Dexter MI - July 15, 2010 (by Swiss)
Ok, so I lied. While I intended the last post I wrote to indeed be the last one of this series, it occured to us that it might be a good idea to summarize our "lessons learned" for folks who may want to consider to do a similar trip in the future. So below are some of our tips, although it's by no means a comprehensive list. Happy travels!
What to Pack?
Rule #1: The smaller your pack, the less you will bring. Pretty simple. So avoid buying too large of a pack, as you will end up finding a way to fill it. I had a 70 liter pack, Jason had a 90 liter pack, and we both could have done with smaller packs. To give a weight range, we've met travelers with luggage ranging from 8 to well over 20 kgs. My fully packed 70 liter pack weighed in around 12.5 kgs, Jason's fully loaded pack hovered around 18 kgs. Trust me, light is good. Also, a nice daypack is a must, especially if you stay at a seedy place and want to keep you valuables with you. We both used Northface hydro-packs (removing the bladder), and they were a perfect size.
Listed below are some items to consider.
Bring:
Powerstrip - Many hostels rooms have limited power outlets. Bring a strip, which allows you to charge your electronics concurrently while avoiding the need for multiple power adapters. It can also serve as an extension cord.
Convertible pants - These are pants with a zipper around knee-level that allow you to remove the lower portion of the pants and thus convert them into shorts. Most outdoor stores will have them. They tend to be quick-drying and have multiple pockets. Look for a model with zippered pockets to stash your cash.
Exofficio Underwear - http://www.exofficio.com/ , these are awesome. 'Nuff said.
Small bottle of detergent - You will likely be doing some laundry in the sink/shower. A small bottle of laundry detergent will come in handy while taking up little space. It can be re-filled on the road as needed. Also consider bringing a universal drain plug.
Shampoo/Bodywash combo - Why carry two bottles if you can have all of it in one? Shampoo/Bodywash combo bottles rock. They are a bit harder to find on the road, so start with a big one if you can.
Torch/Flashlight - A no-brainer, but don't forget this. Power outages do occur, as do dark hostel rooms when you want to read a bit.
Small organizer for passports, SIM cards, cash, and other important documents. Nice to have it all in one place.
A couple of packs of tissues - use as TP, napkings, etc. Can buy cheaply on the road, so don't bring too many.
Passport photos - You will need them for some visas. They can easily be made in larger asian cities for a fraction of the US price, but it helps to have some on hand just in case.
Ear plugs - Snorers and loud buses are your enemy. If you know somebody who works in a manufacturing environment, ask them to score you a couple of packs. Ear plugs are a ripoff in stores.
Unlocked GSM phone - See communication section below for details
Don't bring:
Microfiber towel - While nice in concept, we've found they start to smell after a while. And once they smell, you can't get the smell out. I mean, you can wash them, and they will smell fine, but after one use it's right back to that mouldy odor. Instead, bring a decent cotton towel. If it starts smelling, you can always toss it and buy a new one at very low cost. Trust me.
Transportation
There are many ways to get around when on the road. We generally found that it's easiest to fly into and out of major hubs and figure out the smaller segments on the go.
Good, cheap airlines to consider: Jetstar (Asia), Spicejet (India), Webjet (Brazil)
In Brazil, you need a national ID to book flights online. We went to CVC, a Brazilian travel agency, to book our webjet flights. Their markup was almost nil; in fact, one of the fares they charged us was LESS than the online fare.
A popular way to travel in India is via trains. Cleartrip.com is a great site to book these ahead of time. And yes, they do fill up, so booking ahead is advisable. Some trains do have a "tourist quota", basically keep some last minute seats open for foreigners, if you ever happen to be in a pinch.
Traveling by bus in South America is definitely an experience. We've found buses in Argentina and Peru (Flores in particular) to be the nicest. However, keep airlines in mind: spending 18+ hours on a bus will get tiring no matter how comfy your seat is, and there are some very good flight deals out there.
If you're in New Zealand or Australia, a cheap way to get around is by doing car/camper relocations. www.standbycars.com is a great aggregate site for deals, although you can contact the rental agencies directly as well. The downside is that they do give you limited time to complete the relo, so it's not a very good option if you want to go exploring a bunch on the way to your destination.
Communication
Most countries we've visited run a GSM cell phone network (like ATT and T-Mobile in the US.) Bringing an unlocked GSM phone along is a great way to stay in touch. Unlocked phones (not tied to a carrier) can easily be found online. If you currently have ATT or T-mobile, request them to unlock your phone.
