Hong Kong in a Day

Last updated on April 4, 2010

I spent a day in Hong Kong on December 18, 2007. Hong Kong was a fun change from Khartoum, with its skyscrapers combined with street markets, a large variety of restaurants, and small spaces. It’s definitely a place for luxury shopping from Gucci, Prada, Dior, etc., rip offs and midrange items. Given my short time frame in HK, I packed my day with activity.

The day started off with shopping on Nathan Road. The rest of the day went by quickly with a quick visit to Granville to apply for a visa for China, dim sum with some local Baha’is, a ride on the Star Ferry to Central, a bus ride to the Victoria Peak tram, a tram ride to Victoria Peak, sightseeing at Peak Tower, shopping at Peak Galleria and finally, dinner with Ethan and a couple friends of his at one of the restaurants along the harbor.

Meeting up with Ethan was the highlight of the day. Ethan and I hadn’t been in the same place at the same time in 7 years! Yuetai and I studied together in university. I hadn’t seen him since he went off to Stanford in 2001. I’d meant to visit him while he was working in Japan but hadn’t made it. I would be visiting him in Shenzhen in about a week but he was in HK that do we we met up for dinner. The interesting part of dinner was the ice cream sundae with green tea flavoring and red beans. I tasted it but it wasn’t really my idea of dessert, and it came before dinner. I stuck to my main course of egg and crab on rice.

The tram steeply climbs about 400 m to Victoria Peak. Thick plant growth frames the rails in path while huge boulders that you can reach out and touch do the same in other spots. The tram stopped a couple of times to pick up passengers along the way. Anyone looking at my face would see only my silly grin of pleasure. It was had not to share the enthusiasm of the two little girls sitting ahead of me who were laughing in excitement. I’m sure that my face gave no indication of my struggle not to imagine what would happen if the train plummeted down the tracks. It was a passing thought thankfully.