In short, Hong Kong is awesome. This might be my favorite city I have been to so far. I, and I think most Americans, if not people in general, think Hong Kong is all buildings and metropolis and steel and concrete. It certainly is those things, but outside of that small part of HK, there is loads of nature, hiking, beaches, etc. The city part of the city is probably the best example of pure capitalism in the world, but when you step out of those areas, it is complete different. It is kind of like "the other side of the tracks," expect without the negative connotation of a bad neighborhood. Just two very dissimilar places making up one place.
After arriving, I took a couple of buses to Central, which is the main hub of HK and what most people think of when they think of the city. From there I took a ferry departing from Central Pier 4 to Lamma Island, where my host, Adrian, on Couch Surfing (more on this later) lives. The ferry is about 25 minutes and provides for some nice views. Lamma Island is one of the bigger of the 270 islands that are included in Hong Kong and has gained some notoriety as a expatriate area (though there are tons of expats all over HK). The island is also known because cars are not allowed on it. There are still plenty of scooters and there are a few very narrow vehicles that are used to transport product over the island, but nothing is wider than about three feet. When I arrived my host was not home but hid a key for me so I let my self in, put my stuff down and went exploring Lammma Island. I should mention that I do not know why it is called Lamma Island. I assume, as you probably have already, that at some point lammas were used to transport product on the island. But, I completely made that up and have no idea if there is even a speck of truth to it.
Lamma Island has one main "road" (path is really a more accurate word, but it is called a road) that is only about a quarter mile long. After that there are some area that have a decent number of people but most people live close to this path and it is also where most of the shops are located. After this main path, there are other paths that are intended for walking around the island and do not have residences or shops along them. One of these paths is called "Family Path," which makes me chuckle. I walked around for a few hours until I could not see any more (very sparse lighting along all paths except for the main one) at which point I returned to where my host's apartment. After some time there I got bored and went for another walk.
Lamma Island is stunning. Most people like the view of the harbour, but it is nothing special to me. In fact, I think all the machinery gets in the way of a lot of my pictures. Other views of the water and considerably nicer and the interior of the island is loaded with lesser taken paths (compared to "Family Path," for example) and you can walk for a long time before seeing or hearing anybody else.
My host, Adrian, was hosting two others the day I arrived. One, Austin, who is also American, had been there for more than a week, but would not be there that first night because he went to some party. The other, Bastain, from Germany, would be my travel companion for the next couple of days. After some brief introductions, Adrian, Bastain, and myself promptly went to bed. The following day, Sunday, Adrian and I explored Lamma Island, this time in the daylight and I took care of several small errands I needed to do. A very relaxed but good day. Bastain and I hung out a bit and made plans for the next day.
On Monday, Adrian went to work and Bastain and I went to Hong Kong Island (where Central and several other areas of HK are located and where about 65% of the tourist sites are located). We spent the first part of the day trying to take what is supposedly the longest escalator in the world. We found one end of it, but it was moving toward us so we ascended countless steps (I lost count somewhere around 134) to the other end. Upon our arrival we noticed that it was, again, moving toward us. Needless to say, we were confused. We decided to go to the nearby Hong Kong Botanical Gardens (just OK, nothing too exciting) hoping that in the meantime it would switch directions again. After the Gardens, we returned to the escalator to discover that, much to our disappointment, it was still moving toward us. That is when we noticed the schedule of when it switches directions. We decided to descend the stairs and catch it from the beginning on the side that we were originally on. About a third of the way down we decided that the claim of the longest escalator in the world was invalid and fraudulent because the escalator is not continuous - it is broken up into several sections thus making it, in my opinion, a series of escalators rather than a single, "world's longest" escalator. As a result of this decision, the idea of riding it its entire length was no longer appealing, so we just hoped of for a bit and then got some food.
We stopped by the Chinese consulate so Bastain could apply for a visa (he is taking the same 20-hour train ride, but in the opposite direction) and explored other areas of Hong Kong Island including Admirality and Casuseway Bay, all of which are cool in their own way. Victoria Garden in Causeway Bay is particularly nice.
Austin left that day but was replaced within hours by a Polish girl, Lucy, while Bastain and I were out. The three of us went to some little-known beach the following day and explored the Kowloon part of Hong Kong (on the mainland and developed just as Central is with lots of big buildings), which is cool as well. There are a few things that I did not do in Kowloon that I still want to do and will hopefully be able to write about them in my "Hong Kong, Part II" post.
The following day I took a flight to Taipei, Tawain for a short week.
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