Thursday, April 1, 2010

Hoo Kares (Hong Kong - Monday, March 2010 - Wednesday, April 1,2010)

**This post is unfinished. Check back later for photos.
Kevin and I arrive in Hong Kong Monday night and took the super cheap direct airport rail line to the free bus to our hotel, The Salisbury YMCA (in Kowloon). The room was way bigger than I expected. Other than the bathroom fixtures being crowded together, it was a normal western room (there was room for our bags on the ground as well as walking space).

We get up late the next morning, grabbed breakfast at a Starbucks (a break from dumplings and buns was ABSOLUTELY necessary), and hop on the 30 cent ferry from Kowloon to HK to get our visas for mainland China. This is where traveling with Kevin really comes in handy. I was studying for the MQE a lot right before the trip so Kev was awesome and basically figured everything out for the trip. He found out that instead of driving to LA before we left, we could get visas here in HK and have them be ready in time. Does he have a map to this place? Nope. Does he have directions written down? Negative. Does he 100% get you where you need to be? Every time. Okay so this time was a little lengthier of an adventure than usual...
We get off the ferry and follow the crowd onto a walkway leading into a building with a bunch of shops in it. We roam around the second floor (the floor we entered on) until we see a bridge with stairs down to the street. He tells me "I'll know it when I see it." sigh. Of course you will Kevin, because you are some sort of wizard. Not only do I actually trust his sense of direction, but I haven't done any research and have no option except to follow him :-). We walk around a bunch of blocks until we see a building that says Immigration on it. Inside there is a bunch of info about getting HK visas but none about ones for China. Naturally, here is where I suggest asking for directions. So many people speak English and were in a building called Immigration. This is THE place where someone would know. But no, he says "we can find it. I think it's in this building (points)" and we walk out. Half way across the bridge he succumbs to my logical thinking and we go back. Turns out he was right and if I hadn't said anything he completely would have found it on his own. Hahaha. Too bad we didn't find it until 11:55 and the office closes for lunch from 12-2. Our number didn't get called until 4:30 an they tell us to come back at 3 the next day to pick them up.

Temple of 10,000 buddhas. Really there are over 12,000 buddhas, with no buddha design repeating itself. To get to these buddhas you're supposed to climb six hundred something stairs... Well, that was if you went up the right staircase the first time (and of course we did not). At the top of some more stairs are 5 small temples that are all a part of the big temple. There are also......... MONKEYS. Now I'm not one to answer "monkeys" when someone asks you "what scares you" but bajeezus I am now! I'm almost to the top of the stairs when there he is, guard monkey. The fiercest attack monkey on the planet. His territory? Monkeytown (the small temples). His watchtower? The golden buddha. We lock eyes. I stop. He stops. He stares. I stare (and take a few pictures of course). Then the monkey freakin king walks by and all hell breaks loose. Monkey warrior must defend king!!!!! Insert warrior wooping here!!!! The king turns the corner and guard monkey puts all of his attention back on me. Hes in fight stance now. Eyes wide and a growl in his mouth, I am afraid. Sure he's a tiny monkey but he had his fight face on! He jumps and me and... fight or flight, fight or flight... FLIGHT!!! I yell "you win you win!!!" and scamper down the stairs and don't come back until he leaves.
Yes I took a picture before realizing I was scared. I'm a PRO after all...

Let's just say I'll be keeping the fence between me and the cuddly monkeys from now on. I hope my beloved pandas never do this to me.

We take the MTR to the ferry to get back to the visa office. Were supposed to be back there around 3, but last time we noticed that the line dies down close to 4. So of course were shooting for 4pm. We get through the rail part just fine but the ferry-side street exit from the station is closed and we have to choose another. Do to the fact that HK has "the worst signage ever" (Smith, Kevin. "Thoughts on Hong Kong". Smith Family Press. 2010) it is early impossible to get to the other side of these buildings. The one pedestrian walkway we found funnelled us into a shopping mall type area. What seemed like hours later, we made a huge loop to get around the building. But hey, at least we weren't lugging around our packs this time. After all this time we still manage to get to the visa office with 5 minutes to spare. And who might we did there? KG!!! Hilarious.

Afterwards we head to the Happy Valley Race Coarse, one of two horse racing tracks in HK. Races start every half hour starting at 7:15 which gives you plenty of time to figure out how you want to bet. What a lucky guy, Kevin wins his first bet. I see a horse named Kenobe so we have to have to bet on him. He's ranked 11/12 for the race but whatever. It needed to be done. Thank you Kenobe for turning $10 into $293. We ended up winning $$ on 3 of the 4 races we bet on.

On Thursday we decide to go explore more of the southern island by taking the 973 public double decker bus for HK$14. The stop is pretty close to our room and we wait under a half hour for it. Were the only people who go to the top deck so we get primo front seats. Aberdeen, home of the largest floating restaurant, is the first stop we take. The bay in this heavily populated fishing town is super crowded with old boats... And old ladies trying to push harbor tours on you (they actually chased us). We took the free ferry to have lunch on the Jumbo Floating Restaurant where ...caution vegetarians... we ate turtle soup. The meal ended up being fairly expensive though.

Back on the bus to Repulse Bay, a Hawaii-esque beach. The water was too cold for most everyone there but Kevin braved it and swam out to one of the bouts.

Instead of getting back onto the massive 973, we hop on a maximum occupancy 16 public bus for HK$4.50 to Stanley. Stanley is home to three major things: the Murray House, the Stanley market, and beautiful beautiful scenery. The Murray house has a maritime museum that we wanted to visit but oops, closed on Thursdays. Unfortunately we went there first thinking that the market would be prettier at sunset. Too bad the market starts closing at sunset! It was still a rreally pretty place. We decided that if we were going to come back that we'd skip Repulse Bay and come straight here.

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