SIM cards in Asia are cheap. For instance, we both bought SIM cards in Vietnam for around 5 bucks and they lasted well over 3 weeks. Plus, incoming calls are free, so your family can easily call you over the internet using services like Skype. Having a phone is handy not just to stay in touch with the fam, but also for booking guesthouses and staying in touch with other travelers while you're on the road.
Skype is also very common, especially in heavily traveled areas. Set up an account to call your home country for cheap. Many internet cafes have skype software installed.
Financial
It's advisable to keep some US dollars (100 bucks or so) on hand for incidental costs, visas, and departure fees. If possible, try having some smaller bills as well (ones, fives, tens.) We found some ATMs in Cambodia, Bolivia, and Peru do dispense in US dollars if you need to re-build your stash.
Most towns we visited did have ATMs, though we didn't stray too far off the beaten path. Consult guide books and fellow travelers to find out what the ATM situation at your destination may be and bulk up on cash as needed.
Jason used an online Fidelity checking account to keep his cash, which worked very well for him. They re-imburse your ATM fees, a handy feature if you're traveling abroad. Fees do add up quickly, so this is a worthwhile consideration for long term travelers.
While we didn't use our credit cards that much, Capital One apparently offers a fee-free international credit card. Neither of us got one, but it's something to consider especially if traveling in developed areas.
Insurance
Both of us signed up with HCC medical, which for around 400 bucks covered us in case something bad would happen. Luckily, injuries were only minor and we didn't have to use their services. There are sites out there comparing plans, so do your homework.
Gadgets
Yes, we're both geeks and brought netbooks with us. This was in part to allow for blog writing, as well as to back up/upload pictures (our total picture tally, btw, was around 11,000 pictures.) We used Asus eee 900/901 computers with solid state drives, and while slow, they did the trick. You would be surprised how much free wifi you can find around the world, so having a small computer on hand can be handy. This is especially true in hostels where people flock to the shared computers. It can also be handy for your Skype users out there.
An alternative to bringing a full computer is to bring an iPhone/iPod touch or wifi enabled smartphone. While not as versatile as a full computer (backing up pictures was a must feature for us), they can be very handy for checking email and using skype to call home. Again, you would be surprised how many wifi hotspots one can find.
Visas
Check prices, they can be expensive and hit us a bit of a hidden cost. South America in particular can be pricey for US citizens. If you are a dual citizen, consider bringing your other passport (I saved around 400 bucks in South America alone by using my Swiss passport.) The reason for this cost, btw, is because the US charges foreigners 135 bucks for a visa, so a bunch of countries are just returning the favor.
Oh, and if you plan on going to Argentina as a US citizen, try to avoid flying into Buenos Aires. While Argentina doesn't require a visa, they do charge an airport arrival/reciprocity fee for US citizens. How much is that fee? You guessed it, $135. Since we entered Argentina by land (near Puerto Iguazu), Jason didn't have to pay the fee. This may change in the future, of course. But something to consider :)
Lodging
Lodging availability and quality range widely. We found that recos in guide books were hit or miss. In New Zealand, BBH publishes a great listing of hostels with, in our experience, very representative ratings. Also, if you plan to spend a bit of time there, consider getting a membership as it will pay for itself quite quickly.
The other most common site we used for booking hostels around the world is Hostelworld.com. See if you can score a gold membership as that will save you the $2 reservation fee when booking online.
Guides
My last tidbit is on guide books. Although we experiemented with a "Rough Guide" in China, we generally relied on Lonely Planets due to their information and layout. Besides the usual activity stuff, they are quite helpful in providing a basic map of your destination and usually have good info on bus/train routes with approximate fares. We did have the opportunity to exchange them along the way, and even got two of them gifted to us by fellow travelers. So don't buy all of them in advance unless you feel like lugging all that weight along.
An alternative to the LPs, for some destinations at least, was wikitravel.org. While a bit hit or miss in terms of content, there were numerous helpful articles for a variety of our destinations. Definitely worth taking a look, especially given the price (free.)
Safe and happy travels to all!
/Over and out :)
Showing posts with label Travel and Tourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel and Tourism. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Hong Kong - The Little Britain of China?
Jan 30 to Feb 4, 2010 (by Swiss)
Since our 30 day China visa necessitated a 6 day buffer between Vietnam and Mao's old stomping grounds, it was decided that Hong Kong would become our home for those six days. We originally didn't plan on staying this long, but we determined it was a worthwhile alternative to worrying about getting a China visa extension.
