On the first morning of our Hong Kong vacation, we woke up pretty early by vacation standards. I think it was like 7am, and I don't even wake up that early for school. Why? Our apartment bedroom had no curtains. Actually, you could even see directly into the office tower just across the road from us. Hope they got a good view of us in bed!
One of the best things about being up early is beating the crowds, and man were we lucky today! After dining on our chiffon cake breakfast, we headed to the Victoria Peak tram near Central Station. Victoria Peak is 1,811 feet high and is the highest point on Hong Kong Island. What that means is an awesome view- and the most popular way to get there is to go straight up on the tram. And I mean STRAIGHT up... the angle of the train as it climbs the Peak is so severe that you basically feel as if you're lying down on your firm wooden bench seat by the end of it. But check out that view at the top!
Of course, this is a major tourist attraction, so you're let off into a mall of souvenirs and restaurants AND a wax museum with Bruce Lee out front.
After getting some more breakfast (a chocolate croissant... mmm I love Chinese food) and buying a souvenir pack of erotic playing cards, we got on the tram and headed back down the Peak. When we got to the bottom we were shocked by all the people there waiting for the Tram. The line was stretched right out of the building! We'd walked right on to the tram an hour earlier, so we were already feeling thankful for those curtainless windows getting us up early.
Next up, we went shopping at Times Square and Causeway Bay before eating lunch at a little Vietnamese place in the alley behind Forever 21. Oh, and Jason and I bought lots of F21 sweaters to wear in this 40 degree heat.
Next we took a quick Star Ferry ride from Central back to Kowloon (where our apartment was), checking out the amazing skyline as we went. The ferry ride costs less than $1 and is definitely worth it!
After a day on our feet, we were ready for foot massages! We went back to the Temple Street area because that's where we'd noticed a lot of massage places on our last visit- plus our apartment was on Temple Street so we could drop our bags after. The street was decorated in little flags for the Lantern Festival holiday.
The fist massage place we went into was so sketchy, so we ran out of there and into this little back alley gem.
It was Jason's first ever massage, and it came complete with all the right Chinese compliments: "1, 2, 3 beautiful faces!" they said as they pointed at each of us. No shit.
We got some crappy Indian food for dinner, and then passed by this awesomely named tower on the way back to our apartment.
We planned to shop through the Temple Street Night Market on our way down to the Avenue of the Stars, but we got totally mixed up and wound up walking North through the market instead of South towards the water. We cut it kind of close, but we made it there in time (after locating an MTR), complete with our new purchases of headphones (this is how the transaction went- me: "How much?", her: "80", me: "20", her: "30", me: "25", her: "28", me: "26", her: *look of death* "...give money"), oil paintings (less than $8 a piece!), and touristy magnets.
We watched the Festival of Lights laser and light show on the same skyline we'd seen from the Star Ferry earlier in the day and a pirate ship even made an appearance.
As the crowd dispersed, we walked along the waterfront, which is called the Avenue of Stars" and is sort of like a Chinese "Hollywood Walk of Fame" with stars for all their big movie talent. Here's Le Tit's star.
JACKIE CHAN!
After stumbling upon a Mr. Softee ice cream truck, we headed back to our apartment after a long day of sightseeing and with an even bigger day ahead of us next, because the next day we were going to DISNEY LAND!!
To be continued...
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