Hong Kong - Dropping in for a Few Days

A City that Continues to Captivate Me
After our Japanese vacation we spent a few days in Hong Kong on the way back to Singapore.  I don't know what it is about Hong Kong.  It's crowded, noisy, polluted, dirty but somehow I really like the place.  I cannot put my finger on it.  Perhaps it reminds me of NY, with all the hustle and bustle and striving.  We stayed in the usual hotel, just steps from Victoria Park.  This is a shot from the hotel room.

What most don't realize is that a high percentage of the island is completely untouched, walled off from development as parkland.  Something like 20% or less is developed and the rest is thick jungle on top of sharp peaks.  We did something out of the ordinary and took a bus to the south side of the island, through such places as Repulse Bay and Stanley, where the movies stars and expats live, in that order.

It's totally different.  Quiet, green, huge bays looking onto nearby islands.  With no traffic, it's a short bus ride away - just 20 minutes from the dense mayhem on the north side of the island.  I wondered why anyone would move halfway around the world to Hong Kong and then settle in a small replica of the west, with its fish and chips shops and pasta places.  So strange.

Hong Kong was just as I remember it from my previous visits, with one exception.  It's much more polluted that it was just three years ago.  Clear evidence that the Chinese engine of progress has revved up, spewing its fumes eastward.  We ate at some of our usual spots, tried some new ones, met up with Jean's Hong Kong colleagues for dim sum (where I tried the duck tongues but she chickened out), shopped, walked, took the subway and enjoyed ourselves.