And That's All She Wrote
06/28/2007
It was love at first site. I knew as we came across the bridge from the airport and caught a glimpse of Hong Kong that it would steal my heart. I was not disappointed (if only I had such luck with men!). Maybe it was the fact that it was the first time I'd seen blue sky since I left Singapore, but something about the city captivated me. I had a distinct feeling that at some point in my life, I would live in Hong Kong. For the time being, I had to settle for three days.
Hong Kong is made up of an island, a peninsula, and what supposedly has been ranked as the third most beautiful harbour in the world (after San Francisco and Sydney - though I'd say its a pretty even tie between the three). Both sides of the harbour are hilly and green - though parts of some of the hills have been cut away and used as landfill to add additional shoreline (much like San Francisco).
Each side of the harbour is lined with shiny new skyscrapers, many designed by world class architects like I.M. Pei and Cesar Pelli. At night the buildings are lit up like Christmas trees, and at 8pm each night there is a laser show. I tried to get pictures from the boat our first night - but for some reason couldn't get the camera to take a focussed shot. I do however kind of like this one that I took from my hotel room - as you can tell from the reflection!
Our first night we took a boat to a nearby fishing community where local restaurants were displaying their catch. Every kind of imaginable seafood was available (and some you might not imagine) - and we got to pick out our dinner for the night. Ironically, I'm writing this blog entry with the tv on mute, and just looked up to see a headline that said "US Bans Chinese Seafood" - apparantly because of contamination. Lovely. Either way, it tasted great at the time.
Other highlights included a tram ride up to the top of Victoria Peak which had stunning views of the city. My father and I also took a helicoptor tour of Hong Kong Island and the harbour which was really cool (Uncle Mark, I finally got a picture of the boats for you!). This last part of our trip wasn't as jam packed with activities as the other cities, so we had a lot of time to walk around and explore the city on our own, which is always my favorite way to get to know a place. Finally, before I left on Wednesday, I had lunch with Anthony, another one of my future Stern classmates.
All in all - it was an amazing trip. My parents and I didn't kill eachother. In fact, I think its even safe to say we enjoyed travelling together. And the only thing that went wrong was the disappearance of my camera in Phnom Penh. This was my first trip to Asia, but it definitely won't be my last.
Now I'm back to reality in San Francisco - preparing for the move to New York (so if anyone reading this would like to buy my car or rent me an apartment - please let me know!). Thanks to everyone who's read this blog and provided commentary along the way - I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!
If you haven't gotten enough photos already - you can check out the rest at the following links. Be forewarned, I've editted out a bunch, but its still a lot of pictures.
Posted by jme75 10:52 PM Archived in Hong Kong Comments (0)
