Friday and Saturday Adventures in HK

Well, what to write about tonight? Other than the fact that, sad as it is, I'd be perfectly content to head to bed right now... and it's only 7. Oh well.

It's crazy to realize that it's Saturday. We've only been in Hong Kong since Wednesday, and I have no problem going adventuring all over the... city... country... whatever you want to call it. :)

Friday evening I was coming back from the library when I ran into a bunch of the rest of the group heading out to Kowloon. “Wanna come?” they asked, and I agreed, because hey, how often do I get the chance to run off to the downtown of Hong Kong? So we took the MTR (which I love, and I'm extremely grateful for practice on the DC metro system...) and went first to the Space Museum (LOVE! It has virtual hang-gliding... enough said?) and then watched the Symphony of Lights. That was spectacular and... everything is kind of made epic right now by the fact that it's in Hong Kong (which I remember Jess telling me about Rome...) but I think it was epic in its own right.

Then, since a bunch of people wanted to get dinner, and Tim was in Explore! mode, we ended up catching the Star Ferry (again, it's pretty cool, and if you think I'm exaggerating, you'll have to check it out yourself). We wandered around Hong Kong Island for a while, trying to find a place to eat, and we ended up in a random Chinese restaurant. It was good... except that we managed to lose one guy from the group along the way.

Skipping over much of the angst and whatnot that this provoked, everyone did make it home (albeit that we were on the last train to Ma On Shan, and had to get the guys at the gate of the YMCA camp to unlock it and let us in... oops) and then it was time for bed.

Then Saturday!

This was our very lovely “free day” to do whatever in Hong Kong. A bunch of the group ended up heading to Macau but I (liking to do things by myself) headed back downtown after getting in some story-writing with people who are 12 hours off. So first, I hit the Jade Market, at the suggestion of Dr. K. It was fun, and I was rather proud of not getting crazily lost (although Hong Kong is very well marked with signs and whatnot, and the MTR goes everywhere... so I'm just going to be embarrassed if I do get really lost in Hong Kong) and managed a little bit of bartering.

It is much less creepy to barter with women than it was with guys who were dropping marriage proposals like spare change in the Arab Quarter in old Jerusalem. It also saves my sanity to do it by putting in numbers on a calculator rather than arguing between languages that we certainly don't both speak.

Anyway. Then I headed back to the museums. I was (silly me) thinking of hitting quite a few of the museums. This did not end up happening; I went into the Hong Kong history museum. Which was awesome. And I spent the entire afternoon there. Also, it cost me $5 to get in. Hong Kong dollars, that is... and that's under a dollar US. Very much worth it. grin

Then I was hungry... so I came back to the camp. And here I am.

In one other piece of news, which hopefully is completely irrelevant to anyone in the US – 7-11's here sell various bottled drinks, one of of which is called “Longan and Chinese Wolfberry Drink”. It is very high on the list of nastiest things I've ever drank, but I was thirsty, so I did drink it.

One other thought – living in a country where it's safe to drink tap out of the water is lovely. I'm missing that right now.