Trip to China
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Saturday, August 9, 2008 Kowloon Peninsula is located directly across the harbor from the famous Hong Kong skyline. I'd booked the Renaissance partly with some leftover Marriott points I had which made it pretty cheap. During booking we had looked at Google Earth to find out where it was in proximity to the YMCA Hotel, where we would stage for the Hong Kong Island tour we had booked. Funny that it was our only criteria because it ended up being SO much more. As it turns out the hotel was located on the Hong Kong equivalent of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, called Avenue of the Stars, and it sported the absolute best view of the harbor in all of Hong Kong. It was a 5 minute walk to the YMCA, and about 2 minutes to both the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Space Center. It was also in the same complex as the New World Centre, a large mall that was totally decked out for Olympic tourists. What a fantastic choice! Getting there was an adventure. Our choices to get to Kowloon from Disney were the MTR (subway) or a Hong Kong red cab - no shuttles or buses available. Since we didn't want to lug all our gear on the MTR we decided to take a cab to Kowloon. All of the cabs in Hong Kong are red Toyotas. I suppose that's the British influence since London has the black cabs. All of the cabs also have a green sign on the front that says "Taxi 5 Seats". I suppose if you were a group of circus clowns needing a little practice for your act while on holiday that might be true but we are all tall corn-fed American dudes with wide booties. 5 seats also included the driver because there were only 4 additional seatbelts. We had 9 including YaYa and the plan was to see if we could fit into two cabs before trying a third. We knew it was a lost cause but the bellboys and cabbies were persistent. Our #1 cab driver was a man of extraordinary intelligence. Einstein, Plato, Socrates... morons. Hong Kong red cabs would not be the choice of a mafia hitman - not enough trunk space for the body. Yet here was our cabbie, piling 6 full size suitcases in the trunk. The trunk lid was open and positioned vertically and he was trying to strap the luggage down with bungee cords. After watching this spectacle for a few minutes enough was enough and we ordered more cars. In all, we had three cars so that we could fit more comfortably. We were told that it should be $250 HK to get to Salisbury Rd. on Kowloon, and that it should take about an hour. It took about a half hour and cost us $260 HK, even though the meters in each car said $162. As soon as the car stopped my cabbie punched a few buttons on the meter and all the sudden it turned into $260. In retrospect, each of us noticed our cabbies talking on cell phones and laughing during the drive so no doubt they were conspiring to shaft the tourists. When I inquired about the extra, the cabbie said it was for handling of the bags. Whatever, $100 HK is $13.50 US so I wasn't going to argue too much. Later on however when Emily and her mom went to the airport, it only cost $140 in a red cab and the airport is actually past Disneyland the other direction. We definitely got ripped off. To make matters worse, my dad had accidentally left his backpack in his car and watched his driver drive off. He ran the car down and although the cab was stopped, the driver ignored him and drove away. He came back a short time later and delivered the backpack, but not without demanding a stipend for the return. What a jerk, but at least he came back. That night at the airport Emily and her mom turned them in and got our money back. What the cabbies didn't know is that we had written down their plate numbers before ever leaving Disney. HA! After check-in, breakfast was at an awesome coffee joint called Pacific Coffee, right on the waterfront where the Avenue of the Stars is located. Out the window we could see Hong Kong island across the water. On the Avenue directly outside there was a huge bronze statue of none other than THE MAN, Bruce Lee. The artist had him posed in that familiar Kung Fu pose that meant you were about to get a butt-kicking. Since we had gotten there so early we actually had a little time to sit and enjoy breakfast before dashing off for our tour. The tour group was to meet in the lobby of the YMCA Hotel, a couple city blocks west. The "Y" is next door to the Peninsula Hotel, known as one of the top 10 hotels in the world, and certainly #1 in Hong Kong. To stay there costs something like $4000 US a night. The YMCA was on the other side of the street and there were no crosswalks across Salisbury. To get there we had to cross underground via the subway. Once in the lobby, YaYa entertained herself by walking up and down the marble steps. It's nerve-racking because she takes the stairs one foot per step like an adult rather than going down on her bottom or at least pausing on each step with two feet. In so many ways she thinks she's a big girl. We soon met the tour guide and boarded the bus. There were a few others on the bus, all Euros or Aussies. To get to HK Island, you pass through an underwater tunnel across the harbor. Once across we made our way for Victoria Peak, our guide explaining all the notable buildings we were passing along the way. We passed the Hong Kong Horse Track, where all gambling proceeds are donated to charity for the purpose of maintaining affordable healthcare (incidentally, Macau is the only city in China in which gambling for profit is legal and has surpassed Las Vegas in revenues). We passed the Summit high rise residence. The Summit is where the most elite of Hong Kong live, and you can only gain a residence there by invitation. It is high on the hillside already and rises an additional 80 floors or so, giving those at the top sweeping views of Hong Kong Harbor, Victoria Harbor, and the South China Sea.

