Sunday: a play by play

Sorry it's been a couple days...things have been more than busy.

Started out the day on Sunday with a walk to the train station around 9ish going to Hong Kong Islans. We hopped on the train (more like the subway), and headed over to Repulse Bay to check out the beach. Most of our way over there, it was a beautiful day...then all of the sudden (10 mins before we got there), the sky fell out and a monsoon began. Perfect timing.

The rain subsided a few minutes after we arrived (hid underneath a building), and we (Josh and I...Ka Wai had a bunch of errands to get done) took a little stroll on the beach...kinda boring. The scenery was really beautiful, little islands out in the distance, mountiains on the side...cool stuff, but fairly underwhelming.

Hopped on a bus and headed over to Hollywood Rd. (they just copy everything from us!) to check out the antique shops for a bit. I'm much too broke to be purchasing anything, but I did think of my dad (he loves that kinda junk, hah.) Man Mo temple wasn't too far away so we figured we'd check it out. One bit of advice for any of you who would ever want to visit a Buddhist Temple: bring some visine and learn how to hold your breath for long periods of time. Why you may ask? Incense coming out the ying-yang! (See what I did there?) The temple was pretty neat though, lots and lots of fruit and vegetables on the tables being given as offerings. Buddhist people pray in a very unique fashion, they rock back and forth with an incense stick in their hands.

Josh and I strolled over to the escalator in SoHo which were pretty cool. This escalator (well, escalators...it's broken up a little here and there), is the longest covered escalator in the world. It goes all the way up the side of the moutain, and thank goodness it does because that sucker is STEEP! Soho is great, lots of shops, restaurants, bars, etc...but shoot, if you were blindfolded and plopped in the middle of Soho, you'd think you were in the US for sure! There was absolutely nothing chinese about this place at all! Furthermore, Hong Kong in general is VERY westernized. There is a 7-11 or a Circle K on ever street corner, shell is where you get your gas, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Armani, etc. flood Nathan Road and the list goes on. I'm glad that I came to Hong Kong before heading off to SE Asia as it's a great transition from the western world into the more unfamiliar terrain of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

We began to get a bit hungry, so we stopped into this little ec0-friendly cafe just next to the escalator. This place was awesome! Granted, all of the food was vegetarian, but the food, music, and overall atmostphere was really great. I had a sandwich with sprouts, tomatoes, cucumber, tofu bacon, etc. along with a salad and some sweet potato fries. Sounds weird, but it was awesome!

Josh was craving a beer, so we stopped in a pub just in time to watch the US take the gold against Spain in Men's Basketball! It's pretty hot and humid here, so a cold beer hit the spot.

After the game, we walked a good mile or so to "The Peak" tram station. If you were to google "top things to do in Hong Kong", you're guaranteed to find this at the top of any list. You get on a tram (after waiting in line for a good 30-45 mins and being pushed and shoved by obnoxious people from mainland China), before getting on a tram that takes you for a 10 minute ride up Victoria Peak. When you arrive, you're let off in the middle of a shopping mall (go figure), where you have to go up 6 flights before reaching the rooftop deck. WHAT A VIEW!! From there, I was able to see all the skyscapers of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbor, Kowloon, etc. Don't worry folks...I took several pics, and as soon as I get the chance to upload them I will post them. We spent a good 20 minutes or so before taking the tram back down.

Josh really wanted to check out Lan Kwai Fong (HK's version of Burboun St. if you will), so we got another beer at Hong Kong Brew House. I had Hong Kong Beer and it really, really sucked. Oh well, you win some you lose some. It was beginning to get dark, so we made a mad dash to the ferry to get back over to Kowloon in order to catch the light show put on by the buildings on Hong Kong Island.

The show was spectacular! The buildings all light up in sync with the music that it being played all over the harbor; pretty amazing. I took a video of this, but it just doesn't do it any justice. My favorite building was AIG, they really go all out with their light design. The building that was featured in "Batman: The Dark Knight" is actually the International Financial Center (IFC) and didn't do all that much for the show...but the building alone is totally rad. I wanted to go inside it, but we just didn't have the time to trek all the way over there.

Following the light show, Josh and I were pretty starved. Ka Wai told us about this really good sushi restaurant just off Nathan Road, so we headed there. I have never been to a sushi train restaurant before, so that was pretty cool. Basically, there is a "treadmill" that goes in front of the entire sushi bar with different varities of sushi and you just pick them up and try them as you wish. If you want something else, you simply tell the chef and he takes care of it for you. I pretty much gorged myself, as I'm not sure that I'll ever eat sushi that cheap again in my lifetime. I had TONS of food and it only cost me $15 usd! I thought they were going to have to roll me out of there, but somehow I managed.

Next stop was the Temple Street Night Market...just 7 or 8 blocks away. A few days before we visited "The Ladies Market", although I'm not sure why they call it that...it's got stuff for everyone. Anyway, all these markets carry the same crap for the most part. Anyway, at this new market I bought a pair of sunglasses for my upcoming trip, as I don't want to bring a nice pair with me (thanks again, Heidi.)

By this point, it was 11ish or so...talk about a long day! We caught a bus back to Ka Wai's house a crashed hardcore.