We begin our Day 2 of Hong Kong touring boarding the Star Ferry to cross the harbor.  Our Big Bus tour today begins in Kowloon, on the other side.  It’s raining today, but we can see enough to be impressed.  The bus provides earphones for recorded commentary of the tour.  It’s so helpful to better understand all the sights we’re seeing.  After the tour, we walk to the nearby Peninsula Hotel, the oldest 5-star hotel in Hong Kong.  It’s a grand old hotel, with an afternoon “high tea”, considered a must-do in Hong Kong.  We arrive 45 minutes early, and the line is already beginning to form.

The Peninsula Hotel

One of the 14 Rolls Royce “shuttles” in the fleet of the Peninsula Hotel.

It’s a very formal tea, with fancy cakes, etc. and some exclusive teas.  We enjoy ourselves, as well as watching the hotel activities.  The Peninsula has a fleet of 14 Rolls Royce limos, painted “Peninsula” green.  Cars are pulling up and loading and unloading guests all afternoon.  This is a great way to kill the afternoon.

Walking around the streets of Kowloon

The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center

The ICC building. Dinner on the 102nd floor tonight.

Hong Kong Skyline from the harbor

We walk around Kowloon, getting a feel for the streets and the activity.  One of the “side tours” is the Star Ferry Harbor Tour.  There are some great views.  Our dinner tonight is at Tosca, in the ICC building, the tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong.  We head over early hoping to visit the Sky Tower, a viewing area on the 100^th floor.  It’s really scenic, although the clouds are close to fogging us in.  After an hour of viewing, we head back down, looking for our restaurant.  We find the entrance for the Ritz Carlton Hotel and our restaurant, but it only leads to an elevator bay.  We’re loaded onto a high-speed elevator back to the top and the 103^rd floor.  We unload into a reception area and desk for the hotel, ON THE 103^RD FLOOR!  This is really high!

The view from the 100th floor of the ICC.

Tosca is down an escalator on the 102^nd floor.  It’s what could safely be called “fine dining”.  We enjoy our dinner and the view.  It’s an unbelievable setting for a meal, and a highlight for our Hong Kong trip.

Brussels Sprouts

Roasted guinea fowl.

The plan for our first day in Hong Kong is to find “The Big Bus”, a double-decker tourist bus, designed for hop-on / hop-off sightseeing.  There are three routes available for tours.  The fee includes 2 days of riding privileges with unlimited on-off loading.  There are also a few extra side tours.  One of the stops is close to our hotel, so we start looking for it.  There is nothing marking a loading site.  I was expecting some kind of sign, or kiosk, or something.  I finally spot a bus, but it’s driving away.  According to the brochures, another should be along in 20 minutes, so we cool our heels with some level of impatience.  Finally, a bus rolls up, and our Hong Kong touring begins.

Hong Kong Skyline on Friday night

The Big Bus

More Friday night pictures

We begin with the Hong Kong downtown route, seeing many of the city buildings and historical sites.  Part of the tour is the cable car up to Victoria Peak.  It’s a steep ride with tremendous views of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbor.  The top is fogged in with cloud cover, but we enjoy a meal at “Bubba Gump’s” at the peak.

Hong Kong Streets and the trolley system

Back at the bottom of the hill, we switch to another bus route taking us to the south side of Hong Kong Island and Stanley.  After passing thru a tunnel, we find ourselves out of the city, and touring a coastline.  The big attraction is Stanley, a beach, market, and shopping area.  It’s surrounded with very exclusive apartments.  We hop off and walk through the Stanley Market, making a few touristy purchases.  Back at the bus we finish the tour and head back to the hotel.  It’s been a full day of touring and we’re beat.  I go looking for an ATM to get some cash and find a McDonalds.  I grab some food for dinner in the room, and we finish the night enjoying the views from our hotel room of the harbor.

The Stanley Market

Stanley restaurant row

A cemetery near Stanley

We’re anxious to get to Hong Kong.  According to weather forecasts, the temps will be between 70 and 78 the entire trip.  There are also supposed to be intermittent showers, which will definitely be a change from Beijing.  We’re getting better at dealing with airports.  Taxi and check-in goes smoothly.  Security is never easy, but we’re packing better than we used to.  Immigration is easy but requires standing in line for a little while.  The flight departs about 9:45am, 15 minutes later than scheduled.

Landing is more interesting than usual.  It’s overcast, but it becomes obvious we’re circling.  Finally, an hour after our scheduled arrival, we start down, and break through the clouds.  It’s a really bumpy landing.  They had warned about high winds on approach.  On the ground finally, we begin to figure out how to get into the city.

Just outside immigration and the luggage area, I find a place to exchange our money for Hong Kong dollars.  HKD is 7-1 to US dollars.  Chinese RMB is 6-1.  This should be easier than the Thai Baht, and Korean money.  This exchange spot also sells round-trip tickets for the Airport Express to downtown Hong Kong Station.  It’s a smooth high-speed trip that takes 24 minutes.  At the station, there are free shuttles to the downtown hotels.  30 minutes later, we’re moving into our room.

