07/12: Hong Kong Day 2 - Central / The Peak / Buddah
After a decent nights sleep , in a bed that was so much more comfortable then the bed at 372, I awoke to start my day. First I headed downstairs to the Hotel café for the buffet breakfast.
The Buffet breakfast had a fantastic selection of food with various cultures covered. You could have an Asian style Congee of Miso Soup or even have steam pork buns or dumplings. But they also have the standard hot breakfast with Eggs, bacon , sausages etc. You could even order you eggs to be cooked as you liked them from the chef.
After breakfast I wanted to head over to Hong Kong island where I was going to visit the peak and some street markets. I decided to catch the MTR which is the Hong Kong Metro, I also thought that getting it at the peak rush hour may also be an experience. Most of the subway entrances to the MTR stations never appear to be close to the actual station entrance. Also due to Hong Kong being prone to monsoons, a lot of it is under cover or underground , hence you can usually walk a fair way underground before you get to the platform. I had purchased a Airport Express travel card, which gave me an Octopus card with three days of free MTR travel, so I could catch the MTR during that time without it costing me any extra. This proved very convenient as all you do is swipe the card as you enter or exit the station.
Standing on the platform Tsim Sha Tsui I could see that peak hour was going to be a challenge, there were at least groups 40 people standing at each position along the platform, where the train doors would open. These groups of people extended the entire length of the train and every single train was crammed packed. I thought London was bad at peak hour, but this beats it hands down. Basically you have to stand at the marked platform points and squeeze onto the train when it arrives. Usually there is only room for a handful of people to get on, but thankfully another train arrives within seconds of the other train leaving. It appered to be a very efficient service despite the overcrowding. When my turn came up , I took a deep breath and squeezed aboard. Thankfully I have been used to the London crowding on a tube train, thankfully these trains have much more standing room. But I have never seen as many people on a train as was the case here, I was amazed. All you could see down the entire length of the train where black heads of hair all squeezed together like sardines in a can. However after a couple of stops most people got off, the next station after that was central and I was able to get off very easily.
Came out of the station to start exploring as was immediately walking on one of the monsoon walkways that went out to the sea port, these walkways also link you through to the many shopping malls, hence you can remain undercover at all times in bad weather.
Apart from the markets in the streets that sold everything from fresh fish, meat and vegetables, I also wanted to see the worlds longest set of escalators.. These escalators though not in a continual length take you from the base of central, Queen Victoria street up towards the higher streets of Central. When I begun my walk the stairs were in the morning peal mode, which was in the down direction, however I only just started walking before the 10am turn around, and hence at 10am they changed direction and I was able to get a ride up. Though the escalators are nothing special they do make getting up the hill a lot easier as the terrain is very steep.
Next I headed over to The Peak which is the mountain that looks over Hong Kong Island. To get to the top I caught the peak tram , which is a funicular rail road, that is pulled to the top by cable. The journey up only takes a few minutes but once at the top you get spectacular views all over the island I took several photo;s etc from the top and checked out a few shops before heading back down.
Central would have to be Hong Kong’s main business district, with many of the large buildings being the home of banks and other financial institutions. It is also the home of the Hong Kong stock exchange.
As I still had plenty of time up my sleeve I decided to head over to Tung Chung which is on Lantau Island so I could see the big Buddha. Taking the MTR took me directly to the island where I then had to catch a cable car to the mountain top monastery. The cable car gave a fantastic view of the island and you could see the entire airport as you ascended the mountain which took around 25 mins. I was lucky enough to have an entire car to myself, so I managed to get heaps of photo’s etc on the way up. Once at the top of the mountain you arrived in the shopping village which had a few exhibits including a Monkey animated show and a walk with Buddah exhibit, which was interesting but neither of them worth it really. Leaving the village you can head towards the Buddah statue and walk up the hundreds of steps in the final climb to the top. The statue itself is humungous and over looks the island. Once at the top you can walk around the statue and underneath it through the exhibit.
Back down the steps I headed over to the monastery just as the monks were walking out. It would have been good to see them chanting or meditating but it was getting late and the sun was setting. As the last cable car was for 6pm, I had to hurry to get back to the cable car, but I made it back with plenty of time to spare and was soon back on the train heading back towards Kowloon.
Decided to check out the famous Temple Street night markets which extended for what seemed like miles along the road. There were a number of items that I would have liked to have purchased, but with a bag that was already close to the weight limit I was a little restricted as to what I could buy. Cass would have loved the markets as the majority of the stuff probably appealed to girls, but I still got to see a lot of cool things.
For dinner I found one of the outdoor seating restaurants and ordered some salt and pepper calamari and a bowl of noodle soup with chicken. It tasted great. There were a lot of these outdoor style eating places, and though they lacked any aesthetics the food was good and service decent.
Along a section of the markets there is a street dedicated to fortune tellers and the like. There were so many that the entire street was full of them on both sides of the road, several of them spoke English. I decided to go for a palm reading to see what would be said. Basically the results seemed good, coming up as being healthy and strong minded, but I should be careful with my money when around the age 40. I should have video taped the reading if allowed as it would have been very interesting to keep.
As I had boxed my tripod for the trip home I ended up buying a small cheap one in the night markets, only cost me about AUS$20 and much better for carrying around then my other one. It is really cheap and not that sturdy but hey, it does the job.. Just..
