Hong Kong - Star Ferry's Harbour Tour

Having enjoyed the ferry trip back and forwards across the water, and having a few hours to spare on my last day before I could pick up my passport, I decided to take the harbour tour. It basically circulates around the bay, from terminal to terminal, until an hour later you return to your starting point.

This grubby, dirty area is where you ring a bell. Then you wait for twenty minutes until someone finally comes and takes your money and sells you a ticket. Then a little later you are led back out and in the entrance to where the ferry arrives.

This is a map of some kind. Interesting? No idea, I never read it.

The price and timing list. I took the 60 HKD afternoon tour.

The ferry arriving.

Waiting..

Some buildings and a lightly smoggy blue sky.

More of the same.

More of the same.

More of the same.

And finally a smoggy bay view.

Altogether, this was a soulless experience that in no way was as enjoyable as the much shorter earlier trips.

Tom Yum crisp

Went looking in a reasonable cheap Hong Kong supermarket for interesting snacks to try. Found this Thai-style Tom Yum snack.

Imagine if you gathered all the dried herbs and spices that make up a soup, didn't cook them, and crusted them to nuts of some kind.

It was like eating potpourii :-(

Hong Kong - Thank God It's Friday

Lacking satisfying quality junk food in Shanghai, I decided to go into Thank God It's Friday as I passed it by on the street. Big mistake. The first warning should have been its location on the sixth or so floor.

I got a nice window seat. Well, it was a window seat.

First up was the salad. Too much dressing, and overpriced.

Next up was the burger. Small and way overpriced.

An exercise in over-buttered bread and lack of flavour.

And last was the chocolate dessert. Oh wait, they didn't bring that and when I asked for the bill they tried to charge me for it. Then they didn't return my change, when I paid the bill - maybe I was supposed to tip? In any case, the entire menu was unappealing and several of the things I tried to order they didn't have.

Hong Kong - Ferry passage

One of the things recommended to me to try when I made it to Hong Kong, was the ferry. This was actually one of the cheapest, more enjoyable things I did there. It was something like 2.5 Hong Kong dollars to take it from one side of the water, to the other.

There was too much smog for my liking, it kind of ruined the view of Hong Kong in general.

Lots of passing boats.

The destination terminal, a nice brief ten minute ride away.

The ferry from the destination terminal departing before ours arrived.

Much more enjoyable than the subway - and cheaper!

Hong Kong - The Peak

Another tourist attraction that I decided to see in Hong Kong, is The Peak. Basically you go to the tram stop at the bottom of the hill, buy a return ticket, wait in line and then ride the tram up the hill.

I arrived just after it opened, where the queue was about this long. It was a much better time to arrive than when I left, where the queues were huge. Life's too short to queue :-)

It's expensive to enjoy yourself in the tram.

But you can always enjoy the heady view.

Then when you reach the top, you enter the bottom of this building. At that point, if you've paid the premium fee you can go out onto the roof and get a better view.

Greenery at a confusing angle.

The city with a nice natural healthy haze.

A path through the bush. This looked quite appealing. Next time I am going to go up the hill, clog my arteries with one of the many junk foods sold there.. and then go for a nice healthy walk.

A view of the tram tracks up the hill, where I arrived from.

The other side of the hill.

The plaza at the top of the hill, and the mall on the other side of it.

The help center is an old tram.

Not sure if the wording was wrong, or my English is not to good. But something about this seemed Engrish-like.

Some runners came down the track over the hill. Wish I could be doing that myself, but the health wasn't too good.

This path goes back down the way I came. I walked down it for half an hour until I realised it didn't go down, but round the hill. So I walked back up..

.. and took the tram down. Oh well.

Worth it? No idea. Beats sitting in a hotel room :-)

Hong Kong - Miscellaneous pictures

One of the things I liked about this part of Hong Kong, were the pedestrian overpasses that you could take to get around. It beats waiting at traffic light pedestrian crossings, and makes for a more enjoyable tourist experience.

Near the ferry terminal, the main pedestrian overpass that goes right into this part of Hong Kong has this construction going on underneath it. What's going on? A new metro line? Some huge building? Beats me.

Further up the hill, there's a park. And I took a photo of it. Which I'm posting here. There's plenty of parks in Hong Kong, which is quite nice if you want to sit down and have a rest.

Hong Kong - Avenue of Stars

One of the tourist attractions five minutes walk from my hotel, was the Avenue of Stars. It's basically a strip of pavement on the waterside, with concrete "stars" featuring names of people mostly unknown to me.

It wasn't so busy at this point in time.

Here's Jackie Chan's star. It's very hard to get a photo of a star without the shadow of someone else looming over it.

Take for instance this clown, who is characteristic of the problem. A stream of people wander from star to star, putting their foot on it and taking a picture.. or god forbid, a movie of their foot on it. To me, it looks like a sad attempt to establish a remote dominance over whomever the star belongs to. But someone I asked back in Shanghai told me, that it's more like a "I am here thing." In any case, this clown stood there for several minutes videoing the intricacies of his foot on a lump of concrete with Jackie Chan's name on it.

There's a few statues along the avenue, one of Bruce Lee I think, and this of.. I am not quite sure.

There's a free night time light show. I wasn't too well, but sitting in a hotel room is hard to bear, when you're in a different and interesting foreign country. So I headed out and took a gander.

The actual light show is.. hmm.. how to put it positively. A restrained affair that takes care to be subtle and not to excite anyone much. If it wasn't free, I would have asked for my money back :-)