Well, Hong Kong day 2 was a bit more hectic, believe it or not. I decided that since I have 4 days in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong has 4 districts, I'd do one day in each. I'm going to have to adjust more than likely, as some are pretty sparse on stuff to do. But anyway, today was Kowloon, or 九龙. Before that though, I needed lunch. There's a large transfer station called Admiralty, so I figured i'd stop there. Surely they have something?

And have something they did. This place was huge, so I walked around and saw a lot. I also saw a very amazing looking McDonald's. It's hard to describe, but little did I know I stumbled upon the first and I think only, McDonald's Next in the world. It was full of stainless steel, had a massive salad bar, and an open kitchen. I was confused. So I got the grilled chicken pasta soup and became more confused. It was loaded with carrots, onions, and corn. It was actually good. Not fast food good, like they actually cooked it good. And cheap. I was a bit shocked. So much so I stopped at McDonald's again for lunch. (what's wrong with me!?) This time I got a pulled chicken BBQ sandwich and steak fries. McDonald's is weird here. That was pretty good, but fast food good. Meaning I felt sorry for myself after. But it was also cheap. Well, I think it was super expensive, but still a few dollars less than local food. The food situation here continues to vex me.

I went to Kowloon Park, and within was the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center. Sort of an interesting museum about preserving Hong Kong's history. It reminded me of Taiwan, the painstaking effort they go to to preserve their heritage. In contrast to the mainland, where nothing stays in the way of progress. I think they'd bulldoze The Great Wall if Ikea wanted a store there. But as far as Hong Kong, I was pretty impressed by the large archive of stuff they had, each documented by the discovery site and full description. And you could just go and get the stuff they found. Not touch it of course, but it was all organized in this big filing cabinet sort of thing. I also liked their room with a floor of pottery. It was probably fake, but looked awesome.

After the park I walked through the Avenue of Comic Book Stars (comics I'm not familiar with) and onto the Hong Kong History Museum. I found this to be a bit dull, despite good reviews online. The end little bit, focusing on say, 1850 to present was interesting. But ya know, every civilization had a really long line of pretty much the same stuff. Here's some pots, here's some arrowheads. Yeah I get it. I know this was the overwhelming majority of human civilization, but it's the same as every civilization in Asia, the Americas, Africa, you name it. Show me the stuff unique to Hong Kong. Anyway, pots and arrowheads were 75% of the museum, and I say... "meh".

Back on the way, I stopped at the Hong Kong Cultural Center. It started to rain by now, so I didn't care what I saw except that it was inside. I happened upon on an art show, and some people very surprised that I was there. They tried to ask me questions in English, but sort of stumbled and just chuckled. Nice folks. The art show was okay but small. I don't know, I don't get art. I need Ella to tell me what's good. Here's a pic, like whatever.

So the next destination was another place sort of high on the Internet ratings, and it sounded good to me: a tomb they unearthed while building a new apartment. Sweeeeet, dead things. I'm in. Except the tomb is the size of a cubicle, and you can only see it through 1 window. So, that took all of 30 seconds. Interesting, but hardly worth an extra trip.

Kowloon (and Internet), you disappoint me. But it was able to redeem itself. Back at the hostel I met some folks, and we went out to the Temple Night Market. By itself, soso. A pretty small night market, about 2 blocks in length with no side streets. It was clearly aimed towards tourists, selling "I love HK" T-shirts and whatnot. We went to get food, and found a place selling dishes for $40 and beers for $20. Eh, well, not super expensive but more than I'd like to pay.

Except the dishes were clearly for 2 people, maybe 3 if you want to stretch it. I ate about half of mine, and that was a challenge. The beers were probably a liter, so it was definitely a healthy amount. If I go again, which is possible, I'll make sure to keep the portion size in mind. I can clearly see this being a place where locals hang out. I dig it, and wow, beer is cheap here. Why isn't everyone drunk all the time?

And that's about it for today. Not too crazy, but it was nice to see. So, onto the third day! I met up with some of the crew from last night, and after a very late start, we decided to go to Lantau Island. Not before breakfast of course, at a small noodle stall in a vegetable market across the way. At $20 a bowl, I think this is the cheapest food to be had in Hong Kong. This place was super local, did not pass any health inspections, and had the simplest menu ever. Well. I have a baseline anyway.

