Up and Over Hong Kong Island

We spent our last day in Hong Kong touring Hong Kong Island, starting with the historic Victoria Peak Tram, an 8-minute ride that pretty much trolleys you straight up the slope of the mountain, and if you want to take it back down—well, you ride backwards. From there we bussed around to Aberdeen on the island’s south side, where we took a sampan tour of the typhoon shelter area. That means we took a dumpy boat ride around the ramshackle harbor where designer yachts towered over shrimp boats that somehow managed to look sunken while floating. It did, however, show how used tires can be put to use: line everything with them! Boats, marinas, breakwaters…heck, soon we’ll start a fisherman’s fashion line! Then we curved around the coast past Repulse Bay (named after a British vessel, not after…you know, repulsiveness in general) to Stanley, where we browsed the market, got some ice cream, and collected some sand from Stanley Beach.

Oh yeah, we went to this temple in Central. It was your typical temple—smoking, filled with worshipers and tourists. The highlight was when one of the old women there early to burn bushels of incense lit her bunch and accidentally smacked it into the hair of one of the tourists, who spun around with huge eyes and clutched at her hair. I reassured her she was not smouldering and we laughed. In China we tourists have to stick together!

….And that’s about all I have on Hong Kong. Back to Japan!