Asia

Our first stop of the day was to be in the old historic part of town so we once again took the ferry across the bay. This area is filled with antique and furniture shops. Hong Kong is built right up the side of steep mountains so the inclines on the streets are steep. We walked the length of the middle city steps and escalators. The escalators are outside but covered. You ride a section up and then cross the road and ride the next section up. The "Mid-Levels Escalators" are actually a series of escalators going from Central up to Conduit Road of the Mid-Levels (the mid section of the hill on Hong Kong Island). It just goes up and up and up! Along the way, there are restaurants and shops, especially in the lower sections. It takes about 20-25 minutes to take the escalators all the way up to Conduit Road. The escalators operate going up from around ten to four and then reverse to work going down. What that meant to us was that after riding all the way up we had to turn around and WALK all the stair ways down! The muscles that felt a little "tired" today will probably be SORE tomorrow!!

After a lot of walking and stair-stepping we had worked up a pretty good appetite so selected Taco Loco as a place to try a "western" meal for a change. It has been surprising how many "western" things we have seen. KFC is huge here... as are Starbucks, McDonalds, Seven-Eleven etc. etc. After a fix of Mexican food we got back on our plan.

The longest length of cable run for a suspended cable car is right here in Hong Kong and only recently completed. We had a clear and not too windy a day to ride. We heard that it does have to be shut down often because of high winds. The destination was the Big Buddha built up on top of a hill on the outside of town well past the airport. It was a good walk from where the cable station but it was a newly built area lined with shops. We remarked how much it felt like Disneyland at that point.

The Buddha is huge and one must climb a HUGE flight of stairs to get up to the top. It can be arranged to walk with a monk or to dine there as well but we were just sight seeing. There were numerous other statues at the top around the Big Buddha and then multiple levels to climb further and then areas to visit inside.

Not far from the Buddha was the monastery with numerous temples and buildings and beautiful gardens. This was a pretty big complex and a beautiful one to tour. The last cable car departure was six o'clock and it was late so there were huge lines for the ride down. There is a great view of the airport from end to end on the ride and we could see just how busy an airport it is and how big the planes are that come in.

We rode the bus in from the cable ride and split off onto separate bus lines when we got to the center of town. Rusty, Ernie and Gary headed out to the end of the bus line in the opposite direction in search of a fishing village to explore while Sherry, Jane and Andrew headed back to the hotel. Andrew went exploring a bit and Sherry and Jane ate at the cafe in the hotel.

Hong Kong was unique, a fun to explore and easy to get around but we'd all say the disappointing thing was the air pollution problem which removed the "scenic" aspect.