Lantau Island is actually connected by the metro, because Hong Kong is just awesome in that way. The route up to the site of note, a really really big Buddha, is by cable car. But at $100 a head, nooooope. It was foggy anyway. So instead we took the bus for $17, which had an amazing view of some local villages and beaches on the way. And cows in the road. I've seen that before, and don't really understand it. Do farmers just not care that their cows wander off? Don't they need them for milk or something? Do cows know how to get back home? I can't imagine they do, they're pretty stupid. Anyway, we made it to the Buddha. It's really big. But, if you've been to Thailand you've likely seen bigger. Still, the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world. And I'm a sucker for world's blankiest blank. We checked out the temple (nice), and saw a canteen. You could eat with the monks for $98. Vegetarian meal, of course. I'm not sure why anyone would ever pay that much to not eat meat, unless they view it as a donation. Instead we got sausages, which at $20 were massive enough to be a meal, and ya know, not vegetarian.

Back at Central I split up with the other two to go to a museum. Before that I noticed I was near the botanical gardens, so I stopped by. More like a mini zoo, they had some monkeys (my worst enemy), other monkey-like creatures, some turtles, birds, etc.. Nice if you're in the area. The museum I was going to was Dr. Sun Yat Sen's house while he lived in Hong Kong. As a reminder, Dr. Sen was a revolutionary that ended the Qing Dynasty in China, and founded the Republic of China in 1912 - now the current government of Taiwan after they lost the war to the communists. He's one of the few people that both the mainland and Taiwanese look up to. But more importantly, his house is super swanky. Kind of a Victorian Mansion, and no photos were allowed inside. Why? I dunno, they're jerks. Unfortunately jerks with guards and cameras in every room, so I couldn't even sneak one. Lest they lose their $10 admission ticket because someone saw a photo on Facebook. Pfft.

After, I wanted to get across the river to see The Symphony of Lights at 8. Essentially a laser and light show for about 10 minutes every night synchronized to music. I did make it, but wasn't terribly impressed. I mean, the view of downtown was great. But only like 4 buildings participate, so it's kind of lackluster? Still, for free it was impressive enough. Before that I looked for dinner, and found an Indian market. Ohhhh yes, I have arrived. Indians know how to do cheap, and cheap they did. I was aggressively hounded by touts asking me to buy a SIM, eat their food, or tours to various places. All at cheap cheap prices. I loved it. It felt like Asia again. I eventually settled on a bowl of curry and a salad big enough for 2 people, for less than it cost in Bangkok. Jeez, why is Indian food so expensive there? Anyway I almost definitely could have gotten cheaper than what I paid if I looked around too. Kowloon, you've redeemed yourself. I'll definitely be back, for the haggling and the deals.

I took a boat back, because at $3 a pop it's cheaper than the $10 the metro costs when it goes under the river. And it turns out the boat stops at a dock pretty close to the hostel. After a beer from 711 and a shower, it was an exhausting day. Tomorrow it's off to the New Territories for my last day in Hong Kong.

And so the travels continue.

I said I was going to Malaysia. That was a lie, sort of. I was all set to leave, about to book my flight. So I decided to reserve my spot on the mountain. 17000 baht to climb the damn thing. 485 USD. From the National Park Service. Are you kidding me? On their website they have a much cheaper rate. "Oh that's for when you book far ahead."

"It doesn't say that."

"Well also it's for Malaysians only."

Argh! The dual pricing bullshit rears its ugly head again. I don't wish to patronize a place that does that, so I won't. It's not like, an ultra special mountain. There are others that people can climb with no skill, that are higher. So screw you mountain, unless you want to give me a reasonable rate, I will not be seeing you. So now I have time off and nowhere to go. Looking around the map, where haven't I been? On the list were Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Bangladesh requires an expensive visa. Indonesia and Sri Lanka weren't bad. But what's this? Macau Airlines, round trip, for about $100. When I want to the price breakdown, the ticket was only 100 baht. ($3). Everything else was taxes and fees.

