Hong Kong = Bubble Tea = Bliss

Hong Kong was such a random place for me to come. The truth is, I am only here because of how the flights worked out with my Round the World ticket. After Dubai I wanted to go straight to Delhi. But, for reasons I still don't fully comprehend, there was no direct flight between Dubai and Delhi, at least not on the airlines in my alliance. So for a 2 1/2 flight to Delhi, it would have taken me 2 (not even one, but TWO) layovers. And each layover counted as one of my 16 RTW segments so it would have taken away from other places I wanted to go. OR I could fly 8 hours on a direct flight to Hong Kong and then another 5 1/2 BACK to Delhi later on. The choice, while totally illogical, became clear. So here I am in Hong Kong. And since yesterday was lost on flights, jet lag and sleeping, I had a lot of ground to make up for today.

Hong Kong is made up of, ready for this, 235 islands. Two of the primary ones are Hong Kong Island (where I'm staying) and Kowloon. I decided to cover Hong Kong Island today. Since I'm a big fan of figuring out the local transportation, I made my way to the metro and headed to the harbor that divides Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Pretty much whenever you see pictures of Hong Kong, those opposing skylines are what you see. Not too shabby.

I spent some time exploring the city, then took the famous funicular to the top of the highest hill in Hong Kong where I could look down over the city. Great views... and of course in order to fully appreciate them I just HAD to get a coffee while up there so I could sit and ponder them for a while. I also got interviewed by a cute little Chinese schoolboy asking me questions about my visit to Hong Kong (I didn't mention the part about sleeping all day yesterday) and, to reward me for my time, he gave a super duper cool set of chopsticks. Score.

Headed back down and checked out the oldest temple in Hong Kong, the antiques neighborhoods and then hopped a bus out to the southern coast of the island where I walked along the water's edge before deciding it was time to get me some bubble tea. Those of you that know me know that I am oddly obsessed with bubble tea. There are different variations but my favorite is a milk tea with tapioca balls (hence the bubbles) on the bottom that you suck up through a huge straw. Some people may refer to it as "fish eye tea" but those people are clearly idiots. And being a bubble tea connaisseur, I know that it originated in China (okay, Taiwan, but that's just a political technicality) and since I am in China (okay, Hong Kong, but that's just another political technicality), I just HAD to have Chinese bubble tea while in China! So I began my quest. I found a place called "Thinking Juice" along the water that seemed like it had it. I went in and ordered what I thought was bubble tea but turned out to be fruit and shaved ice in a bowl. Yeah. Hmm, my Mandarin must be really bad as I apparently didn't even order a drink, let alone the one I wanted. But the owner's cute little son sat next to me while I ate whatever it was and he watched me and giggled, and looked at my pictures and giggled, and threw out the word "yes" and giggled whenever I said something. Cuteness.

I headed back into the harbor in the main part of town and watched the 8:00 pm nightly light show that they put on from the buildings along the water's edge. I also bought a camera. Because a) I dropped mine on a rock in Jordan and it hasn't worked right since and b) I'm in Hong Kong so if you need to buy a camera, this seems the place to do it. (As a sidenote, wouldn't it have been ironic if the sticker on the back had said "Made in the USA"?). Turns out that everything is negotiable, even in Hong Kong, so I walked away with what I think was a good deal and a pretty good camera to boot. Hopefully the quality of the pictures will be improving from here on!

And then, as if it hadn't been a nice enough day, on my way back to the hotel, I took a wrong turn and walked too far but then found.... bubble tea! Right there, without even trying, just one block from my hotel. Oh, life is so good sometimes. I had been hungry and thinking of getting dinner but it turns out that bubble tea (okay, two bubble teas) makes a very fine dinner indeed. Success.