For you non-geography buffs such as myself, Hong Kong lies just east off the southern tip of China and up until 1997, used to be controlled by the British. China lost control of the land as a result of the opium wars and subsequent 99 year lease of Kowloon and the New Territories in 1898. This lease expired in 1997, and Hong Kong has since been taken back over by China (although with some caveats). While the dental work of Hongkongese is generally pretty good, there is plenty of English influence, not the least of which is the cost of living. Hong Kong is quite developed, streets are littered with people in business suits going about their daily lives, BMWs, Lexuses and Benzs buzz through the streets, and it has a truly big city feel to it. Take a look.
Jetsetting to Hong Kong
We arrived at Hong Kong international airport a little past 1pm, after a very smooth Vietnam airlines flight from Saigon. Our first order of business was to figure out how best to make it into the Kowloon district, known for it's more affordable lodging options. I had done some research online on guest houses, but according to wiki, our best (cheapest) bet was to catch a ride into the city and stroll down Nathan road until we found a room we liked. The rough guide for China that we exchanged in Saigon conveniently had the Hong Kong portion missing, so wiki would be our primary source of info. So we gave the "show up an see what happens" technique a shot.
There are a couple of ways to get from the airport to town, but a very nice lady at the tourist desk informed us the cheapest option was to take the A21 bus for HKD 33 (roughly USD 4.5). Other options would have been a cab or the airport train (super fast but more than 2x the price.) So the bus it was.
The bus dropped us off near Tsim Sha Tsui (TST for short) station, and we began our search for a room. Almost immediately, we were hustled into the Chungking mansion, where we were shown a shoddy room for HKD 180 (roughly USD 23.) We opted out. This experience enlightened us to two things: 1) There are tons of options, and frankly, it's overwhelming to check them all out without having a list of a few to check out (wiki didn't give us any recos on that) and 2) Prices were much steeper than anticipated (we had hoped for a HKD 130-150 room.) So lesson to future visitors: Unless you're down with information overload, go online, create a list of 3-10 spots, then check them out.
It took us about an hour until we found a place just off Nathan road north of Chungking mansion on Kimberley Rd where we were quoted a price of HKD 300, which we managed to reduce to HKD 250 by staying 5 nights. The place was clean, relatively new looking, had TV, A/C, fridge, hot water shower, and free wifi. It was run by two very nice Philipino ladies, and is located at 27-33 Kimberley Rd (852-5138-0651.) The biggest downside was that we had to share a bed and the bed was quite hard for our tastes. The bed hardness, as we found out later, is actually a quite common problem here, supposedly leading a major ex-pat website to list places where you can procure foam mattress covers. I'm not kidding you. But we had a clean, safe place with good wifi, and therefore were quite happy. From what I understand, there are cheaper options, especially if you are willing to settle for a dorm room.
For dinner, we wandered further up Nathan road to the Jordan St Night market, where we had a rather disappointing dinner at an outdoor restaurant. The food actually caused Jason to pick up a bug that lasted most of his stay in the city. After dinner, we strolled back towards our guesthouse while swinging by the grocery store for snacks and drinks which could be stored in our fridge. It was during our walk back that we discovered that McDonalds has a special Doraemon promotion going on, which we figured would be a must-acquisition for our friend Sonia. Jason was on the case.
The last day of the month rang in with Jason feeling miserable due to the prior night's food, so it would be a slow day. The biggest goal for the day was to figure out how we would get to Shanghai, where we had booked a room during the Chinese lunar new year. From what we had heard, travel during this time can be extremely challenging, so we wanted to make sure our travel arrangements were down pat. After a brief lunch at "Relax Cafe", we strolled to CTS (China Travel Services) to get some prices on tickets to Guangzhou and Xiamen.
We had originally planned on hitting up Guangzhou, but after various price checks and a bit of research on the towns, concluded that Xiamen would be a better option. We booked an overnight bus ticket to Xiamen, and later a flight on Spring air from Xiamen to Shanghai after we returned to the room. We found Spring air to offer the cheapest rates, although for future travelers, make sure to check out http://www.elong.net/, as they have some great budget deals as well.
Given Jason's stomach problems, he opted out of dinner. I hit up a little street joint and called it a night shortly thereafter. We were both content having at least gotten our travel arrangements through Shanghai taken care of.
