Bienvenue a Bangkok

Well, here I am in Bangkok and I realize that I basically failed to write anything about Hong Kong. I spent three wonderful days there and feel so fortunate that I was lucky enough to know people who made it all such a fabulous experience. Steven and Daniel were truly hosts extraordinaire, and went WAY above and beyond the call of duty (especially since in this case I would say the call of duty was zero). I spent both Wednesday and Friday nights out with them, dining on wonderful Chinese and Nepalese food, respectively, and trying to make a dent in Daniel's winnings of 30L of beer. For the record, a liter is a big glass of beer. Thursday night I was lucky enough to have my second cousin (I think?) Ian take me out on an old Chinese junk, have drinks and dinner, and just generally show me around which was great. We ended the night by spectating the classic party street from above and watching for US sailors on leave in the harbor to getting into fights.

I spent my days mostly wandering around by myself, seeing the sights, trying not to spend money/resiting purchases in the markets. On Wednesday my highlights were the botanical garden/zoo and the peak tram. On Thursday I took a little day-trip out to Nyong Ping which is where a giant Buddha was placed on a hill in Lantau next to a Buddhist monastary. The buddha was definitely cool, as was the cable-car ride up there. I was a bit disappointed with the overt development of the area (it almost seemed like a mini-theme park with these multimedia shows and complete with a Starbucks). My favorite thing, however, was the huge number of hiking paths up in these beautiful mountains (I should note that the Chinese pave all of their paths, and while they seem to eschew switchbacks, they put in steps).
After viewing the "wisdom path" which was very cool, despite my lack of comprehension of Chinese characters , I headed off down the "Lantau path" for a bit. Unfortunately it was a long trail and I didn't have either the time or the right equipment necessary to really go far, but it was truly spectacular. The mountains are very steep and the whole landscape almost reminded me of climbing over a sleeping dragon.

In terms of Hong Kong in general, I didn't really know what to expect, but whatever I expected was not quite that. I would say that HK could be described primarily in terms of both its vertical nature and its contrasts. It is an incredibly vertical city in so many ways. First, there is the fact that it's built next to/on a very steep mountain. Because of the limited flat landspace the city has crept up the lower portion of the mountain, before admitting defeat against its 45 degree angle. This means that, for example, the Hopewell Center which is located between Queens Road and Kennedy Road has an entrance on each side, one on the 3rd floor, and one on the 17th. People commute through the building using the escalator. Bizarre. The city also sports the longest system of escalators in the world. They're outside, but covered, and they're used for commuting to and from the "mid-levels" a primarily residential community part-way up victoria peak, and the center (as down-town HK is aptly called). Tourists also use this system to just move-around and spectate. It's especially fun at night passing the portion (Shelley St. I think) that has bars directly on either side and watching the people. Hong Kong is vertical in more than just its mountain however, the city itself is tall. I don't know the figures on this, but the density of tall buildings there is really extraordinary. Everything is tall. Finally, the way in which all this space is utilized once again emphasizes the vertical: shops and restaurants are not restricted to street level. Indeed many are on second, or third floors, or even higher. Apparently there are many places that you just have to know are there in order to find. And added to this 3-D utilization of space is the complicated ways in which pedestrians must move aboutp, using all sorts of pedestrian bridges and underground moving walkways etc. Simply looking at a map is only half the story.

In terms of contrasts, there is the obvious East/West in this cosmopolitan city termed "Asia's world city" where both sky scrapers and wester customs meet a 95% chinese population. The contrast I was more surprised about, however, was the way that the city simply turned into wilderness as it went up the hill. It is incredibly abrupt. There are no suburbs. Just sky scraper and then jungle. In fact, most of the island is undeveloped, and there are also beaches on the south side, of which I had no idea.

I've discovered that traveling alone gives you a lot of time to reflect, but I'm super excited to have LG join me tonight! Anyway, I have more thoughts on Hong Kong (e.g. no recyling anywhere!!) but they'll have to wait for a rainy day as this post is already too long and I'm about to run out of internet. I'll try to start updating more frequently...