Gray, but not gloomy, Hong Kong

We wrapped up the whirlwind tour of China's three most famous cities in Hong Kong. Below is a view from the top of Victoria Peak that you might get to see if you ever come here.

Spectacular Hong Kong!

Unfortunately, here's the view I got.

Soggy Hong Kong.

I didn't pay extra to reach the very top of the peak because what was the point? It was reward enough to ride the old tram up and walk back down via the Old Peak Road. Uh-huh...

The Peak Tram has reliably climbed the 1,811-foot Victoria Peak since 1885.
The rich people with gazillion-dollar homes just drive.

Indulging in the local transportation options is one of the major "highlights" of visiting Hong Kong according to Lonely Planet. The Peak Tram is one. Then there are the skinny street cars. Two bucks will get you a quick overview of central Hong Kong, or at least one of the main drags.

I rode the yellow one to the end of the line on the west side. 

And last, there's the Star Ferry fleet. Another two bucks will get you to Kowloon from central Hong Kong. 

We were on the Twinkling Star, built in 1964. 

So, you may ask, what do you find in Kowloon or the west side of Hong Kong? On the west side I found a lot of high-end antique shops and fine-looking bistros and nightclubs on Hollywood Road. But the real treat was stumbling upon the Man Mo Temple.

The Man Mo Temple was built in the 27th year of Emperor Daoguang Qinq
Dynasty. I'll do the math for you. That would be 1847 A.D.

The temple is dedicated to the gods Man Cheong (God of Literature) and Mo Tai (God of Martial Arts). Man is symbolized by the pen and Mo by some sort of hatchet weapon. 

This woman was passionately stroking the pen icon while I as there. Perhaps it was an 

effort to conquer writer's block. She similarly honored the martial arts god, stroking the 

weapon thingy on the left. Maybe this was an effort to make her agent more aggressive. 

I didn't interrupt her to ask.

Over on Kowloon, I'm sure there are many fascinating things to do, but we were on a mission for high tea at the Peninsula Hotel. I've had high tea at places like the Pump Room in Bath, England and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C., so I knew what I was in for food-wise, but I didn't expect to stand in line for two hours to get it. This place is extremely popular and not just with tourists. The people in line with us were locals who had come more than once. By that point in the day, though, I needed food not dessert. I opted for the club sandwich, which was excellent. Let's face it, high tea is for royalty, people with so little to do they can afford to eat a 2,000-calorie snack between lunch and dinner and then maybe take a long nap before cocktail hour. Hmmm... that sounds a little too much like my typical day.

Margaret enjoying high tea in the stately lobby dining hall.

The Peninsula Hotel is the kind of place where the Rolls Royces are prominently parked
right outside the door.

Here's a few parting shots of Hong Kong to complete what we hope isn't our last trip to China. Remember my naive awe in an earlier entry about the use of bamboo scaffolding to remodel a three-story shop house in Singapore? That was nothing. 

Very tall buildings like this 20-plus story apartment house were under repair using
them all over Hong Kong.

Brutal.

Perfect.

Bad feng shui. Hong Kong's Bank of China building (left) is known as the "brutal building." Apparently, everything you can possibly do wrong in erecting a structure was done here. The sharp angles, instead of rounded shapes as seen on Shanghai's Oriental Pearl TV Tower, is likely giving off bad vibes to the buildings around it that could hurt their prosperity. Those giant Xs are considered negative. And some say it looks vaguely like a preying mantis, a threatening symbol to feng shui-ites.


Despite the bad vibes we may have contracted from being near the Bank of China building (I did come down with a cold after taking the picture), we had a good intro to Hong Kong. Hollywood Road turned into a happening party scene after dark and was jammed with expats and/or resident Brits celebrating William and Kate's nuptials -- or maybe just the fact it was Friday night. (Would the women wear plastic tiaras every Friday night?) And the restaurant scene here is the best we've seen anywhere in Asia. You'll get a good meal, with interesting twists and great service, anyplace you stumble into -- hotels included. But it was now time to sail into the sunset and return to Singapore.

Joi gin, Hong Kong!