Friends of Friends, Strangers with Candy
With our first couple days being relatively weak in the sightseeing department, we were determined to make Monday a tad more productive in that aspect. As sometimes happens in travel, we actually sort of knew somebody in Hong Kong.
Jason's friend Noel has a friend Dominic who works in Hong Kong for Esprit, and his boyfriend David was visiting while Lawton and I were here. So long story short, we were to meet up with David, whom neither of us had ever met. As such, it was agreed to meet outside exit A1 at Central station between 12:30 and 12:45. Jason was to wear a red shirt, jeans, and have a white rose behind his right ear. Ok, I made that last part up.
As planned, we managed to meet up with David who had been in Hong Kong for about two weeks. We grabbed a very tasty lunch at Brunch Club, a brunch spot in the Central region of HK. This involved our first trip on the Central-Mid-Levels escalators, which allows people to easily increase their potential energy while minimizing their personal work input to get to the desired energy level/elevation. In other words, it's a giant escalator for lazy people.
Next up was some sightseeing, which included a brief walk-by the governors mansion via the US consulate
and continued on at the base station of the Victoria Peak cable car. Taking this allows the visitor, in exchange for about USD 8, to get some pretty nice views of the city. It would be the highlight of the day, and was chosen due to the somewhat favorable weather at the time. The 10 minute ride was spent admiring the Swiss engineered car
and chuckling at tourists taking pictures
before arriving up top and quickly taking a picture with James Bond himself:
Once at the top, we trotted our way up to the observation deck for some pictures of down town. Even though it was a tad hazy, the views were quite nice. And no, we didn't eat at the establisment shown in the last picture.
Plans for the evening involved taking a slightly choppy but scenic ride on the Star ferry (highly recommended and cheap - 2-2.5 HKD) back to the Kowloon district, where we would later witness a light show on the skyline that is put on every night at 8pm. The English version goes down on Mondays and Wednesdays, but honestly, I don't think it would make much of a difference. It's free, and definitely worth a look if you ever visit.
As it turns out, David is actually a pretty cool dude. And I'm not just saying this because he might read this post. So it was decided that we would check out a light hike he had wanted to do the following day. The ~5.5km trek near Pineapple dam would involve some views of the city, the exploration of remnants of the "Gin Drinkers Line", and most importantly, Monkeys!
To get there, we met up in Kowloon, took the subway to the last stop, hopped on the #82 bus after a brief lunch, and got dropped off about a 10 minute walk from stage six of the MacLehose trail. One amusing aspect of our bus was that it had a large display allowing passengers to see the speed at which the bus was traveling. David had heard that the drivers of these buses were basically taxi driver rejects, so we figure it has something to do with keeping over-zealous drivers honest. In their defense, it should be noted that our guy drove quite well, and we had a very safe ride to the dam.
A brief description of our hike can be found here, although the guide book David had more detail and history than this website. As recommended by the book, we immediately equipped ourselves with sticks to fend off any potentially aggressive monkeys
although I'm happy to report that we were not attacked and no monkeys were harmed during this episode of "Exploring Hong Kong."
Without getting into too much detail, a large portion of the hike allowed us to explore the remnants of the Gin Drinkers Line, a 18 km long defensive line established in WWI and primarily used in WWII by the British to fend off the Japanese. The line, unfortunately, was understaffed and was taken by the Japanese in 1941. As such, it actually carries quite some historical significance, which would be easy to miss without a guide book. To visit some portions of the underground bunkers/tunnels, sign conscious hikers have to ignore the "Danger Desolate Trench Do Not Enter" posts to get to the good stuff:
So here, for your enjoyment, are some of the pictures taken that day. A couple of things to note: Citing home sickness, all the passageways were named after London streets/points of interest, which can be seen in some of the pictures. Also, the last picture shows a victory inscription made by the Japanese when they conquered the site back in the day, which without David's book, would have been quite easy to miss.
The potentially depressing topic of war and loss of life was luckily balanced by nice terrain (the views, unfortunately, were obscured due to foggy weather) and of course the Monkeys. Countless pictures and videos were taken, so here are some of the highlights:
After the conclusion of the hike (I should use that word lightly, as it really wasn't very challenging) we caught the 81 bus back to the Mong Kok subway stop. Dinner was so-so at the street place I had checked out earlier, and Jason was slowly overcoming his stomach bug.
High Rolling?
