some. We had planned on checking out some of the areas of Hong Kong known for nightlife, but were too tired. Instead we took the bus back to Hong Kong station and went back to our hotel. We had also planned on staying up most of the night to help prevent jet lag, but the hotel room bed looked far too comfortable. We slept from about 1 AM till 7 AM. I think we both fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. In the morning, we worked out at the hotel's fabulous exercise room. Each piece of exercise equipment had a TV attached to it. I walked the Phoenix (FBR) Open on TV while listening to my iPod.


Hong Kong Airport from window of hotel gym

We arrived at the Hong Kong airport around 9:30 AM. It was not crowded, so we passed through security and customs quickly. We ate breakfast at one of the restaurant in the food court. I had a delicious glutinous rice ball wrapped in a large leaf and filled with chicken and pork. Scott had a macaroni soup with ham and egg (he didn't think it was that great). And we split a pork/seafood congee dish.


Our plane left at 11:30 AM. Due to a tail wind, the flight was an hour shorter than our flight to Asia, about 14 hours. They showed four movies, Night in Rodanthe, The Duchess, Flash of Genius, and The Secret Life of Bees. I watched The Secret Life of Bees - quite good. The food was not very good. Our first meal was a roll, salad w/1000-Island Dressing, beef and potatoes, and some kind of berry/chocolate cake. Our "snack" was a ramen bowl with a lemon cookie. Our second meal was teriyaki chicken noodles (the chicken was awful) with a stale pastry/danish. Both Scott and I intended to sleep through much of the flight, but after our excellent sleep the night before, neither of us were very tired. Scott slept 5 or 6 hours, but I only got about 1 hour of sleep. As a result, once we got back to Minnesota, I was very tired. We went to bed around 8 PM.

Our trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong was absolutely fabulous. I can't wait to go back.