Weekend in Hong Kong

The first weekend in December, I decided it was time to finally get some stamps in my passport, so I headed to Hong Kong with Karin. We caught a late flight out of Taipei in to Hong Kong. We stayed on the Kowloon side of the island, with a beautiful view of the harbor from our hotel room.

Saturday morning we woke up, armed with tourist maps and a mission to find the local H & M store and see as much of Hong Kong as possible. We took a shuttle bus to a ferry, which whisked us to the other side of Hong Kong. There, we traversed the streets, which were decorated for Christmas - just like back home, and found lots of little shops and a wonderfully delicious dumpling place for lunch.

That night, we headed to The Peninsula Hotel to watch the fireworks and boat parade which were part of the opening ceremonies of the 2009 East Asian Games. The boats had dancers and performers, and the fireworks show was amazing.

Sunday, Karin and I woke up and caught the ferry again in order to ride the Peak Tram, and takes you to the highest mountain peak in Hong Kong. The views were amazing! Afterwards, we found the famed "Mid-Level Escalators which are the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. The entire escalator system covers over 800 meters in distance and elevates over 135 meters from bottom to top.

Hong Kong was amazing, and was actually very different from Taiwan. The given dialect in Hong Kong is Cantonese, there were no crazy scooters on the sidewalks, and there were many more places that had employees who spoke and understood English. This was a great weekend getaway, and I now have passport stamps from Hong Kong!