Hong Kong

I’m tired! I just arrived home from Hong Kong yesterday. Overall the trip was pretty good. If I were to go again, I know what I would do differently. The hostel I stayed at was in a pretty bad part of town, but it was cheap and near some shopping districts, so it was ok. The hostel owner was helpful and gave me good directions to places I wanted to go. They also had a cute little chubby Chihuahua that was very friendly and never barked. The room was big enough for the bed, and the bathroom was a combined toilet room and shower with a plastic hood over the toilet paper so it wouldn’t get wet. There were a few ants, and I was warned not to drink the water, but I survived.
There are three main islands, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and Lantau. Most of the time I was on Hong Kong Island and next time that is where I would stay. Kowloon has cheap shopping districts, and Lantau has the airport and Disneyland.
There is a lot of shopping in Hong Kong (I even found pants that fit me!). Some areas are the ones where you bargain for cheap copy goods, and others are expensive high-end malls. Both were fun to wander through.
A few interesting things, when you enter Hong Kong, you get your temperature taken with a heat sensor. Then at Disneyland, they took my fingerprint.
On my first day I went to “The Peak.” It is a point at the top of a mountain that looks down on the city. You ride up on a tram at a very steep angle. I happened to go on a hazy day, but the view was nice anyway. There is a small shopping mall up there too where I bought a of couple books. Then I took a bus (almost all the buses are double deckers) to the other side of Hong Kong Island to visit Stanley Market. I had a nice lunch at an Indian restaurant and did some shopping. After that I went back to the downtown area, did more shopping, and saw “Letters From Iwo Jima.” The movie theater was an AMC Theater and was probably the nicest one I’ve ever seen. I am glad I finally got to see the movie too. I also visited a place called The Western Market, which was pretty boring. I went through the first 2 floors, and decided to head up to the third floor which was a bit dark, but there was music, so I wanted to check it out. As I was riding up the escalator, I realized I was intruding on a wedding reception. The escalator went right into the middle of the dance floor. I looked back but couldn’t turn around and go down, so I arrived between some couples and I tried to hurry off the dance floor, but I couldn’t find the exit right away, Very embarrassing.
I have included pictures of some food I ate, a few buildings, inside a bank, and views of the Peak.
More on day two later.