Hong Kong November 20-25

My flight at 12:15 am on November 20 from San Francisco to Hong Kong crossed the International Date Line, so the flight arrived at 6:45 in the morning of Monday November 21. The flight was long and uneventful; I spent the bulk of the flight watching movies.
 

This flight was the first time that I had traveled across the Pacific. From San Francisco it is one time zone shorter to India than flying eastward. I had not been in East Asia before, so I took the opportunity to spend several days in Hong Kong as a stopover.

At the Hong Kong airport I got a three-day mass transit pass, so I spent the first morning riding around on the mass transit lines, before checking into my hotel around noon. I was very impressed by the modern mass transit lines. I rarely had to wait more than a few minutes for a train.

The Jordan Metro stop

My hotel was on a side street on Hong Kong island. As is usual in Hong Kong, my hotel room was miniscule; a couple more inches of space between the bed and the closet would have been nice. One day as I was walking along the street nearby, a dead pigeon dropped out of the sky with a thud onto the street a few meters away from me.

The dead pigeon in the lower right in the street near my hotel

In the afternoon and evening of my first day I walked around further. Among other things I came across a fashion model photo shoot.

A fashion model photography session

I was surprised by how prevalent the Christmas season was in Hong Kong. The first thing I heard upon arrival at the airport terminal was O Tannenbaum playing as the airport muzak. A lot of stores in the city also played Christmas muzak; the muzak at one chain supermarket was especially irritating. Even one of the gift shops at the Ngung Ping Buddhist pilgrimage site played Christmas muzak.

A Christmas display

My second day in Hong Kong, Tuesday November 22, I explored the city further and rode the subway lines a lot, going on all of the lines at least once. Among other things I went to the Che Kung Temple, rebuilt in 1993 for a deified Sung Dynasty general.

The entrance to the Che Kung Temple

My third day, Wednesday November 23, I went to the Ngung Ping Buddhist pilgrimage site outside of the city. I took a bus up the mountain side to where a huge modern statue of Buddha is located. After walking around, I took the cable car back, a distance of some 5 kilometers.

That evening I went to a big computer store shopping arcade in the Sham Shul Po neighborhood, where I bought a portable hand scanner. The streets were full of people late into the evening, with lots of street performers.

A street artist

My fourth day, Thursday November 24, I went to the Zoological and Botanical Park in the middle of a densely-built up part of Hong Kong island.

The Botanical Gardens

I then took the Peak cable car up the mountain side for the dramatic view of Hong Kong. I was surprised by how many tall buildings there are throughout Hong Kong, both office buildings in the city center as well as apartment buildings in the residential areas.

The view from the top of the cable car

That afternoon I shifted to a cheaper hotel in the Kowloon district, with an only slightly less miniscule room, and then went to the evening laser show among the skyscrapers along Victoria Harbor. The view of the harbor skyline is spectacular, but the ten-minute laser show was nothing much.

Victoria Harbor

 My fifth day, Friday November 25, I went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Space Museum. I was surprised by stickers there indicating how frequently handles and railings are disinfected.

A handle disinfection sticker near the Museum

I then walked around Kowloon and Hong Kong Island for the rest of the day. One bit of shopping I did was to get an iPad, without having to pay any sales tax in Hong Kong. That evening I headed for the airport for my 10:45 flight to Chennai.