Because I am determined to keep my blog on the McIllece Family website, I am unable to blog while we travel, so I've decided to do some mini-blogs using Dave's site.
Saturday in the wee small hours of the morning Dave and I boarded a plane to Hong Kong. We had a 22 hour layover. It was so awesome. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy the hospitality of Chris Johnson (Olmsted '06) who is just finishing up his time in Hong Kong. He picked us up at the train station, set us up at his apartment, and showed us around town. Mimi Waters (Olmsted '07 - Taiwan) was also there, and we met up with the Denaros (Olmsted '06 - Guanzhou, China) for dinner. It was an awesome mini-Olmsted get-together. So, here's the brief run down of our time in Hong Kong.
- Arrived at the fantastically modern, clean, airport/shopping mall, and boarded the Airport Express train to Hong Kong station. This took about 25 minutes. I was amazed at the cleanliness and efficiency of the transport system. I know India is a 3rd World country and all, but I was even comparing it to the US. The infrastructure in both Hong Kong and Japan, makes the US seem closer to India than either of these super efficient places.
- Chris took us for a Dim Sum lunch. Dim Sum isn't so much what you eat for lunch, but how you eat. It is a Hong Kong original, and the answer to British tea time. You drink tea (or in my case, Diet Coke) with a smattering of light dishes that they keep bringing to you on carts. You pick what you want and then eat it. I am proud to say that I ate chicken feet, prawn dumplings, and something with fish eggs on it... and I ate it all with chopsticks!
- We went on a walking tour, that included several really cool buildings, the largest escalator (outdoors even) in the World, and and 75 minute foot massage at "Happy Foot".
- We ditched Chris (had previous plans) and went with Mimi to the "Peak" formerly known as Victoria's Peak. The tram ride up was really steep and totally cool. There was a gigantic shopping center at the top (which was the theme of Hong Kong, I believe) and took some pictures out in the rain from the observation deck. We ate some gelato, grabbed a taxi to the metro, went under the harbor, and met the Denaros in Kowloon for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. It probably wasn't, but it seemed like the best steak I've ever eaten.
- We slept at Chris's 23rd floor apartment, and headed back to the Airport Express train station in the morning. I was amazed that we could actually check in to our flight at the train station, including checking our luggage prior to our 25 minute train ride back to the airport.
Our overall impression of Hong Kong was very good. It's a fascinating, beautiful clean place. However, after living in India for 11 months now, we were shocked at the level of consumerism we saw. I have never seen so many shopping centers/malls/stores in my life. And everything seemed totally upscale and "lifestyles of the rich and famous". Hong Kong has definitely earned it's place as a Global City. It is an amazing place to visit, but I think living there for an extended length of time would prove very challenging for me (well, at least for my bank account!) It was so much fun to hang out with other Scholars. Dave and I both believe that meeting and hanging out with such fabulous people is one of the greatest benefits of the program.
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