Wednesday would mark our last full day in Hong Kong. It would also be our "big night out", with plans to meet up with David and Dominic for happy hour and dinner. The morning was spent being lazy, commencing with an excellent lunch at Sher-E-Punjab, an Indian place located on the second floor of the Chungking mansion.
After lunch, we strolled our way towards central, checked out the Avenue of the Stars
took pictures of people standing in line to get into the Louis Vitton store (similar scenes were witnessed at Chanel) before boarding the lower deck of the ferry to the central portion of the city.
We met David once again, after which we decided to go to the very top of the escalator and stroll around town. We even managed a brief (free) visit to the Zoo/Botanical gardens before hitting up "Volume", which advertised free Vodka drinks during their Wednesday Happy Hour.
Unbelievably enough, the drinks were actually free, a gig put on every Wednesday welcoming gay travelers and flight crews to the city. Now, I'm not gay, but I'm cheap, and this certainly seemed like a good deal to me. The place initially was slow, but picked up over the course of the two hours we were there. Dominic joined us around 8pm, as did our friend Anna, who we had met back in Laos and happened to be in town.
After Volume, we had a delicious italian dinner at Mrs. Jones, before heading for some after dinner drinks in the swankier parts of town. The main highlight was a suit filled rooftop bar that Dominic showed us, where we had an absolutely amazing view of the foggy skyline.
Off to China
On Thursday we readied ourselves for our overnight bus ride to China by first indulging in some McDonalds for lunch (a tradition of sorts), where Jason managed to score a Doraemon toy for Sonia. We then went off in search of some wifi for blog stuff. Free wifi was surprisingly scarce in Kowloon, so we settled on sipping overpriced drinks at Starbucks in the New World Centre.
A HKD 5 bus ride got us to the Kowloon City Ferry Pier, which we reached after spending the last of our HKD on pricey but yummy sandwiches to be taken on our bus ride. The bus station ended up being quite confusing, with no real indication as to where our bus would pick us up. After multiple inquiries, all of which pointed us to the same general location, we were fairly certain we were at the right spot. The 30 minute delay in the bus didn't help calming our nerves, but when the bus finally pulled up at 18:50, we were happy to be on our way to China!
Since our 30 day China visa necessitated a 6 day buffer between Vietnam and Mao's old stomping grounds, it was decided that Hong Kong would become our home for those six days. We originally didn't plan on staying this long, but we determined it was a worthwhile alternative to worrying about getting a China visa extension.
For you non-geography buffs such as myself, Hong Kong lies just east off the southern tip of China and up until 1997, used to be controlled by the British. China lost control of the land as a result of the opium wars and subsequent 99 year lease of Kowloon and the New Territories in 1898. This lease expired in 1997, and Hong Kong has since been taken back over by China (although with some caveats). While the dental work of Hongkongese is generally pretty good, there is plenty of English influence, not the least of which is the cost of living. Hong Kong is quite developed, streets are littered with people in business suits going about their daily lives, BMWs, Lexuses and Benzs buzz through the streets, and it has a truly big city feel to it. Take a look.
Jetsetting to Hong Kong
We arrived at Hong Kong international airport a little past 1pm, after a very smooth Vietnam airlines flight from Saigon. Our first order of business was to figure out how best to make it into the Kowloon district, known for it's more affordable lodging options. I had done some research online on guest houses, but according to wiki, our best (cheapest) bet was to catch a ride into the city and stroll down Nathan road until we found a room we liked. The rough guide for China that we exchanged in Saigon conveniently had the Hong Kong portion missing, so wiki would be our primary source of info. So we gave the "show up an see what happens" technique a shot.
There are a couple of ways to get from the airport to town, but a very nice lady at the tourist desk informed us the cheapest option was to take the A21 bus for HKD 33 (roughly USD 4.5). Other options would have been a cab or the airport train (super fast but more than 2x the price.) So the bus it was.
The bus dropped us off near Tsim Sha Tsui (TST for short) station, and we began our search for a room. Almost immediately, we were hustled into the Chungking mansion, where we were shown a shoddy room for HKD 180 (roughly USD 23.) We opted out. This experience enlightened us to two things: 1) There are tons of options, and frankly, it's overwhelming to check them all out without having a list of a few to check out (wiki didn't give us any recos on that) and 2) Prices were much steeper than anticipated (we had hoped for a HKD 130-150 room.) So lesson to future visitors: Unless you're down with information overload, go online, create a list of 3-10 spots, then check them out.
