Fast & Furious in Hong Kong

Greetings on the other side of a whirlwind trip to Asia! Lots of stories and pictures to share, but before I even start telling you about the trip, I have to introduce a very important person, my new friend Jen. I have known Jen since I started attending my church here on Guam, but more recently she has become my coworker there. Unlike most of my Guam friends, Jen did not come to the island because of anything related to the U.S. military. She came as a missionary to teach English at Pacific Islands University, the Bible college here on Guam that serves as a ministry hub for the other islands in the region (like Chuuk, Palau, Yap, etc.). Jen's goal has been to travel as much as possible. It just so happened that Nick was going to be away on a work trip leaving me with a week free. 

Guam travel math: Free week + travel buddy = trip! 

Continental provided us with a ridiculous (you'll see why) itinerary on miles to and from Thailand. We booked the trip, planned it loosely, and set off on our adventure last Monday. This is the first place it took us:

Hello Hong Kong! Actually we got in around 10p.m., easily navigated their unbelievably efficient underground transit into town, crashed at our hostel for a few hours of terrible, overly excited sleep, then hit the ground running to take advantage of our five hours of sunlight before heading to the airport again. So technically the first place our day took us was, well, Starbucks :) I know to Americans this sounds like the sin of eating at McDonald's in Italy, but coming from Guam, where we have no Starbucks, this was a treat for our first discovery on our first day off island before we even left the underground!

As recommended by friends, we headed immediately to take the tram to the top of Victoria Peak for a spectacular sunrise view of the city and Kowloon area across the river. As a metropolis, Hong Kong is breathtaking. Steep woodsy cliffs encapsulate the buzzing urban sprawl, framing it between luxurious green trees, refreshing blue waters, and distant hillsides. I can now technically say I have been to China, although apparently Hong Kong still operates under a different government even though it's no longer its own entity. Sounds to me like pseudo-China, much like we refer to Guam pseudo-America.

The unexpectedly serene back side of Hong Kong Island from Victoria Peak

After finishing our lattes on the top of Victoria Peak, we took the tram back down and found ourselves at the foothills of the HK Botanical Gardens and Zoo. I got really excited when I discovered signs for an herb garden, so we wandered around the maze of gardens in search of it. Before finding any herbs, we stumbled upon the zoo. (This pictures is deceiving, but these guys had pretty large cages). Definitely fun to watch. The herb garden turned out to be a bust. Their definition of herb is more like a "plant that has medicinal potential." Not "smells amazing and is great to cook with" like mine.

 Our next destination was University Museum at the University of HK. We read in our guide book that there was a unique and comprehensive exhibit full of crosses from early Christian movements around 400-500 A.D. The museum had a lot of nice things, but we had bad luck with the key exhibit. It was taken out, and we have no idea where. The English explanation we got included the word "away" with some shoo-ing hand motions. Oh well! We saw some incredible artifacts, some of them 2,000 years old! That alone was pretty impressive.

happy art

A wooden wall etched in Chinese calligraphy... 

relevant to a current ink-related project :)

A new photo for my collection of Zaras around the world!

Okay, so clearly we are not at the museum anymore! We hopped on a city bus (again, the public transport so easy to figure out), and found ourselves in a fabulous shopping area. I could just smell that there was a Zara nearby, and after some botched attempts to find it on my own using usual techniques (look for person with Zara bag and go the direction they are coming from), we asked for help. We found it with 15 minutes to shop before starting the trek back to the airport. Starbucks and Zara all before 11 a.m.? Not a bad five hours in Hong Kong!

Zara bag in hand(!), we hoofed back to our hostel, grabbed our packs, then started the journey back to the airport. In our 12 hours on the ground, we took about a dozen trains, the subway, a tram, a taxi, and a city bus. We went to the top of a mountain, explored gardens, a zoo, museum, and a shopping mall. We did some fantastic people watching and quick observing as we went. Hong Kong is an amazing place and while it's a shame we only had a few hours there, I am so grateful I got to see it at all! (especially without having to buy a separate plane ticket... score). And of course, no first visit to (pseudo-)China would be complete without noodle soup. Yum!

Day 1 of 7 is now halfway over. This could be a long series. On to Thailand we go!