Saturday, June 11, 2016

Central Hong Kong (Eric)

Despite being exhausted from our extensive travel day, Jenny and I managed to take the ferry ride into Central Hong Kong. I'm glad we did. This is a vibrant city bustling with activity. The shear energy of the place was enough to energize both of us.

We decided to wander along the waterfront. After a few minutes, we stumbled upon a Dragon Boat Festival. I thought I knew something about these races having worked with people who participated in local Dragon Boat races, but this was not just a race, but an entire spectacle devoted to the phenomenon. There must has been well over 50 teams from near and far. There were thousands of spectators, and the entire event had the feel of a professional sporting event. Despite the rain, we sat through two races and were completely enthralled by the whole experience.

We then decided to wander away from the waterfront in search of something to eat for dinner. Since it was still raining, we saw an indoor shopping area that we decided to explore and hopefully find a place to eat. Little did I know, we had just wandered into my version of hell... never ending shops. While I exaggerate a little, we did not realize that most of the buildings in that area seem to be connected by covered walkways and many of them have shopping areas. Despite my aversion to shopping, it was still interesting to see, and it was another place alive with energy. We finally decided to eat at a place called Crystal Jade that among other choices had some of the most amazing dumplings I have ever had.

We finished our evening wandering through the city lights back to the ferry. At night, this city is even more beautiful and amazing then during the day. We wandered through street performers and spectacularly lit up buildings. The ferry ride home was also different at night and quite an experience, but at that point we were both falling asleep, so we called it a night.

But of course this post would not be complete without a few pictures of the day's events. Enjoy!


3 comments:

Fran said...

Happy you are enjoying Hong Kong...makes me want to go back.

Love, Mom / Fran

Anonymous said...

Bought time we actually commented here.

If I remember, there was a small multi-story white building that was the British Fleet Exchange (like in the pic with the Ferris wheel, there is a small building to the right).

Spent a lot of time there as every conceivable piece of merchandise was marketed.

Was also a huge dock/warehousing complex across the channel that did the same, had to take a ferry to get there.

Best liberty port (to me) since they had a buffet in the basement of the Hilton and it was all good American style food - probably anything would have tasted good after spending 64 days on duty station in the Tonkin Gulf.

Only seemed like the third or forth level of hell-fire heat there....lol!!!

xoxoxox-D

Anonymous said...

whoops, that building is in the pic above the ferris wheel one.