Day Two in Hong Kong

Wednesday 19th June 2013.

A tiring but enjoyable day out and about in sunny Hong Kong.

Walked down to the Star Ferry pier (about 20 minutes from the hotel) and paid the princely sum of 2 HKD (about 80p) for the trip across to the Central Pier on Hong Kong island. Basic but efficient mass transit for pedestrians with two decks for passengers to get on and off. Another 20 minute stroll took me to the Peak Tram station and up I went. We built this 125 years ago and it is impressive. The angle of ascent is quite steep in places as can be seen in the third pic.

Whilst waiting for the tram I over heard a tour guide telling her punters that the best seats are the last three rows at the back on the right hand side so that's where I ended up. Any window seat on the right would have done and the views between the trees were great; pics 4 and 5

Once at the top I spent a pleasant couple of hours having a bite to eat and meandering about looking at the views from various vantage points. I have never taken so many pictures of skyscrapers before and probably never will again! Well worth a visit for the views but if you go take a hat or umbrella as potable shade.

At one point I was stopped by a young lad who handed me a leaflet advertising the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival that is being held from 21 to 23 June. I didn't know about it before and by pure chance I will be here for the first two days of it and the venue is just a short walk from my hotel! The lad mentioned that the leaflet also includes a voucher for a free beer at the San Miguel beer festival which is being held at the same time on an adjacent plot. This gets better and better I thought to myself and with a smile said that I loved beer so he gave me a couple more leaflets. His companion, a young girl, had wandered over during the conversation and I said to him that perhaps the young lady should give me some of her leaflets as well which she duly did with lovely smile. Happy days and 6 free beers await me on Friday or Saturday afternoon :-)

On the way back down I got a seat at the front and pic 6 shows another image of how steep the track is in places.

I walked back to central station and decided to take the underground back home to Kowloon. Another piece of excellent engineering we built. Huge underground complexes linking large areas that included the station and shopping malls. Built I suppose because of the shortage of land above ground and once I arrived at my destination station I walked for a good 10 minutes in air conditioned comfort before going up to the surface.

All in all an interesting day out on Hong Kong island :-)

R.

Peter mentioned bamboo scaffolding so here are a couple of examples with the first underneath The Peak building and second passed in the street yesterday with two separate bits. You wouldn't get me on either of them and the one hanging on the 12th or 13th floor looks decidedly dodgy!

Another low key evening ahead but maybe tomorrow I'll descend into the seedier side of Hong Kong and do some of the research that both Malcolm and Paul crave. Apparently Wanchai is one of the places to go although I won't be trying the dentist's chair.

Slater,

R

Wonder what they are selling....

... and how much it costs.