Day in the City

Part of our orientation program involves optional tours around the city. I chose to go to the Peak. We took the bus from Lingnan and I sat next a student buddy named Grace. We chatted and I discovered that she works at a place in Tuen Mun where people can go riding. Of course that made me really excited so she said she would check and see if there is a possibility I can go out there and ride. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but that would be pretty incredible. While looking out the window of the bus, I saw a truck zoom by with an open back full of carcasses and raw animal parts. It was rather revolting and reminded me how different this place is from where I am from.
The Peak is a location high up on a mountain from which you can see a wonderful view of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbor. When I was in Hong Kong briefly last August, I went to the peak at sunset/night. We went to the wax museum there and looked at the view. This time when I went I took the tram up (rather than the bus) and we went all the way up to the Sky Terrace. It was beautiful. There was also a really nice breeze so that was some temporary relief from the scorching heat.

On the Peak Tram

View from the Tram

Sophie and I

Cool Rooftop and the Tram

It was pretty crowded because it was Saturday. I spent time with Sophie, a girl from Korea. We decided to eat at Burger King because it was the cheapest place to eat. After lunch, we found a Haagan Dazs and couldn't resist getting some ice cream. Then everyone on that tour took a group photograph and we piled on the bus to go back down into Central. We sat on the second story of the bus and the road wound down the mountain so it was very easy to get a little carsick.

Tallest Building in HK: the International Finance Center

Then we rode on the famous Star Ferry on a loop around the harbor. We got to stand out on the deck and let the wind cool us down. It was neat to see Hong Kong from high on the mountain and then from the deck of a boat.

Jessica!

The boat let us off at East Tsim Sum Tsui (the place I had been the day before). Sophie and I decided to walk around there and invited Conrad, a guy from Western China who studies in Shanghai, and Cedric (spelling?), a guy from Paris, to come with us. We walked along the Avenue of Stars in the daylight and stopped to have a cool drink at Starbucks. Then we decided to come back to see the night view, so we wandered around to look for some dinner and wait for the sun to set. We found a place called Delifrance where I ate a vegetarian pizza. After wandering back to the Avenue of Stars, we sat down to chat and admire the night view. While sitting there, we discovered that there was a light show that night so that was a very unexpected, but fun surprise.

International Finance Center at Night

We took the subway back over to Central and wondered around there for a while, but then agreed that we were exhausted so we took the subway all the way back to Siu Hong and found our way back to Lingnan.  It was a very fun day but I am glad that today is a free day and I can spend the day relaxing.

Sophie on the Subway