Deborah's Southeast Asian Adventure

What an amazing city!

I arrived early on Tuesday morning (7:30 a.m.) after a very comfortable flight on Cathay Pacific. Believe the hype - Cathay Pacific provided excellent food and service although very little leg room. The descent into Hong Kong International Airport was dramatic - over the water, past the largest Buddha statue in the world ("Big Buddha"). On the Hotellink shuttle bus to my hotel, luck would have it but I ran into some Canadians from Toronto. Small world!

I'm staying at L'Hotel Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island which is very conveniently located across the street from the subway.

On Tuesday, I went to Victoria Peak, an area which offers an amazing view over the harbour and skyline. You get there by taking this 117-year old trolley car up a very, very steep hill. (Evelyne, you would have died!) At some point, it felt like we were going up almost vertically and for the whole eight-minute ride, I was calling on Jesus to let me make it to the top. (Three days before, the trolley broke down and passengers were stuck on it for 20 minutes before being escorted off!) Anyway, the ride was well worth it. There is a look-out deck at the top which offers an amazing view of the city from where you can see skyscrapers designed by I.M. Pei (referred to as "the knife") and Norman Foster (which I believe is the most expensive skyscraper ever built). It's amazing to see residential condos (more like monstrosities) which have 80 floors! Despite all of the concrete, Hong Kong is very lush and green in places. According to the guidebook, Victoria Peak was trees and greenery until the British employed cheap labour to clear the terrain and build houses.

I met two fantastic guys, Andy and David from San Francisco, at a restaurant on Victoria Peak. One thing led to another and we hung out for the day. Andy and David are Chinese-American. Andy is learning Cantonese while David speaks it fluently and visits Hong Kong and China frequently. What a treat to hang out with them and suffer severe vertigo with them! Why? After the trolley ride up Victoria Peak, I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle the ride down so we decided to take the double decker bus down instead. Big mistake! It was a 20-minute ride with lots of bends and turns, with a driver driving at breakneck speeds. To give you an idea of his driving style, he would accelerate just before a bend without being able to see if there was any oncoming traffic. I was so traumatized by the ride that I ended up getting off the bus about 25 stops to early and having to take a taxi back to the hotel.

Later that night, Andy, David and I hooked up at the famous Penninsula Hotel on Kowloon. (I arrived a little early to have a cocktail in ultra-trendy Felix, a restaurant and bar designed by Philippe Starck. I ended up chatting with the CEO of an American private equity firm searching for Chinese investments.) Andy, David and I went for a stroll on Nathan Street and ended up eating in this fantastic Korean restaurant where you grill your own meat at your table. We ate the most fantastic cow tongue, amongst other things. We later sampled crunchy pork and tjau tsiu on the street. Delicious! Andy wanted to visit the infamous Chungking Mansions, this run-down building which offers very cheap accommodation. I was amazed to see lots of Africans (mostly Nigerians and West Africans) hanging around as I thought Hong Kong would be the last place where they would come. Chungking Mansions are very strange: at the bottom, there are lots of storefront stalls selling everything from underwear to prepared Indian food. The Mansions feature in many Hong Kong movies. I was glad to get out of there.

My jet lag finally hit me so yesterday, I had a late start. After enjoying the hectic pace of Hong Kong, I decided to go to Lantau Island to see Big Buddha. It's a beautiful, 45-minute ferry ride to this island and then a lovely bus ride to the Po Lin Monastery where the Big Buddha sits above on a hilltop. The Buddha itself is immense and very impressive. On his chest, there is a swastika symbol which represents harmony. I strolled around the monastery, taking in the incence which is burned everywhere. Very nice place to visit.

Next, I took the bus and ferry back and hung out in Central, the heart of the financial district, where all of the skyskrapers are located. What's really cool about Central is that there are different layers of activity: street-level where people walk and catch the bus and trams, the first level which is full of walkways and entrances to the skyskrapers and shopping malls, and then levels that go up to 120 floors inside the skyscrapers. I went into the International Finance Centre which is my favourite skyscraper, before heading back to the hotel where I ordered room service and collapsed into a coma-like sleep at 9 p.m. Jetlag has finally caught up with me.

Today, I will have afternoon tea at the Penninsula Hotel, visit the Hong Kong Museum of History, visit a temple and then enjoy sundown cocktails at one of the hotels on the water. Tomorrow, I fly to Bangkok to hopefully hook up with Eggamarin, a friend of my friend, Marco in Amsterdam.