It took us about an hour until we found a place just off Nathan road north of Chungking mansion on Kimberley Rd where we were quoted a price of HKD 300, which we managed to reduce to HKD 250 by staying 5 nights. The place was clean, relatively new looking, had TV, A/C, fridge, hot water shower, and free wifi. It was run by two very nice Philipino ladies, and is located at 27-33 Kimberley Rd (852-5138-0651.) The biggest downside was that we had to share a bed and the bed was quite hard for our tastes. The bed hardness, as we found out later, is actually a quite common problem here, supposedly leading a major ex-pat website to list places where you can procure foam mattress covers. I'm not kidding you. But we had a clean, safe place with good wifi, and therefore were quite happy. From what I understand, there are cheaper options, especially if you are willing to settle for a dorm room.
For dinner, we wandered further up Nathan road to the Jordan St Night market, where we had a rather disappointing dinner at an outdoor restaurant. The food actually caused Jason to pick up a bug that lasted most of his stay in the city. After dinner, we strolled back towards our guesthouse while swinging by the grocery store for snacks and drinks which could be stored in our fridge. It was during our walk back that we discovered that McDonalds has a special Doraemon promotion going on, which we figured would be a must-acquisition for our friend Sonia. Jason was on the case.
The last day of the month rang in with Jason feeling miserable due to the prior night's food, so it would be a slow day. The biggest goal for the day was to figure out how we would get to Shanghai, where we had booked a room during the Chinese lunar new year. From what we had heard, travel during this time can be extremely challenging, so we wanted to make sure our travel arrangements were down pat. After a brief lunch at "Relax Cafe", we strolled to CTS (China Travel Services) to get some prices on tickets to Guangzhou and Xiamen.
We had originally planned on hitting up Guangzhou, but after various price checks and a bit of research on the towns, concluded that Xiamen would be a better option. We booked an overnight bus ticket to Xiamen, and later a flight on Spring air from Xiamen to Shanghai after we returned to the room. We found Spring air to offer the cheapest rates, although for future travelers, make sure to check out http://www.elong.net/, as they have some great budget deals as well.
Given Jason's stomach problems, he opted out of dinner. I hit up a little street joint and called it a night shortly thereafter. We were both content having at least gotten our travel arrangements through Shanghai taken care of.
Friends of Friends, Strangers with Candy
With our first couple days being relatively weak in the sightseeing department, we were determined to make Monday a tad more productive in that aspect. As sometimes happens in travel, we actually sort of knew somebody in Hong Kong.
Jason's friend Noel has a friend Dominic who works in Hong Kong for Esprit, and his boyfriend David was visiting while Lawton and I were here. So long story short, we were to meet up with David, whom neither of us had ever met. As such, it was agreed to meet outside exit A1 at Central station between 12:30 and 12:45. Jason was to wear a red shirt, jeans, and have a white rose behind his right ear. Ok, I made that last part up.
As planned, we managed to meet up with David who had been in Hong Kong for about two weeks. We grabbed a very tasty lunch at Brunch Club, a brunch spot in the Central region of HK. This involved our first trip on the Central-Mid-Levels escalators, which allows people to easily increase their potential energy while minimizing their personal work input to get to the desired energy level/elevation. In other words, it's a giant escalator for lazy people.
Next up was some sightseeing, which included a brief walk-by the governors mansion via the US consulate
and continued on at the base station of the Victoria Peak cable car. Taking this allows the visitor, in exchange for about USD 8, to get some pretty nice views of the city. It would be the highlight of the day, and was chosen due to the somewhat favorable weather at the time. The 10 minute ride was spent admiring the Swiss engineered car
and chuckling at tourists taking pictures
before arriving up top and quickly taking a picture with James Bond himself:
Once at the top, we trotted our way up to the observation deck for some pictures of down town. Even though it was a tad hazy, the views were quite nice. And no, we didn't eat at the establisment shown in the last picture.
Plans for the evening involved taking a slightly choppy but scenic ride on the Star ferry (highly recommended and cheap - 2-2.5 HKD) back to the Kowloon district, where we would later witness a light show on the skyline that is put on every night at 8pm. The English version goes down on Mondays and Wednesdays, but honestly, I don't think it would make much of a difference. It's free, and definitely worth a look if you ever visit.
