China Chronicles: Hong Kong part 2

Forgive me for my time of leave, these past 3 weeks since the return from our epic China trip have been busy (stay tuned for it).  After our time at Stanley Bay, we returned to the city life where we found it apropos to enjoy a stellar night view of the city.  We ventured across the bay near the Avenue of Stars for views such as this.

 After we stayed at this very spot for nearly two hours, mostly consisting of me taking roughly 100 pictures of the same skyline, we decided to go find some dinner.  However, since it was raining, we thought it to be a good idea to see the hit movie "Inception".  This task proved to fail us this night, however, our resiliency was too great for the ticket box of any Hong Kong theater to deter us from seeing this movie.  We saw it the next evening.

The following day we decided to take the highly recommended Victoria's Peak Tram up a mountain side for other stellar views of Hong Kong.  To miss Victoria's Peak while in Hong Kong would be like missing the birth of your first child (so they say...for the purposes of this blog).  The first thing we did that morning was to ride the tram to the peak.  We were a little nervous because the previous day, as noted in part 1, was a torrential downpour for nearly the entire day.  The morning looked promising for us and we decided that rain or shine, we would take our chances.

Upon arrival to the summit of Victoria's Peak, we realized that while the view was still amazing, it was not what we were anticipating.  While the day prior to Victoria's Peak was filled with a typhoon too great for even Storm to conjure, this day was filled with dense fog.  There was a point where we could not even see 5 meters beyond the observatory.  Despite the heavy fog, there were moments of clarity where we could truly grasp the coolness of the peak.  We consider it a success.

After Victoria's Peak we went to eat lunch.  This was no ordinary restaurant, however.  The name of the restaurant was "Modern Toilet" and as you can see from the picture above, the theme was a bathroom.

Shower heads lined the walls.

Tastily placed toilets as seats.

Porcelain urinals as "specialty drink" holders.

 Very excited to eat here.  It was great!

After our delicious lunch, we went a few hours outside of Hong Kong to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car to see a large Buddha.  This cable car ride was the real deal.  A one way trip lasted about 30 minutes and offered awesome views.  We went over oceans, mountains, cliffs and waterfalls.  Jaw dropping views to say the least.

The ride could not have been long enough.

On the way to the Buddha, we opted for a slightly more expensive, yet luxurious glass bottom car.  

After the cable car ride, we arrived in a small village-esk tourist town dedicated to this guy perched on a mountain top.  There was a very long stairway leading up to him and there offered excellent views of the area.

The surrounding area.

After our trip on the Ngong Ping 360, we made it back to our hostel around 8:30, just in time for some dinner and a 9:45 viewing of "Inception" (resiliency).  The movie was fantastic and needs a blog of its own.  A blog I will not spend the time to write.

The next morning we parted ways with Miss Holly Schoephoerster and toured Hong Kong alone.  The day started off with seeing the Jade Market, where Kelly was able to buy a jade ring and I was able to buy a jade piece of something.  Jade is one of China's biggest exports and something unique to China.  Naturally, I'm going to buy some of it then.  

After our trip to the Jade Market, Kelly and I wanted to visit a beach.  The weather in Hong Kong was really nice the last couple of days, and it was incredibly hot our last day.  We waited for a ferry and took a 1/2 hour ferry ride to an island called Lamma Island.  It was a sweet looking island where there were no cars.

We did not exactly know where to go for a good beach, as we concluded from Lonely Planet that there were a plethora of beaches at this island.  We decided to walk a direction where the thought necessary to find a beach.  We walked about 40 minutes on a path like the one above.  We were amazed by how cool this island was.  Finally, after nearly passing out from a heat stroke, we stopped at the first beach we saw.

We decided to settle at this beach, but only for a dip.  This was not to be our final destination and sought after another, more popular beach.  However, the water did feel great.

Now here is where our trip to Lamma Island took an insanely quick decline.  After gulping down a bottle of water and a brief conversation with an island local, we learned that the good beaches were in the opposite direction from which we came.  Shoot.  So we began our trek to where we came from.  While this news was disappointing, we still had high spirits of the prospect of a great beach to come.  HOWEVER, almost immediately starting our walk Kelly noticed a spider.  

I cannot explain to you what emotions this particular spider elicited in me.  This spider was enormous.  It was roughly the size of a fully out stretched hand.  The web itself was big enough to bring down birds, probably even airplanes.  Seeing this spider sent a vehement shudder down my spine and I put my hand on the small of Kelly's back and quickly urged us to move on without hesitation....here is where our perils increase 10 fold.

The saying "ignorance is bliss" could not prove to be more true in this instance.  The first time we walked the path for 40 minutes we were completely ignorant of the deadly spiders presence.  We joyfully and merrily skipped along the path like two lovers with a childlike sense of adventure.  Our return trip, however, was torture.  It turns out that Lamma Island is notorious for housing these spiders.  These spiders are known as the  "Golden-Orb" spiders or "Nephila" and are monstrous.  They have been said to be highly venomous and their bites are similar to those of the Black Widow (although not quite as potent).  In a span of 20 minutes ON THE SAME PATH as before, we counted 15.  They. Were. Every. Where.  They were also massive.  My manhood was put into question when my wife observed me ducking my head and running in sporadic movements along the path out of pure fear.  It did not help that these things built their webs above the walking path, 2 feet above my head.  After we walked for an hour, trying to find a beach, we saw so many of these spiders that I couldn't take it anymore.  I wanted off the island.  It would have been one thing to see one or two of these spiders, but I did not have to look for more than 5 seconds to find another one of these things.  It ruined my experience on the island.  We did meet a very outspoken Hong Kong kid of 7 or 8 named Kenneth who thought it necessary to follow us for the next two hours.  Don't worry, he was afraid of the spiders too.  I had someone to bond with and something to hate with Kenneth.  He also likes Michael Jackson and showed us his moonwalk.  

I show you this picture again for reference of how narrow our trail was compared to the growth surrounding the trail.  These spiders were dwelling everywhere.  Even in this picture there are several of them lurking in the shadows.

Click here for a Youtube video of these spiders.  *Note, this isn't' my video*

Despite living in fear, we finally left the island around 4:30 and toured the comfortable, spider free city of Hong Kong.  We stayed at the harbor for a while and walked around Hong Kong for a bit longer.  The following day we had some Dim sam and the took the journey back to the Hong Kong airport to go home.  Immediately upon arrival at the Seoul-Incheon airport, we met Kelly's parents who actually beat us to Korea.