Dragon's Back

By far, the closest thing to a "rural activity" that we have done since in Hong Kong is the "dragon's back trail" on the south side of the island.  Much of Hong Kong island is uninhabited due to the rocky mountainous terrain. This path takes advantage of this geology, providing a unique rural experience in an urban atmosphere.

The trail follows a couple ridges on the easternmost peninsula on the south side of the island. The ridges being the back of the dragon. I know, a dragon analogy in Asia. Unique, right? 

Regardless, the views were great and I see why this trek is popular. You almost feel like you're on a small uninhabited island! (until you look around too much)

You can see the path tracing the top of the hills. 

From up here you can see all the little expensive expat beach towns - again, not quite a rural experience, but it's as good as we are going to get! This is "big wave beach"

This is Stanley, where we watched dragon boats in previous posts. 

And a little more nature:

As with most Asian experiences, death or certain harm is never far away. We found this little path to a cliff and decided to tempt fate. Yes, I am stabilizing myself with my arms, and yes, there is a 1000' drop behind me. (skip forward, mom)

Also a characteristic of Asia, you are never THAT far from people - some nice Aussies took this one of us.

From the picture above you probably noticed Jordan is no longer wearing a shirt. It was almost too hot to function, as displayed by the sweat marks on my shirt:

Jordan is a statue!

On the way down we found some "spring water" that we decided was safe enough to touch without getting dengue fever or some other tropical disease. The water was cool enough and we were hot enough that we didn't care what was in it! We didn't dare get any in our mouths, though. 

And because I am slave to scenic vistas, I end the post with this one:

I Warned You

I say it DIRECTLY in the title, so please don't stop reading just because I cannot escape my obsession with buildings, skylines and pretty views.

I warned you.

Here are some of the best views of Hong Kong that I have so far (that I have not already posted).

From a walking path halfway up the mountain. 

From a bar called "OZone" on the roof of the International Commerce Center (ICC), which is (depending who you ask) the 7th tallest building in the world. The roof bar is actually open to the air, putting you pretty much... in the ozone. 

From the ground in front of ICC. 

From one of the better dim sum places we have eaten at. It was on the 28th floor. Despite the shrimp dumplings, this was my favorite part of the meal. 

On the ground at HKG. Jordan is SO SICK of my airport pictures. 

On the flight to Taiwan. There must have been lots of pollution in the air, because the sunset was fantastic!

Looking closely at the bottom right, you can see ICC hiding behind Victoria Peak on HK island. 

International Finance Center (from one of the recent batman movies)

And views from the boat are my favorite, despite the nausea. 

Don't worry, there are plenty more where these came from. I will post more as I snap them. You're welcome.

I warned you.

Macau boat

Time for the TURBOJET boat to Macau. Here is the view. More to come from Macau itself.

Above and Beyond (restaurant)

Here is the view from the 28th floor restaurant Above and Beyond. Wicked views! (And prices). But totally worth it.

We caught the tail end of the light show from up here too!

Fancy Slanted drink:

New Cantonese vocab: gweilo (gwai low) 

Old ghost (white person). Despite my skin tone, I'm gonna own it. 

Hong Kong Symphony of Lights

I have been asked to post a video that shows the "symphony of lights," a.k.a. the most silly asian-y light show of all time. It's in the Guinness Book, believe it or not. Here is a short video that shows how the buildings (loosely) sync up to a broadcasted narration and electronic symphony (for your convenience and listening pleasure, it is broadcast on two FM stations and you can dial into the broadcast using your phone!). Hey, they try. I wonder what the electricity bill is like for this town.

I will try to get a better video of this when we do a reprise of this boat adventure, which I am sure will happen soon. I am somehow drawn to boat adventures that make me seasick.

Big beer and lights

We watched the silly light show from the peninsula hotel on the Kowloon side. They didn't pull up the shades! Still nice views though. And we made some silly tourist friends from Australia and the us.

Then it's on to dinner. Big beers! 

They didn't speak a word of English so Jordan made friends with the waiter speaking putonghua (the common language - mandarin). This is a good sign, as they probably didn't spit in our food. 

Hong Kong so far

Here are some pictures of HK so far.

This is our serviced apartment while here. We're on the 21st floor with pretty nice views. You can see my "office" in the corner there. On the right is the view looking west (straight out the window in front of my office)

Window view looking north. If you look closely, there is scaffolding to left of the building with the angled roof and red sign to the center left of the picture. Behind that scaffolding is the international commerce center, which is one of the highest buildings in the world - you'd never know it from this view.

This is a view looking south toward the mountains from our hotel roof deck. I have spent some time out there, but it is less a roof deck than it is a steam room out there. At night it's nice though. 

Us on a bus to Aberdeen. Aberdeen is a "small fishing village" on the other side of the island that is wrought with highrises and swarming with people. Not as quaint as we'd hoped, but we got this nice picture of ourselves.

 And the quintessential pic from the "Kowloon Side" of Victoria Harbour. I never tire of it.

One of the first days we were here we went to visit the "worlds largest bronze buddah sitting down on the top of a mountain" (it seriously has about 12 qualifiers to being the largest buddah). Well, the fog had other plans, so instead we just got a fun, foggy 4 mile gondola ride into the mist. The buddah was less than impressive in the fog. No picture necessary. (maybe later after we visit again)

 Required photo of HKG from the gondola.

One of my favorite buildings here because of it's ye-oldeness 1980s looking architecture and the silly lights. I tend to love misty "batman" nights where the light reflects off the clouds. I'm a romantic about buildings.

Pretty nighttime sky from Kowloon.

Jordan's building/office. Standard Chartered has a small building but it packs a big punch in the ridiculous nightly light show. The building to its left is the HSBC building. Both banks print the money for HK.

Bank of China (BOC) from a silly business-y, expensive, xpat rooftop bar next to the buildings. This is from the 30th floor or something like that.

BOC in the day along with the ding dings. The ding dings are my preferred method of slow clunky fire hazardous transport here. (they are made of wood and ready to burst into flames from an electrical fire at any time - I live on the wild side)

Taiwan

Taipei 101 was intimidatingly tall. Like, actually huge. I'm just glad we weren't up there for an earthquake.

View from the top. 

We basically ate our way through Taiwan. This is eel. And sea slug. The eel was good. The sea slug was not (Jordan had a rare ordering translation blunder). 

Taiwanese are known for their fried chicken. Who knew? 

And an Asian country is not complete without a high speed rail system. I thoroughly enjoyed. 

This one is for dad. Most informative and creepy bathroom sign in existence. "ITS" just took on a whole new level of importance.