I Fell in Love...

...with Hong Kong! I must say my most favorite city in all of China! I fell in love with the people, the skyscrapers, the mountains and the sky terrace view of HK Island, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon! I know many people say HK isn't really China...well that's true and maybe that's why I fell in love with it?? It doesn't matter, but what does, is the following. My favorite skyscraper...The Bank of China, amazingly beautiful day and night. It's design was based on the principles of feng-shui. The people of HK can pass underneath the building and walk directly to the government buildings...which is good feng shui! Another one of my favorite spots in HK was the Mid-Levels escalators that take you to Conduit Road, which then I followed to the HK Zoological and Botanical Gardens. The escalators are a series of about 20 which only run down (into the city) from 7a to 10a and thereafter run up! The escalators run through an area called Soho and there are cute little coffee and pastry shops as well as small eateries and bars that would fit about 20 people max! Yeah I never would have thought just taking a bunch of escalators would be a cool thing. Maybe Pittsburgh ought to think about that for Mt. Washington or even getting up to the Peterson Events Center??? Oh yeah, so the Zoo was great!! I saw a Burmese python, sleepy orangutans, ring-tailed lemurs, tamarins, pygmy marmosets, lion-tailed macaques and black and white ruffed lemurs!! It was incredible. I would have taken more pics and spent a bit more time there, but the mosquitoes were sucking the life out of my ankles!!! My evening ended with a delightful vegetarian thai curry with deep fried noodles and a beer at Bahama Mama's (yes a place for westerners)! The next day is was overcast...PERFECT weather for me to visit the beach!! So off to Shek O Island I went. I sat on the beach for about an hour reading and taking in the view (sigh)! and unfortunately for me the sun finally broke through...so I turned a "few" shades darker and finally couldn't tolerate the heat any longer... I headed back to HK Island and ascended Victoria Peak...not via steps...but via the tram. The incline was ridiculous!!! I would guess the incline to be about a 30 degree angle!! After 8 mins I reached the top and took 3-4 more escalators to the sky terrace to see the view of beautiful Hong Kong, Kowloon and Victoria Harbour!! Breathtaking...one of the I-can't-believe-my-eyes-are-taking-witness-to-such-an-amazing-sight...moments. So after being a tourist up there I hiked up Mt. Austin Road to where only one other person was viewing all the beauty that is Victoria Peak. He was nice enough to take my picture at the top!! Just like a McDonald's commercial..."I'm lovin' it"!! So instead of heading back down right away I decided to read and dine on Victoria Peak. It was very difficult for me to tear my self away from there, but eventually I took the tram back down and called a wonderful night!!