Day 1, June 7.
I got back from my week-long trip to Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and the Philippines specifically) on Tuesday night, and have been steadily recovering from jet lag ever since. It's actually not as bad as I was expecting considering the 12-hour time difference and 15+-hour travel time both ways, but it's there. It wakes me up at 4 in the morning, makes me want to crawl into bed at 5 pm, and other awkward things, but it's really not too bad. It's incredibly worth it considering the absolutely amazing experience that I had for the very short week.
The trip had been in the works for about a year, when a Filipina co-worker mentioned that she was going to be going home this summer and was looking at flights. We'd become pretty good friends, and I'd mentioned always wanting to go to the Philippines due to having a grandfather who served there as a medic during WWII as well as having a very close friend who's of Filipino descent. It's a country that I feel that I owed it to myself and the people in my life to visit, and I loved the idea of visiting someone on her home turf. Most people might think that's a little weird, and most people probably wouldn't even understand my eagerness and willingness to take this trip, but again, I wanted to go for personal reasons. The main problem of course ended up being timing, both in the season I'd be going (the rainy season in most of Asia lasts from June through August, as I attested to in India last year) and the duration of the trip (5 days off work, 7 days give-or-take total). But I didn't care, because the opportunity arose and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't take the chance.
So once my friend told me her tickets were booked sometime in March or April for most of June (since she'd be there for 3 weeks), I began seriously looking at tickets myself. I'd told her I'd visit her early on in our conversations, and I think part of her may have doubted the seriousness of my desire, but in the end, she became very excited that I really was serious and that I was looking at flights.
The best and most convenient tickets were through Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, and when I saw that I had two options for layovers: 4 hours or 11 hours, I decided to go with the 11-hour layover for the flight out, since it meant I could check another country off my list. So I booked the tickets, and the planning began.
The tickets were actually for June 6 through the 12, as the flight out of Newark left at 2 in the morning, but due to the time difference (Hong Kong and the Philippines are 12 hours ahead of New York, so I was literally flying halfway across the world) I ended up only spending about maybe 10 hours in June 6th before we flew into Russian airspace (the flight out of Newark flew up through Canada and down over Eastern Siberia and down through Mongolia and China) into June 7th. The plane touched down in Hong Kong. Despite my infamous inability to sleep on planes, my apprehension about booking a window seat (No access to the lavatories without waking people up? That's Hell for an introvert with social anxiety.) paid off because I was able to sleep and the dehydration on the plane kept me from needing to even use the lavatory for the duration. Impressive!
I'd already started planning what I wanted to do in Hong Kong, having a general idea that it would most likely be raining (that tends to happen during the Rainy Season), but I didn't plan on there being an actual Tropical Storm/Typhoon Warning. That didn't deter me, because I wasn't about to spend 10 hours stuck in an airport. That's boring and a waste of an insanely long layover that I'd deliberately taken so I could explore Hong Kong.
So I picked up my pre-loaded Octopus card that I'd ordered from
Klook, which is a booking service for tickets and passes for Hong Kong and other places around Asia, at the terminal at 7 am, got on the Airport Express to Hong Kong Station, and got out there. The Airport Express took about 30 minutes to get into Hong Kong Island, and there were USB ports for charging on the back of the seat. My car supposedly had WiFi, but I couldn't manage to get it working.
When I left the station at around 8 am it was raining, and the mugginess would be stifling for someone less excited about humidity than I, but since I didn't have access to my umbrella since I didn't pack into my carry-on, I knew I needed to brave the rain. I am not the Wicked Witch of the West, so I was fine with that. The one thing the rain did was make me stay mostly under cover of roofs, but it was pretty sporadic and didn't hamper my exploring too much. There are actually a lot of above-ground and covered walkways in this section of Hong Kong, which was quite nice, and they're frequently used by the locals and non-locals; basically anyone who lives and works in the city.
 |
| Welcome to Hong Kong! |
Just outside the station is the major financial district, and it's close to the ferry terminal with some parks, so as soon as I could I got out from the walkways and just wandered. I just kind of turned a corner wherever I felt like it, knowing I eventually needed to make it to the ferry terminal so I could get to the mainland district at Kowloon and Tsim Sha Tsui.
 |
| The Hong Kong Observation Wheel isn't quite the London Eye, but it's close. |
 |
| Hong Kong's financial district with Victoria Peak in the background |
 |
| The tallest buildings in Hong Kong, with the one in Kowloon at the other side of Victoria Harbour obscured by clouds |
 |
| Facing Kowloon |
 |
| A bit random, but the shopping center at the International Finance Centre Mall had just that morning opened a T-Rex exhibit. |
I was really wanting to go to the Victoria Peak observatory on the hill that overlooks most of the city, but decided against it before I flew out after reading that lines can often be an hour long both ways. And when I saw just how rainy it was, and that the observatory itself halfway up was under cloud cover most of the time I was in the city, I was glad I made the decision to forgo the views. Though part of me now still wishes I'd at least tried it, because I
love skyline and city views, and every picture I see from that angle and vantage point of Hong Kong looks spectacular. Part of me really feels like I seriously missed out. But I still can't justify it since I got to walk around so much in the city, that I couldn't have done if I'd attempted to go up, so I'm okay with my decision. I can always go back at some point when the weather is better.
