Peng Chau and Hong Kong Island

Today - my second here in Hong Kong - we took a ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon Peninsula to Central Pier on Hong Kong Island, then another heading east to a small island called Peng Chau. That wasn't the plan, though. We were heading to Lantau Island, a larger one a little further east, but the ferry we caught was one that didn't go that last step; because of the timing of the ferrys, we decided to save that monastery visit for another day. We hiked up a small hill there and walked through a few markets, then had lunch at a bakery before heading back to Hong Kong Island. There, we took escalators up through the city, which is set on a mountainside, and by the top of that, mid-way up the slope, were somehow compelled to reach the top, and hiked all the way to Peak Tower, a surprisingly commercial - Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King ... you get the idea - outpost at the top with a view of both sides from the island: north to the harbor and mainland Hong Kong, south across Aberdeen and the ocean beyond. But this is a tropical climate, jungles everywhere there isn't city or town; it rained as we hiked, and there are always these low, heavy clouds, which actually cloak the peak from below most of the time. The water of the harbor might actually be one of my favorite things about this place, odd, I know, but I have a thing about water. It's green, but in a clean, tropical way, the color of Caribbean shallows, pale, almost milky, though this harbor is said to be naturally deep enough for the drafts of ships.

Yesterday actually began on the plane at what we have to call about 5 am because that was the time here, which is fifteen hours ahead of Arizona. But you can't go to sleep when you arrive without sacrificing your recovery from jetlag. The airport is on Lantau Island, and we drove from there to our hotel on Kowloon, checked in, had breakfast, etc. Spent the day walking around town, which translates to being harassed by Rolex salesmen (right ...) and tailors who will come up to you on the sidewalk and offer to make you one though, strangely, I have yet to see a tailor shop. I found a jewelry store called Opal Mine, which specializes in Australian opals; it's very nice, but despite their claim that they beat the prices even in Australia, they are rather overpriced. We walked through a park, which had a maze, then down to the harbor where we took an hour ferry tour of the channel between Kowloon and HK Island. On the way in, I saw that there's a big Starbucks right there on the boardwalk along the harbor, so of course I had to go see it, and we ended up sitting outside for a while at what has to be the best Starbucks location I've ever seen.

Though your Thursday is probably just about beginning, mine's coming to an end already, and I need to sleep off the hike from today! I've taken about seventy pictures already in two days ... once I figure out how to post them here, you'll see a selection.