We spent the majority of today on Hong Kong Island.

First we headed to the waterfront to take in the view … still beautiful.  I’ll never get tired or lose my awe of that amazing sight.  The sheer size and geographical footprint of the island skyscape is ridiculous.  Sandy was absolutely amazed.  It’s like looking at a 5 mile wall of glass.  Beautiful.

We then jumped on the Star Ferry (Claire’s first boat ride) to head over to Central.  Claire loved, loved, loved the boat.  And I love the smell of the harbor and the city … I seriously miss it.

Anyway, after hitting the island we headed up the mid-levels to see the old mission home.  When I was first here almost 20 years ago, if you wanted to head up the mid-levels you just had to hoof it.  It’s essentially traveling straight up the mountain on blacktop.  You would be exhausted and dripping wet with sweat by the time you made your destination.  By the end of my time in Hong Kong they had begun construction of the world’s longest escalator that does all of the hard work of ascending up to the mid-levels.  It is now completely done and it is awesome.  The escalator is still very steep, but makes it so much more enjoyable.

We finally made our way to the Kam Tong which served as the mission offices while I was in Hong Kong.  It is now a museum for Sun Yat-Sen.  We paid the money so I could see how they have changed the place.  The main structure of the building is the same … but the rooms have been changed to accommodate displays.  It was very cool to walk the halls of that amazing building again.  The part Claire enjoyed best was a 10 minute children’s cartoon that teaches about Dr. Sun.  It was pretty funny because even though it was designed for children it used adult vocabulary like “revolutionary uprising.”

We then grabbed some lunch and ate at the doorway of one of my old apartments (see the picture of me standing in front of a steel doorway below).  Lunch was some amazing ChaSiu Faahn … yum.

We then descended from the mid-levels and took the ferry back to TST.  We immediately headed for Kowloon Park and tried to find the kids’ park … sihngGung!  They have a great kids’ park with about 8 major “play stations”.  Claire had a great time and got braver and braver the longer we played there.  Very fun.

Night time brought us to Temple Street.  Temple Street is a very famous night market that is a must see while here in Hong Kong.  It was a successful outing as we added to our booty a little bit.  Sandy got two new rings to wear as wedding rings during workouts, etc.  … a jade one and a steel one, both very pretty.  Tom got an all-purpose tripod and we grabbed a couple of gift items.  The market is about a mile long and is lined on both sides with booths.  Plus there are shops on the outside of the “booths”.  There is about a 5 foot aisle down the middle where the crush of humanity meet in a desperate bid to buy something cheaply.  We got some pretty good deals when I started speaking Chinese and a number of vendors gave free stuff to Claire.  They thought I was a Hong Kong-er … or that I had been born in Hong Kong and so they would whisper … you’re a Hong Kong person, I’m not going to dicker with you … this is the lowest price.  Maybe it was just another game … but we rarely paid over 50% of the original asking price.

We were all exhausted after this excursion and didn’t make it back to the hotel until after 10pm.  Fell into bed and slept like babies.

On for tomorrow … Tom and Sandy discover the one thing with potential to keep them off the streets of Hong Kong.