Finally we arrived at Victoria Peak. At the top there are plenty of places to shop and eat and of course Olympic displays of the Fu Wa mascots. We were only given 20 minutes to enjoy the view and be back to the meeting spot. From this vantage point you can see pretty much all of the harbor side of Hong Kong and Kowloon Peninsula. We were directly above its most famous building, the Bank of China. It's the one in pictures that has black glass and criss-crossed white lighting all the way up. There are two radio antennas on the top. We paused for lots of pictures, bought a couple of great canvases from a local artist, and headed out. The next stop was Aberdeen Fishing Village on the south side of the island. We passed Ocean Park along the way, which is a six flags style theme park. This one however, has pandas. We arrived at the pier and then boarded sanpan water taxis for a short tour around the village. The fishing village is apparently the original settlement of Hong Kong. People live right on beat up old fishing boats. The water is very clear here; it would be even clearer if it wasn't for the typhoon that had blown through 3 days earlier. This was a major highlight of the tour for sure. They don't tell you before you board the sanpan, but it actually costs $65 HK per person to ride one. You are told that just before getting off. Nice. That depleted me of my remaining cash for the day. We took a very bizarre excursion to a jewelry manufacturer. In my opinion this was a useless and perplexing stop. We walked in through the loading dock of this place and entered a room where we got a little sales pitch about their jewelry. Then we stepped into the showroom where very professionally dressed salespeople descended upon us like a pack of wolves. Clearly there was an arrangement with the tour company for this little gimmick and we were annoyed. Thankfully it was short and we moved on. We headed toward the famous Stanley Market. Along the way we passed Repulse Bay, also famous for its great beaches. You can swim safely in the bays without fear of sharks. They have strung huge shark nets across to keep them out. Evidently a few years back they lost 5 people to sharks so they did something about it. Upon arrival at Stanley Bay we blew off the market and went to the beach. We were 110% done shopping at trinket shops and had no desire. The beach at Stanley Bay was okay but there was far too much garbage floating in the water to make it attractive. The sand was also very course and somewhat rocky. Still, we were at the beach. One thing we've missed since leaving Oregon is the beach. We love Colorado but we are definitely land-locked. April has made me promise to get her to the beach twice a year. I guess I got to chock up another one. YaYa was totally digging it. She kept looking down at her feet probably because it was such a strange feeling. She wanted to go in farther but I kept pulling her back in. We learned with Keaton that a mouthful of seawater can ruin your whole day. Even though it was only 29C, we were hot and ready to go back. For the afternoon we spent time on the Avenue of the Stars photographing the stars of none other than Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, and Jackie Chan. I got some wicked daytime panoramas of the skyline too. We finally had to face reality back in the hotel room and begin packing for the long haul flight back home. We had thought ahead to bring a little scale to weigh our luggage and managed to get every piece under 50 lbs. I took a little side trip to the neighborhood post office to get some mailing tubes for the paintings and that was another experience in ordinary culture and customs that fascinated me. Pretty soon it had gotten dark and we wanted to go out to catch the nightly laser light show in the harbor. Armed with tripods, we left 20 minutes to 8:00, thinking we'd get a good spot. That was kinda dumb. The entire waterfront was covered with people, but there was no way in H-E double hockey sticks my dad and I were leaving without unobstructed photos of that skyline, so we went Chinese style and just pushed our way to the front. By now our considerate nature had worn off and we didn't feel so bad. We managed to get the best spot on the whole Avenue for our "work". The show was awesome! All the lights of the buildings across the harbor were choreographed to the music and some of the buildings were displaying green lasers. We shot hundreds of frames before it ended. Dad and Lori went back to the room and we continued to stroll down the Avenue with the kids. We passed a group of Chinese people singing and dancing to the Chinese version of "How Much is That Doggy in the Window".... weird. Later they were dancing to a Chinese rendition of a Doors song. Weirder. We made our way to a restaurant called "Freshness Burger" and shared some fish sandwiches. Outside the door there was a popular Chinese singer rockin' out to some original tunes. His fans were going ballistic but we were thinking he should keep his day job. It was hysterical so we got it on video. We couldn't put it off any longer. It was time to get back to the room and finish preparing for the big trip home tomorrow. Although we all wanted to be home, none of us were looking forward to the trip because we knew it was going to be hard. The trip to Maoming had shown us that YaYa would be a challenging travel companion. What would the trip bring for us?

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