Hong Kong

I have actually been to Hong Kong three times now, not because I necessarily think it's the world's greatest city or something, but rather because if one goes to China, one tends to pass through there. Don't get me wrong, however. Hong Kong really is a cool town, and one unlike any other I have ever visited. It is in the tropics, but unlike the southern Chinese coast, which is very hot and humid, Hong Kong is just very warm and humid. The city gets some relief from the heat due to cooling breezes from the South China Sea. Still, if you plan on spending any time in Hong Kong, get used to the warm, wet weather. There's no way to wholly escape it.

During my most recent trip to Hong Kong, I also discovered the city is subject to Taiphoons. No huge surprise, I guess, but it was my first Asian tropical storm. Fortunately, Hong Kong was merely under Taiphoon Signal One, which means that a storm is some distance off. I don't know the exact distance, but I can report that what Signal One amounted to was about 35 mph winds and a bit of rain. Not too serious, as it turned out. Certainly, I have seen far worse on the Atlantic Coast of the United States, where I grew up.

Anyway, after a bumpy flight in, I settled in for a short stay and thought a few complimentary thoughts about the JAL pilot who managed to get his plane safely down at Kai Tak Airport in such weather. For my own part, once I had dropped off my bags, I decided that, rain or no rain, I was going out. I remembered from a previous visit in 1988 that the view from the top of Victoria Peak is nice, so I made my way to the Peak Tram and rode to the top. The tram is quite a ride. If I am not mistaken, it runs on the same principle as do the cable cars in San Francisco -- that is, drawn upward and let down by a cable to which it is fixed. At any rate, it climbs very steeply, even to the point of being a bit nerve-wracking, but I suppose in reality it's safe enough. Atop the peak, I took the photo shown above and meandered around the tourist shops there. I can recommend the Peak Cafe -- I think it's called that -- as a good, if pricey, place to have lunch, but I would suggest not buying any souveniers in the shops up there. They are too expensive, most of the stuff they sell isn't very interesting, and anyway, one can buy almost anything in Kowloon, and you get to haggle and bicker with the Cantonese shopkeepers, which is loads of fun! (more to come....)

Hong Kong is not far at all from Macau, so why not catch a hydrofoil and head on over?

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