As it turns out, David is actually a pretty cool dude. And I'm not just saying this because he might read this post. So it was decided that we would check out a light hike he had wanted to do the following day. The ~5.5km trek near Pineapple dam would involve some views of the city, the exploration of remnants of the "Gin Drinkers Line", and most importantly, Monkeys!
To get there, we met up in Kowloon, took the subway to the last stop, hopped on the #82 bus after a brief lunch, and got dropped off about a 10 minute walk from stage six of the MacLehose trail. One amusing aspect of our bus was that it had a large display allowing passengers to see the speed at which the bus was traveling. David had heard that the drivers of these buses were basically taxi driver rejects, so we figure it has something to do with keeping over-zealous drivers honest. In their defense, it should be noted that our guy drove quite well, and we had a very safe ride to the dam.
A brief description of our hike can be found here, although the guide book David had more detail and history than this website. As recommended by the book, we immediately equipped ourselves with sticks to fend off any potentially aggressive monkeys
although I'm happy to report that we were not attacked and no monkeys were harmed during this episode of "Exploring Hong Kong."
Without getting into too much detail, a large portion of the hike allowed us to explore the remnants of the Gin Drinkers Line, a 18 km long defensive line established in WWI and primarily used in WWII by the British to fend off the Japanese. The line, unfortunately, was understaffed and was taken by the Japanese in 1941. As such, it actually carries quite some historical significance, which would be easy to miss without a guide book. To visit some portions of the underground bunkers/tunnels, sign conscious hikers have to ignore the "Danger Desolate Trench Do Not Enter" posts to get to the good stuff:
So here, for your enjoyment, are some of the pictures taken that day. A couple of things to note: Citing home sickness, all the passageways were named after London streets/points of interest, which can be seen in some of the pictures. Also, the last picture shows a victory inscription made by the Japanese when they conquered the site back in the day, which without David's book, would have been quite easy to miss.
The potentially depressing topic of war and loss of life was luckily balanced by nice terrain (the views, unfortunately, were obscured due to foggy weather) and of course the Monkeys. Countless pictures and videos were taken, so here are some of the highlights:
After the conclusion of the hike (I should use that word lightly, as it really wasn't very challenging) we caught the 81 bus back to the Mong Kok subway stop. Dinner was so-so at the street place I had checked out earlier, and Jason was slowly overcoming his stomach bug.
High Rolling?
Wednesday would mark our last full day in Hong Kong. It would also be our "big night out", with plans to meet up with David and Dominic for happy hour and dinner. The morning was spent being lazy, commencing with an excellent lunch at Sher-E-Punjab, an Indian place located on the second floor of the Chungking mansion.
After lunch, we strolled our way towards central, checked out the Avenue of the Stars
took pictures of people standing in line to get into the Louis Vitton store (similar scenes were witnessed at Chanel) before boarding the lower deck of the ferry to the central portion of the city.
We met David once again, after which we decided to go to the very top of the escalator and stroll around town. We even managed a brief (free) visit to the Zoo/Botanical gardens before hitting up "Volume", which advertised free Vodka drinks during their Wednesday Happy Hour.
Unbelievably enough, the drinks were actually free, a gig put on every Wednesday welcoming gay travelers and flight crews to the city. Now, I'm not gay, but I'm cheap, and this certainly seemed like a good deal to me. The place initially was slow, but picked up over the course of the two hours we were there. Dominic joined us around 8pm, as did our friend Anna, who we had met back in Laos and happened to be in town.
After Volume, we had a delicious italian dinner at Mrs. Jones, before heading for some after dinner drinks in the swankier parts of town. The main highlight was a suit filled rooftop bar that Dominic showed us, where we had an absolutely amazing view of the foggy skyline.
Off to China
On Thursday we readied ourselves for our overnight bus ride to China by first indulging in some McDonalds for lunch (a tradition of sorts), where Jason managed to score a Doraemon toy for Sonia. We then went off in search of some wifi for blog stuff. Free wifi was surprisingly scarce in Kowloon, so we settled on sipping overpriced drinks at Starbucks in the New World Centre.
A HKD 5 bus ride got us to the Kowloon City Ferry Pier, which we reached after spending the last of our HKD on pricey but yummy sandwiches to be taken on our bus ride. The bus station ended up being quite confusing, with no real indication as to where our bus would pick us up. After multiple inquiries, all of which pointed us to the same general location, we were fairly certain we were at the right spot. The 30 minute delay in the bus didn't help calming our nerves, but when the bus finally pulled up at 18:50, we were happy to be on our way to China!
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