We had a wonderful visa run turned date/vacation over the past three days. Thanks to our fantastic Reach team of babysitters, we were able to make it a little getaway. We wanted to share a few of our pictures of our time away. With only three days, it was obviously the whirlwind tour, but we enjoyed the city so much. It's an amazing mix of nature and scenery (mountain islands, the green South China sea) and amazingly developed city. We were blown away by the fantastic public transportation (little red taxis, many skinny double decker trams, double decker buses, elaborate subway, high speed airport train, etc)! We were fascinated by all the signs forbidding certain actions..."Spitting is gross. Fine: HK $5,000", etc. We loved all the spectacular city views- at night from Kowloon (complete with light show) and from the Peak- an incredible panorama of sea, island and skyline. We loved the food- from roast goose with smokey, crisp skin, to shrimp wonton, and scallops- it was all so good. We walked many, many kilometers and rode many hours on trams and buses and ferries, seeing all the sights we could take in in three days. It was a great adventure and we really enjoyed the child-less freedom to roam and explore to our heart's content. Here are a FEW of the hundreds of pictures we took :)....
Day one, was a rainy rainy day. We rode the double decker bus to the Peak to see the view, but it started raining on the way up and by the time we got up there, the view was totally obscured by rain....so we had some wonton and noodles instead...
Mak's Noodles.
Tram in the rain. We loved riding these all over the city from our hotel in Causeway Bay.
We rode the ferry to Kowloon for this amazing nighttime view of Hong Kong and a light show.
We had a breakfast picnic in Victoria Park and enjoyed the sights of many elderly people doing tai chi and slow motion walking exercise. This Grandma/grandson pair was pretty cute. She stood solid as a rock while he bobbled all over.
We crossed the mountain to shop in a market in Stanley and had to dip our toes in the South China Sea, just to say we did.
Lunch- some of our first really, truly authentic Chinese food.
Spectacular view from the Peak, when we finally made it there on a clear day.
Roast goose at Yung Kee. We ate dinner at this huge restaurant that seats 5,000 people. It lists it's awards in the menu which includes the award for dishes such as "wild goose sitting in flowering plum tree" and "the general taking off his hat."
We had some great street snacks too- especially bubble tea and sour frozen yogurt with blueberries.
On our last day, we took a ferry to a neighboring island and took a death hike up many, many stairs for another amazing view. Here's Tom at the tip top of Peng Chau Island. We loved the cool sea breeze, the tranquil island vibe (only 5,000 people live on the island and there are no cars). Many elderly people sat in chairs by the sea, just relaxing.
So, that's just a brief glimpse of what we did....now we're washing clothes and repacking suitcases as we get ready to leave for Chiang Mai in three days....
C
