Too Much Walking

Update: I've discovered a workaround of sorts. For now, it looks like most of the pictures I want to upload are going to be ok. I'll just occasionally have to skip over the ones that Picasa inexplicably refuses to accept.

So yesterday after eating breakfast and taking my vitamin C, I kicked around the room until late morning and then headed out to the Mong Kok MTR station. From there I rode the train down to Tin Hua, My plan was to grab lunch, find the Tiger Balm Gardens then ride the Tram up to the peak of the Island. It was hazy as all get out yesterday, but I didn't really have any other ideas and I wanted something that would hopefully clear my head.

I wanted to go to Tin Hua temple first, so I walked across the street from the MTR station and found a small restaurant just around the corner from the Temple. I didn't recognize the place, but the food looked good and it was packed, so I took a number (no seats when I arrived) and since there was only one of me, and the Chinese will gladly seat you with others at the same table, I was called in about 30 seconds to come inside and sit down.

(NOTE:this is where the picture would be. :P) It wound up being a great thing that I was seated with others, since the adorable 70 year old couple at my table adopted me while I picked things off the menu. As it turned out, this place didn't have an English menu (hurray!) and the woman sitting to my left asked with a twinkle in her eye if I could understand it. I said "a little" (there were numbered photographs on the table that corresponded to the miniature menu they brought me, which had checkboxes by each selection and worked like a sushi menu) and she asked if I had been to Taiwan before. I thought it was a strange question until they explained that this restaurant specialized in Taiwanese style food. The name of the place "Overseas Dragon" made a lot more sense all of a sudden. I explained that I just thought the food looked good, and they told me a little about their family in the states (they have a son in San Jose and another in Chicago).

Their English was impeccable, of course, and they were quick to tell me what to try on the menu (Him: "oh, get the meatball soup! Not the fish ball." Her:"it's not so good as the meatball." Him:"And this drink, it's a Taiwanese speciality!" Her:"Try it too!") The drink was Tea with milk and bean curd balls, something I've had before, and love, so I was quick to add it to my order. They also gave me advice about going to see the peak--specifically that there was a special Sunday-only bus that would take me straight to the top and let me watch the sites as I wound my way up there, and then I could take the tram back down.

The food was excellent, and my new friends wished me well when they left, halfway through my meal.

When I was done, I went to Tin Hua temple, just around the corner, and then struck out in what I thought was the correct direction for Tiger Balm Gardens. I was a bit off.

Much like central Georgia, few roads on Hong Kong Island continue going the way they start out going. Unlike central Georgia, HKI has an excuse: it's a series of giant hills The land here looks like what happens to your blanket when you get too hot in the night and push all your covers to the foot of your bed with your feet.

Five and a half kilometers of Hong Kong Island hills later, feeling thoroughly sick and exhausted, I finally gave up and found my way back to where I'd started out. Serves me right for following a map that just had an arrow pointing off the edge of it towards the Gardens. Of course, when I got back to the hostel and looked up the location, it was just around the corner from where I abandoned my search. I did take a couple of pretty pictures of the city though. That's one of them over there.

After that, I was physically drained from being sick and from all the hiking, so I bought some huge grapes (fresh fruit makes me feel better when I'm exhausted, dehydrated, annd generally bleh) and went back to the bus stop and caught the recommended bus. It was a beautiful, hair-raising bus-ride. Some of you probably recall the crazy mountain driving in Greece, complete with insane, near-head-on-collisions with other vans on the country roads. This was just like that, only with sharper turns, and double decker buses. I took a picture to try to convey how close these guys drove to one another. It doesn't really do it justice though.

The peak, though hazy, was beautiful, and there happened to be a small arts and crafts show going on at the top of the hill that afternoon, and some of the stuff was quite neat, though obviously more aimed at tourists. Still, there were a few pieces I would have purchased, and might still, if I happen to be back there on a day that any of those vendors are around.

By the time I was done though, with the minimal amount of walking I could handle, I decided to just take the bus home and call it a day. I wound up taking the 15, since I knew it would take me to central, and my elderly couple had recommended I take the Star Ferry across the harbour to get a good view on my way home. I did this, winding up with a rather long walk from the Tsim Sha Tsui side to the actual station, but the views were pretty, and I found my way back alright.

I finally got back to my hostel around 7, bought some food at the corner 7-11* for breakfast and went straight to bed.

*7-11 : Hong Kong :: Starbucks : New York. There is at least one on every block.