Hong Kong, Part Doh!

I was not stateside for Thanksgiving, spent the long holiday in Hong Kong finishing up a project started two weeks ago. But don't feel bad for me (which I know you don't ;-) ) I was luckly enough to get out and about on this short trip.

Spent a bit of time at this place... the hot tub on the 76th floor of the W hotel. Nice view of Hong Kong island and very nice on the sore muscles.

Work uses a local IT vendor for onsite support of a mutual customer, they took me out to dinner Friday night. We ended up driving just north of the city to Sai Kung.

Outside the restaurants are all these aquariums with the catch of the day; crab, cuttlefish, clams, some type of shrimp that looks more like a lobster, and some de-lic-ious scallops was on our menu.

Not sure if these were for dinner.

Best part of this trip was going for a hike to Lantau Peak; start on the right on the road and ended up at the buddah statue and monastery.

Lantau Peak is the highest point on Lantau Island, adjacent to the airport, top left corner of the picture.

This is a view of Lantau Peak, far left, from near the road I started on. I was told this was a tough hike but it showed me some spectacular views.

The Hong Kong area had hundred of miles of trails, well made and well maintained. Allong the way are covered picnic areas and benches trail side to take in the view.

At 3075 feet is the top were a temporary shelter was built years ago for any unfortunate soul; luckly it was a gorgous day for me.

It was so steep coming down the backside; some steps were up to knee high on me.

Near the end of this section of the trail was a dedication called 'The Wisdom Path'; large split logs that had inscriptions of a ancient text (not ancient itself).

The last part of my hike brought me to the Tian Tan Buddah statue and the Po Lin Monastary.

This is the best picture I got of the buddah... the lighting when I was up underneath it did not lead to many interesting shots except for this one.

As you can see this buddah is telling me to stop and then flipping me the bird. What?

The whole area around the monastary was called Ngong Ping and had a gondola from the top down to a station near the airport. The views were awesome and gave me a few monments to look back on the trip.

Back to the rat race!

Hong Kong... Part 1

Part One? I Know! So the story ends like this...

Right now I am still dealing with the jet lag and it sucks, and I leave tomorrow to go back... just enough time to not get a good night's sleep. NICE!

Ok enough of my wining. Lets start with a picture.

Alright this is a neat city, island, harbor, whatever you want to call it. You can hike, which I will do this next week, kick it on the beach and drink a beer, take a tram to the Peak and have dinner overlooking the city or work like me. I will definitely have to make it back here on my own time. The picture above is taken from my hotel bedroom in Kowloon, the mainland side of Hong Kong.

The night scene is pretty awesome, we had dinner up on 'the Peak' and took in all the views. You can not believe all the tall buildings; just like Manhattan, but a bit smellier and warmer. The only day my boss and I were able to escape and do anything fun was Sunday; we headed out to Stanley Market on the east side of Hong Kong Island where you can shop for every trinket and fake brand name shoes, purse or jeans you can think of. You can also just chill beach side and have a few beers and chat with other like-minded guys from Wales. Boy that San Miguel beer is good!

Well I do not have may stories to tell on this trip, but I have to talk about the hotel I stayed at. The W Hong Kong is definitely swank! I mean just check out the pool!

Located all the way up on the 76th floor the infinity pool over looks the harbor and city. The hot tub, right behind from where I took the picture of the pool, is also an infinity and was quite nice way of preparing for a day at work after getting a nice workout in the gym.

Well I will leave you with this. The building right next to the hotel had some cool architectural features, like a pool on the floor that bridges the two legs. That's right the red arrow is pointing to it. In the evening you can see the water shimmering.

Tomorrow off to Hong Kong again and will have another story to tell next week...

Happy Thanksgiving!