After the markets I walked back to the hotel. The streets were very quite as it was after midnight. It had been a long day and I was in need of a good nights sleep.
The Buffet breakfast had a fantastic selection of food with various cultures covered. You could have an Asian style Congee of Miso Soup or even have steam pork buns or dumplings. But they also have the standard hot breakfast with Eggs, bacon , sausages etc. You could even order you eggs to be cooked as you liked them from the chef.
After breakfast I wanted to head over to Hong Kong island where I was going to visit the peak and some street markets. I decided to catch the MTR which is the Hong Kong Metro, I also thought that getting it at the peak rush hour may also be an experience. Most of the subway entrances to the MTR stations never appear to be close to the actual station entrance. Also due to Hong Kong being prone to monsoons, a lot of it is under cover or underground , hence you can usually walk a fair way underground before you get to the platform. I had purchased a Airport Express travel card, which gave me an Octopus card with three days of free MTR travel, so I could catch the MTR during that time without it costing me any extra. This proved very convenient as all you do is swipe the card as you enter or exit the station.
Standing on the platform Tsim Sha Tsui I could see that peak hour was going to be a challenge, there were at least groups 40 people standing at each position along the platform, where the train doors would open. These groups of people extended the entire length of the train and every single train was crammed packed. I thought London was bad at peak hour, but this beats it hands down. Basically you have to stand at the marked platform points and squeeze onto the train when it arrives. Usually there is only room for a handful of people to get on, but thankfully another train arrives within seconds of the other train leaving. It appered to be a very efficient service despite the overcrowding. When my turn came up , I took a deep breath and squeezed aboard. Thankfully I have been used to the London crowding on a tube train, thankfully these trains have much more standing room. But I have never seen as many people on a train as was the case here, I was amazed. All you could see down the entire length of the train where black heads of hair all squeezed together like sardines in a can. However after a couple of stops most people got off, the next station after that was central and I was able to get off very easily.
Came out of the station to start exploring as was immediately walking on one of the monsoon walkways that went out to the sea port, these walkways also link you through to the many shopping malls, hence you can remain undercover at all times in bad weather.
Apart from the markets in the streets that sold everything from fresh fish, meat and vegetables, I also wanted to see the worlds longest set of escalators.. These escalators though not in a continual length take you from the base of central, Queen Victoria street up towards the higher streets of Central. When I begun my walk the stairs were in the morning peal mode, which was in the down direction, however I only just started walking before the 10am turn around, and hence at 10am they changed direction and I was able to get a ride up. Though the escalators are nothing special they do make getting up the hill a lot easier as the terrain is very steep.
Next I headed over to The Peak which is the mountain that looks over Hong Kong Island. To get to the top I caught the peak tram , which is a funicular rail road, that is pulled to the top by cable. The journey up only takes a few minutes but once at the top you get spectacular views all over the island I took several photo;s etc from the top and checked out a few shops before heading back down.
Central would have to be Hong Kong’s main business district, with many of the large buildings being the home of banks and other financial institutions. It is also the home of the Hong Kong stock exchange.
As I still had plenty of time up my sleeve I decided to head over to Tung Chung which is on Lantau Island so I could see the big Buddha. Taking the MTR took me directly to the island where I then had to catch a cable car to the mountain top monastery. The cable car gave a fantastic view of the island and you could see the entire airport as you ascended the mountain which took around 25 mins. I was lucky enough to have an entire car to myself, so I managed to get heaps of photo’s etc on the way up. Once at the top of the mountain you arrived in the shopping village which had a few exhibits including a Monkey animated show and a walk with Buddah exhibit, which was interesting but neither of them worth it really. Leaving the village you can head towards the Buddah statue and walk up the hundreds of steps in the final climb to the top. The statue itself is humungous and over looks the island. Once at the top you can walk around the statue and underneath it through the exhibit.
Back down the steps I headed over to the monastery just as the monks were walking out. It would have been good to see them chanting or meditating but it was getting late and the sun was setting. As the last cable car was for 6pm, I had to hurry to get back to the cable car, but I made it back with plenty of time to spare and was soon back on the train heading back towards Kowloon.
Decided to check out the famous Temple Street night markets which extended for what seemed like miles along the road. There were a number of items that I would have liked to have purchased, but with a bag that was already close to the weight limit I was a little restricted as to what I could buy. Cass would have loved the markets as the majority of the stuff probably appealed to girls, but I still got to see a lot of cool things.
For dinner I found one of the outdoor seating restaurants and ordered some salt and pepper calamari and a bowl of noodle soup with chicken. It tasted great. There were a lot of these outdoor style eating places, and though they lacked any aesthetics the food was good and service decent.
Along a section of the markets there is a street dedicated to fortune tellers and the like. There were so many that the entire street was full of them on both sides of the road, several of them spoke English. I decided to go for a palm reading to see what would be said. Basically the results seemed good, coming up as being healthy and strong minded, but I should be careful with my money when around the age 40. I should have video taped the reading if allowed as it would have been very interesting to keep.
As I had boxed my tripod for the trip home I ended up buying a small cheap one in the night markets, only cost me about AUS$20 and much better for carrying around then my other one. It is really cheap and not that sturdy but hey, it does the job.. Just..
After the markets I walked back to the hotel. The streets were very quite as it was after midnight. It had been a long day and I was in need of a good nights sleep.
