After our busy trip in China it was nice to be back in Hong Kong, a city that is very Westernized thus familiar and comfortable. After our long train ride from Beijing it took another 2 hours to get back over the border into the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Exhausting! We splurged on a nice hotel the first time, before China, and we had to do it again after China. It was nice to be in a comfortable, clean environment and we were inspired to eat some comfort food, Italian pasta. Yum!! It had been a long journey and we were ready for an early night.
The next day we met up with our new German friend, Jutta. One of the guides from the company that ran our China trip offered to show us around Hong Kong. We took a skinny old tram car to Cental Hong Kong past bustling stores and hi-rise buildings. We walked the streets with a stop for Hong Kong style milk tea and an egg tart. We past the market filled with fresh produce, butchers and fishmongers. After exploring the streets we walked down to the ward where we took the ferry from Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon Peninsula to see the skyline than back again to another part of HK Island for a noodle soup lunch. Sadly, Jutta was heading back to Germany so we said our goodbyes. We finished the day with Pizza. Seriously, western food never tasted so good.
On day two we took the subway into the New Territory for dim sum (Yum) and the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas. To get to the temple you walk up a hill on a path lined with golden Buddha statues. At the first level is a pagoda, more gold statues of female buddhas and a temple with tiny buddhas covering the walls. There are actually MORE than ten thousand buddhas. Further up the hill were more buddhas, shrines, and a waterfall. It was such a cool place and I'm glad we trekked out for a visit.
We then traveled back to Hong Kong Island in search of the crazy apartment buildings where part of transformers was filled. Once we finally found the spot you can see why they picked this location. It's crazy compact, color and real. It embodies the true life of Hong Kong (see the movie clip at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=07LuAmoc3a8). We ended the busy but fun day with some delicious Korean food. This was our last chance for a variety of food for sometime. Now we're off to Southeast Asia. Watch out Vietnam. The Koos are coming!