Ok, let's go to Macau and Hong Kong. Ah, but it's too good to be true. It's a red eye both ways. No worries, I am skilled at falling asleep in things. On things? So I took some melatonin, and got an exit row for being white. Because that racism goes both ways. Anyway the flight was mostly empty, no wonder they wanted to offload those tickets. When I arrived, I went for the boat to Hong Kong. I figured I would do Macau last, so I would be close to the airport. Except the boats don't run at that time of night. Damn. So I had to enter Macau, and then had a lovely 4 hour nap on chairs with armrests (my mortal enemy!)

Come 7am, I went over to the pier and went to Hong Kong. Super easy immigration process, they have. They don't even stamp your passport. Like yeah whatever, don't care, in you go. You get a receipt with how long you can stay. (30 days for Americans) Wow, so easy. It's taken me longer to buy a soda than to enter a country. And the boat to Hong Kong is a freaking hydrofoil. I've never been on a hydrofoil before. Turns out it's awesome. I was sitting there thinking "Wow, they're taking a long time to board people." Then I look out the window. That water looks awful movey. Turns out we've been sailing for like 10 minutes and I didn't realize. Neat.

So after about an hour I arrive, and I've got a fierce hunger going on. I find what looks like a greasy spoon, with everything written in Chinese. No problem! The boss asks me what I want in Cantonese, but since I can't speak that I say it in Mandarin. It took a second to process it, then chuckled and took me to a table. He said something else to his staff, but I only understood "foreigner" and "mainland". Oh well, got ham and eggs.

So after dropping things off at the hotel, I set out. As in the pic above, Hong Kong Island has these really old trams that are like 100 years old. The local call them 叮叮, which just means "Ding ding". They're cheaper than the MRT, and amazingly still going strong. I'll probably put a video in here so you can see what one looks like. Anyway, the first destination was City Hall. City Hall was close, and on the way I saw the city gallery. Similar to the one in Singapore, it gives the history of the city and their plans for the future. I loved it. Maybe I just love city states since they have to plan so well, but I love efficiently designed systems. So I quite enjoyed the museum, and it gave me a positive outlook on the country.

Turns out city hall is not really city hall, more like a civic center. Across the street was a cool building though. Moving on to.. lunch! Mother of God why is everything so expensive here? I mean, I thought my breakfast was a fluke for the novelty of a Chinese-style American diner. Nope. The cheapest meal I saw from these street restaurants was $25 HKD. (7.75 HKD is 1 USD). Ffs I can get 2 slices of pizza and a coffee in New York with that kind of money. You know what is cheap though? Subway. A 6 inch and Coke is $21. What is going on? Am I in backwards land? Then I saw McDonald's advertising Double Cheeseburgers for $10.

WHAT IS THIS WORLD!? Why is American fast food cheaper than street noodles? What is happening? In Thailand, the minimum wage is $10 A DAY, and McDonald's there costs twice as much as here. There's some messed up logistics going on.

So, back on track, there's a moving walkway which carries you up this hill in a district called The Mid Level. It's not entirely pedestrian, but mostly. It has some interesting churches and temples I went to check out, but mostly full of families and hipsters drinking Kale smoothies and $145 coffee. Not a typo. Actually saw coffee being sold for $18 US. Who can afford to live here? Also, did everyone forget we're next to China? You could buy a coffee factory for $18. I really don't understand this place.

So, let me tell you who can afford to live here - the folks of The Peak! (I also went to a Maritime Museum.. nice but unnotable) Up on mountain is well, 山头 (Mountain top). True story, it is per square meter the most expensive real estate on Earth. Also, more terrible true story, until 1947 the Chinese were forbidden to live there unless they were servants to the Europeans. Holy shit. America, we're pretty bad. But we didn't smuggle in drugs. And then when China said, "Hey! No more drugs!", we didn't start a war to say, "Nah, you're gonna take those drugs." And THEN take part of their land as payment and say, "You people stay down there while we live in the nice houses. You can come up if you want to clean my toilet." Jeeeeez.

Anyway, politics aside, it's simply beautiful up there. You can see the entire island, and it's a steep mountain. So the view is phenomenal. In fact, I'd call it the 2nd most amazing view I've seen (Hot air balloons over Bagan still #1). It's just awesome. The pics really don't do it justice.

After waiting up there an hour for sunset, that was it for me. I stopped back for some overpriced street food, and went off to bed. At this point my phone was on its last legs, as I hadn't charged it in 2 days. And as for me, my legs are killing me too.