We woke up Thursday morning excited about getting to the consulate to see if they had granted our visas. We arrived a few minutes before the office opened; it was getting pretty easy to travel to the consulate--go out exit B, turn left, go into the Lippo Center, go downstairs and pass through to the other side, go across the walkway, and enter the Fairmont House. Earlier the consulate had sent us to the Lippo Center in order to make copies and use the internet. I didn't understand the word Lippo and thought maybe they were saying expo. The men at the information desk didn't know what I was talking about so I started explaining there was a place where I could make copies and use the internet. :) Working with different languages you learn not to give up so easily...
We were in and out of the consulate in record time with the appropriate visas in our passports. Whew! We were so excited. Then we went back to the Lippo Center to look for something, but I couldn't find it. I did find a really great Christian book store. We enjoyed listening to the English praise and worship music and shopping the book and gift collections they had. It was a very well stocked store, and it was surprisingly located in a very well-to-do business section of the city.
After this we decided to try to find The Peak tram. A theme of our Hong Kong trip seemed to be take the correct MTR exit and then get lost. The two pictures below are the wrong ways to go.
At a crosswalk we asked the two ladies who were waiting for directions to the peak tram. This lady told me I had to go down to get there. I didn't completely understand, and she must have known that. She had us walk with her since she was going to catch the bus near there.
She kept calling me ma'am, and I figured she wasn't from Hong Kong. She's from the Philippines and working and living in Hong Kong. She liked it that I had eaten balut before (a developing duck embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell) although she doesn't eat it herself, but her husband and son like it.
She led us directly to the ticket line for the Peak Tram, and we said our goodbyes. We were very grateful for her help. We got on the tram, and it was a very steep ride! It took about 10 minutes to get to the top.
Someone offered to take a picture for us, and we did the same for them. It's nice when it's reciprocal like that!
The sun was very bright. In almost every picture our eyes are squinted, watery, and almost shut, but it was a beautiful day. This one turned out great of Rusty!
It's amazing how much can be crammed into one small space. If you can imagine 6,339 people per square kilometer, then you can get an idea of just how busy Hong Kong is. If you're claustrophobic, hate people bumping into you, or the busy-ness of city life Hong Kong may not be the place for you.
After we returned from the peak, we decided to try to find the Central-Mid-Levels escalator and and walkway system that we had spotted on our wrong-way adventure. It conveniently passed through the SoHo district which is conveniently the home of Taco Loco--the Mexican restaurant we were searching for, and it's something interesting to see in Hong Kong. It's the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. It covers over 800 meters and elevates over 135 meters from bottom to top.
Unfortunately the Mexican restaurant didn't open until 6:00, and we arrived around 3:00. The doors were open, and there were people inside but they weren't open. Whether they serve good Mexican food or not may remain an unsolved mystery for us. So we got back on the escalator and picked an Italian restaurant insted. Pizza Express was wonderful although it was probably the most expensive meal we have eaten in years. We ordered a yummy pizza that was topped with ricotta, honey chicken, prosciutto, and basil. Then we had affogato for dessert (a scoop of gelato drowned in a shot of espresso). It was great as well! On our way back to the hotel we decided since we had plenty of time we'd hop on a ding ding (what the locals call the cable cars because of the sound they make). This was definitely on Rusty's to-do list, and it was a lot of fun riding on the double-decker cable car.
On our way back to our hotel at night we stopped off and had a few more snacks from some bakeries and found some BBQ corn chips from the Philippines--the closest things we've had to Frito's in a while, and I indulged in some Golden Oreos. Since we can get good Cantonese food here in our city I guess we'll keep enjoying the international scene of Hong Kong.
*Take-away from day 3--finding food in a foreign country can be very difficult if you don't want to pay tourist prices. Although I wanted to eat the local food sometimes it was just easier to see a place where lots of people were already eating and eat there as well regardless of what type of food they served. And if you spend too much time walking around for food it just makes you grumpy. :) So go prepared to pay a bit more for food than you think you're going to that way you're pleasantly surprised if you find a better deal.
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