For the sake of consistency I have kept my blogging to a bare minimum this month. Chuseok vacation was about three weeks ago and I still haven't properly uploaded pictures---although I have tried on a few occasions only to be slighted by the internet gods. Anyhoo, Hong Kong was quite the trip full of the usual highs and lows. The flight there was amazing with champagne and lamb and comfy seats. We decided to buy an "Airport Express" card for the subways which lets you take this brilliant subway from right in the airport all the way to the main area (Causeway Bay) round trip as well as three days unlimited use of the subways. We had a pretty hard time finding our hostel (as expected) and I personally had a bit of a fit when I finally saw it. It wasn't all that bad really but at first it was a total drop in luxury from the business class flight and I had a wee twinge of a freakout. Then the walking began but luckily I packed many back patches for this trip so that I could keep walking!
Hong Kong is an extremely busy city. Even the escalators and elevators move faster there! It is overflowing with ex-pats which means it is also full of amazing food and wonderful shopping. I ate tons of western food and basked in the glory of everything western that I could find. I also had a blast in the grocery stores---including a gourmet one in Kowloon (mainland China) where I got salami from a deli counter (unheard of in Korea) and ate it with fresh cheese and bread! (You have NO idea how amazing that is after living here for almost 8 months!).
We also went to Lantau Island to see the "Big Buddha" and went to a temple and a street of antiques on Hong Kong Island. We took a tram up to the top of Victoria Peak to look down over all of Hong Kong which was spectacular except that it POURED with rain and we couldn't really take pictures and had to stand in the downpour for at least an hour waiting to get back down!
I went shopping in Kownloon and bought some shoes and a Roots yoga sweater for 50% off! I was so happy to see the Canadian label and doubly happy to get a discount. (ga-ka juseyo as they say in Korean "give me a discount!"). The sad thing is that with age I am turning more and more into my brother Mike and left the sweater in the taxi when I got back to Gwangju at 4am before work at 7am. boo.
There was also a lantern festival going in which didn't turn out to be amazing to me. We had a hard time getting to see the major "fire dance" and only saw the remnants of the smoking incense. We also walked and looked at the "Avenue of Stars" and saw a statue for Bruce Lee. The lanterns around the Avenue were second-rate at best.
Overall, Hong Kong was a cool place to see---great if you're skiddish about heading to Asia from North America for the first time. A great experience but I never really have to go there again unless I'm really rich and want a shopping vacation! I'll try to post more pics to my flickr account soon.
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