Day 22 Monday March 20th – Hong Kong

This morning I grabbed the ferry to Hong Kong Island. (2.2 HK Dollars...about .25 US). Once there I headed for what I thought was Victoria Peak in Victoria Park. This meant I needed to grab a subway and head East a couple of stops. When I made it to Victoria Park and checked in my guide book for where I should look for the tram stop up to the top of Victoria Peak I figured out that I was mistaken thinking that the Peak was in the same named park. So I grabbed the subway headed West. The HK subway system (MTR) is really laid out quite well. It reminds me of Tokyo's. I rode the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak (it was nothing like the one up to Corcavada in Rio, but cool in its own merits). I can't believe how steep the climb was. Once at the "top" I grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the real top of the peak. This was about a 1/2 -1 mile walk up a road. There was really no side walk but very little traffic. I took some pics at the top (couldn't really see much due to the overcast) and then headed back down. Once down off of the peak I headed for the starting place for the linked walking tour: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/touring/hkwalks/ta_walk_walk1.jhtml. I saw some strange stuff on this tour...a store selling only dried fat, a shark fin store...a store selling dried fish and lizards... The antique street was cool.

I stopped at the Man Mo temple and then headed on to find the escalator. When I finally found it it was a relief. I really didn't want to walk up those stairs. This escalator is 800 M long and there are 20 that make the whole line up. From 6 am to 10:00 am it runs down and then from 10:20 to midnight it runs down. Once to the top I walked back down.

I caught the ferry back to the Kowloon side and then on to my hotel. It is nice to see clean water (in the channel) vs all of the brown water in Beijing and Shanghai.

I ordered room service for dinner...a club sandwich and fries...It is the first non-asia meal I have had on the whole trip. Breakfast hasn't been completely asian, more of an asian interpretation of a western breakfast.