Day 2 - or is it 3??

So it’s Tuesday here so technically Day 3 since we basically lost a day! Flight was long but good - Dave slept about 4 hours, me - half an hour 😂😂. Touched down in Hong Kong Monday at 6:10pm local time and arrived at our lovely hotel at 8pm (and we got upgraded to a Sky Suite - woo hoo!!). Took off for a walk around the harbour - so many apartments and hotels - and they sure love their light shows here! Also being here at Chinese New Year, there are beautiful displays of Chinese lanterns and lights all over the place. After a light dinner we headed back to the hotel and fell into bed and asleep in seconds! After a good rest, up at 6am and ready to start a day of touring around. Dave wandered out to get us a Starbucks coffee, but they didn’t open till 8, so 7-11 coffee it was! Left our hotel just after 8, grabbed some breakfast then wandered down the waterfront to the Star Ferry landing. We were surprised at how few people were out at that time of day - the town seemed deserted - but later found out that Chinese New Year lasts for 3 or 4 days, and both today and tomorrow are still considered holidays!

We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island and boarded the Hop on/Hop off bus around 9:45. There are 3 different routes for the tour and the first one (green) took us through the business area and around the back side of the island. We passed by the Peak tram (which we are taking tomorrow), an interesting cemetery built on a hillside, Happy Valley Horse Track, which dates back to 1846. Then on to Ocean Park, which has a small beach with outdoor barbecues which is frequented by locals, Repulse Bay which was a Pirates hideout in the mid 1800’s with its luxury hotels and apartments (and apparently the most real estate in the world) and the small town of Stanley. We hopped off at Stanley to take a look around - it has a multi level market and a cute little town with a few English pubs! Back on the bus, we went by Aberdeen, home to the famous Jumbo floating restaurant, accessible only by boat, then back to our starting point to get on the “red” tour. This one took us mainly through the downtown area of Hong Kong Island and we got off at the Mid Levels Escalator stop - a series of escalators that transport people up the hills on the island! From there we walked down some side streets to the Man Mo Temple - interesting place where people go to light thousands of incense sticks as offerings at the altar! Back on the bus to our starting point, then took the ferry back to Kowloon. Got on our third hop on bus (the blue route) which took us through many of the downtown shopping areas, markets, green space (very little) and the thousands of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. We ended up at Sky 100 observation deck at the International Commerce Centre building - the tallest in Hong Kong. There, we took the 60 second elevator ride up to the 100th floor for spectacular 360 degree views of Hong Kong. The views are stunning, of the harbour, the islands nearby and the architecture, but most prevalent is the number of apartment buildings you can actually see spread out over the city - not a single family home in sight!

After walking almost 7 kms today, we were ready to head back to the hotel for a rest. We then got ready to walk down to the harbour to watch the a Symphony of Lights - an amazing laser show across the harbour set to music! We decided to try dim sum for dinner in a local restaurant, and it did not disappoint! At this point, we wore off some calories walking back to the hotel (grand total of 13.4 km for the day) and will get some sleep so we’re ready for another action packed day tomorrow!

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