Clear skies in Hong Kong

The Star Ferry is a 9-minute ride between Kowloon and HK Island.
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We arrived to Hong Kong (HK) on a direct flight from Beijing and despite geographical and political proximity to mainland China it felt like a different world. First thing we noticed was the blue sky with some clouds and once it got dark we stared at the celestial bodies and realized how much we missed them in the previous week in Beijing. Although HK has water and air polution issues it's hard to even compare with the mainland.

Our plane soared over tropical mountainous islands dotting the South China Sea, then HK itself came into view - skyscrapers packed together among green mountains. From our seats on the plane, it looked as if we were touching down in the middle of the sea.

Tram - a dirt-cheap but hot way to get around town
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We stayed at what appears to be the best hotel of our journey - The Peninsula Hong Kong. And was it plush! Originally built in the 1920's, it used to be waterfront, but reclamation of land has pushed it back. On our arrival, hot jasmine tea and tropical fruits were waiting for us. We decided that our colonial imperialist experience would not be complete without a British Racing Green Rolls Royce Phantom ride to the airport. It was a smooth ride. Our driver, a native of HK, explained to us how lazy the Chinese are and how much better HKers are.

Stayed cool in the wax museum...
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The only full day in HK we spent exploring and felt like we hit most of the highlights in about 14 hours. Seems the big thing to do is to get up someplace high and look at the view. The Victoria Harbor 'Star' ferry ride was an exciting beginning and the ride back was filled with grand views of the HK skyline. Everyone talks about Singapore as the cleanest city in Asia, but HK felt to be manicured to same degree.

We found HK easier to navigate than Beijing, since we were far from the only white folks around and many people speak English.

...and hobnobbed with celebrities.
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Our visit was not without political controversy. We witnessed the protests to stop demolition of Queen's pier from the large windows of Maxim restaurant (a celebrated dim sum place). People chained themselves to the pier and even several hunger strikers were into their fourth day. The police got tired of waiting and removed the protesters from the pier (we missed the actual removal process). Still felt uneasy for a little bit as we stuffed our bellies with dim sum and tea and others were a hundred yards away standing up for a cause. Or maybe the uneasiness was just from overeating, I don't know.

"Wet market" a crazy place where definition of fresh is whether the heart and gills are still moving!
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We enjoyed everything about HK except for the heat and we have only ourselves to blame for coming in late July. The modern city, the water, the mountains, and mostly blue sky made for a very enjoyable couple of days.

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