So I walked some more along the waterfront, which leads to the Hong Kong Convention Centre through a space called Tamar Park, which is green and lovely, and since it was early in the morning on a weekday (Friday morning), it was very quiet and there weren't many people out. That and it was a very gross day (if you don't like rain and getting wet anyway). I did get some great vantage points and perspectives of the city though, as it was far enough away from the buildings themselves.
I also ended up finding a really nice "concrete" park next to one of the covered walkways that had palmetto trees in it, and since it was so quiet it was a nice place to sit down and rest my legs a bit.
What makes Hong Kong interesting is that it used to be a British Colony, and was part of the UK until 1998 when the "lease" ran up and the UK had to "give it back" to China. So today Hong Kong is technically part of China (it's known as Hong Kong SAR, or Special Administrative Region; Macau and Taiwan are also SARs), but is actually autonomous, having its own currency and immigration regulations. Like if I'd flown through China I would have needed a visa to enter into the country to visit, but with Hong Kong I didn't. I also got to use Hong Kong Dollars instead of Chinese Yuan. I kind of wish I'd kept mine, but I needed cash in the Philippines so I exchanged them for Pesos. Ah well.
 |
| $100 HKD is about $12.73, at the time I'm typing this |
What's also interesting is that Hong Kong today, in 2018, is seen as a financial and international powerhouse, which it didn't even begin to become until the Chinese takeover. Because of the English influence for centuries you can see English everywhere in Hong Kong as well as Chinese (the local dialect being Cantonese). And of course walking through the financial district you can see native Chinese as well as Westerners/Europeans going about their everyday lives in a much closer proportion than you probably would even in New York City.
After walking through Tamar Park and past the Convention and Exhibition Center, I walked back to the ferry terminal so I could get on the Star Ferry, which takes you from Hong Kong Island to the Mainland through Victoria Harbour, and costs like $3 HKD, which is like $0.30, no joke. It's a pretty short trip, and the wind from the boat trip and the spray of the rain and water felt really nice, even if it was more water on water given the 95% humidity (and 85 F temps).
 |
| Facing east |
 |
| Facing west |
 |
| Facing the Financial District on Hong Kong Island |
 |
| On the other side of the harbor |
On the other side was Tsim Sha Tsui, which is kind of like the "old section" of Hong Kong since this is where the Clock Tower is, which is supposed to be the oldest structure in the city. It has some great walking paths (I seriously want to come back and explore again with more time and better weather). I wanted to check out the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong's answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in LA, but it seemed to be under renovations or something because I could not figure out how to access it. I did end up heading to an above-ground park nearby, before heading off to Kowloon Park.
 |
| The Clock Tower, which I believe is said to be the oldest building in Hong Kong |
 |
| I think this is the Avenue of Stars, but I could not figure out how to get down there to see since every path I took was closed due to construction. |
 |
| A classic "old-meets-new" picture, with an old Buddhist Temple in front of construction sites. |
 |
| View of Hong Kong Island from the park |
 |
| For reference, that weird v-shaped building on the hill in the background is the Victoria Peak observatory. |
To get to Kowloon Park you're walking down a major thoroughfare with malls, shopping centers, little boutiques and luxury outlets. Definitely the kind of street I wanted to walk down, seeing the hustle and bustle of a major Asian city, and the park itself didn't disappoint.
 |
| Flamingos |
 |
| It reminded me of Central Park in the way that you have skyscrapers surrounding massive green space. |
 |
| It's quite pretty, with banana trees and palm trees everywhere. |
After spending some time in the park (and taking advantage of the WiFi), I headed towards the Kowloon district so I could get back to the Airport Express terminal. It was so wet and gross that my shoes were becoming more water than fabric even though they were flats, and there wasn't much else I felt I could get to in time before needing to head back to the Airport Express. So I opted for heading in that direction, which took me to an overlook over Victoria Harbour, which offered some spectacular views of the skyline.
 |
| The HDR function on my phone is pretty awesome. |
 |
| And the zoom on my camera is spectacular. |
 |
| Panoramic view |
After getting lost trying to find my way back around to get to the Kowloon Airport Express train and making my way through two malls, I finally made it to the terminal, where a very desperate girl offered me 100 CNY for a 100 HKD bill because she didn't have any cash on her, so after my skepticism (I wasn't familiar with the going exchange rate) and her insistence that I was getting a deal because the Yuan was stronger than the HK Dollar (which turned out to be true), we made the switch, and I ended up with a 100 CNY bill.
 |
| I only bring this story up because it was pretty cool to be walking around with another currency. |
 |
| It's about $15.54 USD |
So I headed back to the airport on Lantau Island to wait for my flight to Cebu a few hours later. I easily could have spent a few more hours in Hong Kong itself, but as it is suggested to get to the airport 2 hours before an international departure and I got there with another hour to spare, I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I took advantage of the free WiFi at the airport and chilled a bit while waiting for the gate to be announced for my Cebu flight, which ended up being delayed due to weather conditions (Tropical Storms are no joke), though not as much to make a serious impact on my arrival time. The 4-hour flight went by fairly quickly, and I took another nap because I actually
could, and landed in Cebu at just before 8 pm local time. My friend and her husband met me outside the airport, and we headed to her family's house in a town called Minglanilla, about an hour from the airport. I slept very soundly that night.
 |
| Where the airport is in relation to the rest of the city |
 |
| Dark blue is either train or ferry, and light blue is mostly walking |
 |
| Flying from Hong Kong to the Philippines |
Cap comentari:
Publica un comentari a l'entrada