Central and Kowloon

The two of us on Victoria Peak.
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Today we bought Octopus cards to help with the transportation system here in Hong Kong - a great option because once you have your Octopus card, all you have to do is scan it every time you use the MTR (subway) or other types of transit around Hong Kong .  It saved us from constantly having to take out our wallets the many times a day we wanted to ride the MTR, and we also used it to pay for the tram up Victoria Peak (and you may use it for the Star Ferries as well).  The Octopus cards we bought should last us a couple of days at least, depending on how often we ride the MTR and ferries.

The Central Escalator.
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Today we rode the MTR to the Admiralty area and walked to the station for the Victoria Peak tram - despite the long line of tourists, we were stepping onto the tram before we knew it!  The tram is pulled to the top of Victoria Peak at quite an incline - I felt like I had to lean my head forward to take some strain off of my neck!  The tram also cleverly lets off at the bottom of the Peak Tower Mall, so you must ride the escalators through a gauntlet of shops before you can arrive at the rooftop viewing deck.  We succumbed to the stores and shopped a bit before we made it to the viewing deck.  I loved the views of Victoria Harbour, Kowloon, and Central, even though it was a little smoggy!  For me, the view of Hong Kong was hypnotic - I loved the mix of sights:  tall buildings with dense green mountainsides directly behind them, and massive cruise ships dwarfing the boats bobbing in the harbor.

Upper Lescar Row.
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Today we also rode on the Central escalator, the world's longest outdoor escalator!  It travels from Central to Mid-Levels and is elevated above the streets, meaning we could ride to save ourselves the walk plus observe what shops looked interesting in case we wanted to hop off.  We actually got off at Hollywood Road, which our books recommended for antique shopping, but it was less interesting than we were hoping so we started to work our way back down the hill.  That ended up being very interesting - we loved all the narrow lanes and streets we wandered through!  There were little parks here and there and some interesting lanes, like Upper Lascar, where there are little shops and booths selling odds and ends.  I felt like this was a different part of Hong Kong we hadn't seen yet, away from the noisy major roads and the tall department stores, where people walk slower and take their time!

We also took the MTR to the Kowloon area today to see the HK Space Museum, where we saw an omnimax as well (word to the wise, buy the more expensive seats so you won't have to strain your head back so far) titled "Mystic India".  Next we went to the Ocean Terminal, where my cruise ship, the MV Explorer (hooray for Semester at Sea!) docked 2 1/2 years ago!  I was happy to be able to easily find exactly which door we used to leave the mall and board our ship back then - some memories do not fade.

Last of all we went to the Temple Street Night Market, which would have been more fun if it wasn't raining.  Still, we liked browsing the booths and even made a couple of purchases.  Apparently you are supposed to bargain but we are both horrible at it!  We found the prices reasonable enough, without bargaining!