It’s a nice room with a gorgeous view of Victoria Harbor.  We’re right above the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.  If you ever look at a map of Hong Kong, the HKCEC juts out into the harbor very near the center of downtown.  The view is so dramatic, I’m not sure I’m going to want to leave the room.  It was worth the extra we paid for the “Harbor View”, as opposed to the City View.

After unpacking and resting, we decide to venture out for the “Symphony of Lights”.  It’s a light show with music encompassing the Hong Kong skyline.  We figure out how to catch a nearby Star Ferry (less than 50 cents), and cross the Harbor to Kowloon to the viewing area.  Our hotel is right in the middle of the presentation.  Hong Kong touts itself as having more skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world (twice as many as New York City).  It’s hard to argue.  It’s breathtaking.  There’s no way photos can do this justice.  Before the scheduled start, there is an announcement that in honor of the World Wildlife Foundation “Hour of Darkness”, there will be no light show tonight.  In fact, the skyscrapers are going to turn off all their lights.  We’ll get to catch it another night.  We board the ferry for our return trip, and it’s not too long before we’re looking at the lights on the Kowloon side of the harbor from our bed.

Judy has no classes today.  BISS just has professional development all day.  She’s not in a hurry to leave for school, but if she doesn’t go early, getting a taxi may be a problem.  Friday is an “early” day for me.  I leave around 8:15.  The trains are not overly crowded.

After classes, I get a chance to talk to the teachers about their airport pickup experiences.  Steve (from Miami) was picking up a friend coming in for a visit.  He went to the wrong terminal, and after an hour of exchanging phone calls, figured it out, caught a bus to the correct terminal, and found her.  She was a little freaked out.  She had some anxiety about making the trip, and Steve not being there when she arrived heightened the problem.  He finally got her settled down and she was sleeping when he left the apartment this morning.

Josie (from El Paso/London) was in charge of picking up the new English teacher, Rhena, from Ohio.  Rhena is replacing Lori, who didn’t return to Beijing after Spring Festival break.  They found each other without issue and BHSFIC had provided a driver to get them into town.  He dropped them off at the main campus where Rhena was supposed to spend the night.  Apparently no one had made plans for bedding for the dorm room for the night, or arranged for her to get to school the next day, or had any plans for meals.  Thankfully Josie had an extra room at her apartment for the night.  I can’t imagine coming into town, and being dropped off at a strange site, with no instructions for what was going to happen next.  Thankfully Josie was with her and handled it all.  Rhena told Josie, if she hadn’t been there, she probably would have headed back to the airport and then back to the US.  BHSFIC has got to figure out how to better handle incoming teachers from the US.  Now Rhena gets to find an apartment, and learn all the tricks for utilities, etc.

When I get home, it’s nap time.  When I wake up, I begin packing for Hong Kong.  Judy calls, and we meet at Bluche for social time with the faculty at BISS.  We don’t stay long with packing hanging over our heads.  We only have to pack for four days, so it’s not too much of an issue, and the flight isn’t that early tomorrow.  Time for a vacation!

Today is a full day for me.  I have a regular school day finishing with Orchestra Club around 5:30.  The faculty has a social activity planned at a Spanish restaurant in Sanlitun Village at 7:00 pm.  Since I don’t see them very often, I decide to participate.  It requires a little different train route coming from BHSFIC, and coming out of the new station, I’m amazed at the sites.  It seems that every train station is in a world of it’s own with huge shopping malls and other interesting buildings.  I grab one of the motorized rickshaws after negotiating the fare, for the trip down the street to Sanlitun.  The driver is crazy.  He’ll take on trucks or any other vehicle as he makes his way down the street, honking, swerving, and yelling as he goes.

Arriving early at the restaurant, I get seated and order appetizers for the table.  It’s half-price night, on everything.  A small group is attending this evening.  None of the Chinese teachers are coming because they have early classes.  The teachers from the US I visit with the most are busy picking up people from the airport, and never arrive.  Our group ends up with five total.  Louise organized the activity.  Dr. Prettyman (from Utah) is the academic prinicipal, but mostly in charge of accreditation.  “Big Frank”, as the kids call him, is in charge of activities.  The final member of the group is David, the theater teacher.  I haven’t seen him since school started.  He teaches on Tuesday, and I teach on Thursday and Friday.

David taught one year at Amarillo College.  Says he enjoyed Amarillo and the Panhandle.  He taught 20 years at Milton Academy, a prestigious prep school in Boston.  He’s been in Beijing since 2007 and has a Chinese wife.  He is involved in numerous theater productions in the city.  He is also beginning to make inroads into the film industry as an actor.  One of his films is due out in April.  He told us tonight he’s scheduled to start shooting a movie with Jackie Chan in a few weeks.  I’m anxious to see his movie when it hits the theaters in China next month.