Hong Kong

I'm finally going to make an attempt at blogging the missing past six months of my life. It seems so long ago already, now that I'm settled back in to Hood River. I guess I should start with where I'm at before backtracking to Asia, though. I've moved in with a couple good friends in Hood River. We've got a big porch, a view of Mt. Adams, and a garage full of toys (so full, there's no room for cars; I love it!). I've been getting around on my bicycle, but I just got an old Honda motorcycle to click around town on. For the most part, I'm not working, but I did just pick up a small side project from my old engineering employer. I've signed up for another season in Antarctica, this time at Palmer Station on the South America side, from September to April. Same job, different station. I'll have a few weeks of training for that, mostly in Colorado, but until then, I'm relaxing and playing.

January 21, 2009

OK, so I left off in Bali. From there I had a couple days layover in Hong Kong on my way to Thailand. Hong Kong is big, busy and crowded. It is a city above the ground. Fifty story buildings are the norm, and they are built right up the hills that line the horizon in clumps of matching architecture. Hong Kong has 36 of the world's 100 tallest buildings. Below, boats buzz around Victoria Harbor as if it were a beehive.

I arrived after dark and booked a hotel up the hill towards Victoria Peak. From the ferry terminal I rode seventeen outdoor escalators, all above street level, to get up there. Skyscrapers were illuminated and little cafes were filled with noodle-slurping hoardes well into the night.


I was amazed at how these huge buildings could be built right up the side of a mountain. I spent the next day in a spaghetti maze of raised streets and walkways, wondering where the actual ground was below me. A tram ride up the hill provided a good view of the city and the Harbor.


For lunch I got the local fare: noodle soup. I ordered it with curried chicken. It came as a bowl of soup with noodles and chicken wings in it. And chopsticks. How the hell do you eat soup with chopsticks? A good trick is to watch the people around you eating and do your best to do what they do. You pull out the noodles with the chopsticks and drink the soup right from the bowl. Unfortunately, no one around me had the chicken wings, so I have no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I quickly gave up on the chopsticks and used my hands.

In the evening I caught a ferry from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon to watch the nightly light show on the downtown skyline. Many buildings have been adorned with colorful lights and lasers that flash in time with music. The show was actually pretty lame, but the skyline at night was worth seeing.

At dusk, before the show:


During the show:


Two days was definitely enough city for me, and after the bustle of Bali and the claustrophobia-inducing population of Hong Kong I was very ready for some relaxing time in a small Thai village...