Finally Monday morning we had to go up Victoria Peak, or we would
never go up it. It was a cloudy day, but the clouds were above the peak,
so at least we would be able to see. To save time, we cabbed over and
took the tram up.
The tram is very cool, and quite steep. When you disembark,
they route you through the tackiest souvenir shop possible. It probably
wins awards from the famed ITSSA -- the International Tacky Souvenir Shop
Association. I was too stunned to take a photo. My ten year old
self would have loved this shop.
It was cool and windy when we went outside. . .we had
under-dressed. Good plan. Apparently 1811 feet up results in cooler
temperatures than down at sea level.
First we walked to the east, well past the Lion's Pavilion and over to one of the roads. It afforded us good, yet cloudy views of the
city of Hong Kong, and we could just see the ghost buildings (in the clouds) of
Kowloon.
That was probably a mile round trip, and then we walked the other
direction – west along the Peak Circular trail.
That gave us better views, and there were flowering trees. Lo and behold the sun sort of came out – at
points we could see our shadow! That
also meant the temperature warmed, and we were quite comfortable.
Others on the peak of course kept their winter coats on –
meanwhile I had a short sleeve shirt and pants.
When you are the Iron Tourist, you’ve got to keep up appearances!
We probably did a two mile round trip on the circular trail – it’s
overall quite long, and we had other things to accomplish, so we didn’t make it
all the way around. Great views of the
harbor and multiple islands to the west of Hong Kong.
When I think of the coast, I think of a north-south orientation,
but Hong Kong and Kowloon is actually an east-west orientation. (Editor’s Note: I don’t care. Your readers don’t care. Blogger’s Note: Ah, but I care. If the blog is the first rough draft of
history, it is important to get a handful of things right!)
We got croissants and bottled water from the coffee shop by the
tram and came up with a plan for what was next.
And, what was next didn’t really go as planned. That’s called foreshadowing.
1 comment:
In 1947, Malcolm’s father was called up for National service. He was sent To Hong Kong, and on the way ship stopped in Hong Kong. When we visited Hong Kong a few years ago I found the photographs that you had taken at the time. They include photos of the tram and the view from the peak.
Only problem is I don’t know how to upload the photos!
Post a Comment