Hong Kong

View from Victoria Peak--the weather had cleared up considerably, but it was still hazy. Most days are hazy at the peak, especially during the summer.
This is the famous floating restaurant in Aberdeen Harbor. It was featured heavily in James Bond movies, and seats 2000.

In the 1980's, there were about 600,000 "boat people" living on fishing boats in Aberdeen harbor. In 2000, there were only about 10,000. The government has built multi-family housing units for the boat families along the harbor. Younger people are moving to the apartments, but the older folks prefer to live on their boats and maintain the culture that has passed from generation to generation. The apartments in the background house 4-6 people per 200 square feet.
We enjoyed our trip to Stanley Market and the views were incredible. Hong Kong is such a contrast of very hip metro on one side and lazy seaside resort along the south side. It is a very lush, green island with lots of hiking trails and nature areas, which surprises people who have only visited central HK
Lobby of the Regal Kowloon. This is the hotel for most CCAI families in Hong Kong. Its about a 10 minute walk from the star ferry and Nathan road. Across the street is a starbucks and an Outback restaurant if you crave one last salad before crossing into mainland China.

We had a wonderful time in Hong Kong! We arrived really late the first night and went to the Cantonese restaurant inside the Regal Kowloon for dinner. We were the only westerners in there and felt a little on display. I guess we know now how it feels to be the minority. There were the cutest little Asian girls at the next table and one little girl was just fascinated with Jimmy. She kept coming over and standing beside him just grinning from ear to ear. Apparently what we were saying or the way we said it was very funny!

The food was great, and we were fairly adventurous.

The next day we took a half day city tour. We are pretty independent travelers and were tempted to wing it on our own, but ultimately decided to go with the organized tour because we only had one day to see as much as possible. This was the most efficient way to see the sights in a short amount of time, and we learned alot about the culture of Hong Kong from our guide, Yuka.

That night we went to dinner at Outback (we were craving salad and have been warned not to have them once we crossed into mainland china due to food born illness) and then walked along the Kowloon waterfront to watch the nightly light show. We then took a stroll down Nathan road, otherwise known as the "Golden Mile" before heading back to the hotel.

Hong Kong reminds us of New Orleans in some ways with the old and new side by side, and New York with the skylines and hipster culture. Our only regret about our stay in Hong Kong was that it was so short, but we intend to come back some day and show Amelia the sights.