xtras

(Review of Sat, Jan 21) This city is crazy. The crazyness gets apparent once you stroll through HK Island, with skyscraper and street markets side by side. And of course when after climbing Victoria Peak, the highest “mountain around”, you look down and see HK and all the green forest around it.

We actually went to HK island to fin the longest escalator in the world- it goes up towards the inland for about and is 800 m long -this is not counting all platforms and kinks nor crossing of little streets in between. The great thing about it is though, that the whole escalator is not on ground level, but about halfway of the second and third floors of the buildings around so you can see into the fitness centers, hairdressers, tailorshops and everything else around. And of course you have a great view on the little side streets and street markets on every block and the vegetable stands (where fruit is still weighed with old weights and counter-weights) at every corner. The escalator takes you up through the lower west part of HK island (Queen's Road Central) up to Hollywood Road (antiques) and Soho (Staunton Street), a quarter full of street markets, little snack bars and restaurants of all kind. The escalator ends on Caunton Road, and with no other tourists left there we still decided to take the "20-min-walk" to the cable car station to Victoria Peak. Somwhere on the way we must have however gotten lost, since we did not find the station. Having climbed a lot already, we decided to climb on to the peak. The path goes through a park and is very steep (but fortunately not step but even)- most people walk with their dogs or do jogging downwards. Everyone -judging from their looks- felt really sorry for us it seemed. We reached the mid-station of the cable car after 360 or so meters of climbing up and afterthat it was still quite a piece of walking. Finally on the top, it felt great just standing there and enjoying the view and the moment. Breathing the fresh air in (fresh relative to anything in the center) and looking down at the skyscrapers and harbour. The weather was not the best as can be seen below, but at least it was not too warm- rather cold and windy- in the summer this would be impossible.

After getting back to tourit masses we had great Indonesian food in Soho (recommend getting lost there) and then I went back to pick up Erkki, who arrived happy and fit from Bangkok. We went to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) in Kowloon to an Middle-East-style place with shisha/waterpipes and all the rest. Walked a bit around and I dared to try white fishballs from a street vendor. The consistency is that of lipeäkala- but the curry flaour is good. I recommend however tasting the satay chicken from these vendors, which are to be found at almost every corner, cooking everything outside and live! (costs 5 HKD (around 0.55 euros) for one large cocktail stick of e.g. beef or fish). On this tour we were together with Damien from the U.K. (Manchester) and Gabriel from Switzerland (Basel), who gave us some good tips concerning traveling here. I have myself tried to put all classes on Tue-Thu, leaving Monday and Friday free to spend every weekend in an extended form somewhere... flying to Bangkok or Malaysia is really cheap: around HKD 1000 per flight, a bit more as a package including hotels/resorts, although I prefer hostels and my own choice I guess. Booking on the internet might also be cheaper, but it depens, since prices in travel agencies are here usually set only for one month at a time and then change. It seems at this point all a bit chaotic and unorganized, but we have to start planning and reserving trips now or right after the start of term if we want to go in February. All of the girls from Queen's left for the Philippines, so that puts some subconcious pressure on one to do something as well. But I'd rather plan on where to go, how and when... and get to know people a bit better before deciding, since I am no a resort-person myself by prefer looking around; more the "backpacking" style (at least for really seeing a different culture and a country). And even if everything is cheap, the money goes and fast. Talking to Damien and Gabriel and how much they spent (scary!) on various trips- well, I really have to rethink my budget and set some realistic limits to where and what to do... also considering the time at hand. Mongolia is definitely one, Tibet seems as expected already more and more difficult, especially because of all the special permits and visas. We'll see... but I m sure I will find someone similar-minded people here!

Street market on HK Island; View from Victoria Peak (smart tourists take the cable car up and walk down, we did the opposite, I recommend it); View on street in SoHo; The guys I have been hanging out with the past days here: Mike (U.S.) , Karl (SWE), Martin (SWE), Jimmy (CAN/FRA), Antonio/José (U.S.). Joel (SWE) is missing since sick after eating Thai noodles on Friday...