Continued from Hong Kong Day 1.

We were all so exhausted last night that we fell asleep immediately after eating a late dinner. Of course, jetlag means that we woke up for a little bit in the middle of the night, and that goes for baby P as well. Nothing that a morning nap couldn’t solve though.

Original plan for the day is to wake up early, try to beat the crowd and make it up Victoria Peak for the view of HK harbor. Well, when we woke up, the peak was in the clouds, so it would be useless to head up there. It’s also supposed to rain on and off all day today, so we’ll have to play it by ear on if it’ll be worth the trek to visit Victoria Peak.

As promised, the rain starts, and it’s heavy.

My parents didn’t bring umbrellas, but our hotel has it covered. They lend out umbrellas to guests for free.

Short walk in the pouring rain to lunch. It’s almost noon, hopefully the rain has kept away most of the people and we won’t have to wait for a table.

The crosswalk islands on Nathan Road. Also, I saw quite a few Tesla Model Ss over here in HK. Meh, doesn’t do anything for me.

Again, rain cover for backpack comes to good use.

Found the restaurant.

The view across the harbor, hopefully we’ll be able to get a window table.

Lucky, got the last window table. Unfortunately, the rain has picked up so we really only have a view of rain.

Gotta have more dim sum while in HK.

Oh oh, is the rain going to clear up a little?

PL happy to be out and about.

Must eat foot!

There we go, rain’s going away for now.

Some soft tofu for PL.

Shrimp dumpling for Mama L.

We also encountered some of the rudest services here. We had asked for water, because we didn’t want hot tea. To which, they scuffed at us. Finally we ordered tea, and also asked for room temp water, to which they said they didn’t have any. The waitress told us to just drink the hot water used to refill water for the hot tea. Seriously though, why is it such a big deal about serving us water? There are plenty of other restaurants in HK that will serve us water without batting an eye.

So much food, so good, so full.

Our wish for the weather to clear up did not happen. Once again, the rain picks up.

Well, I guess we’ll head back to our hotel and wait around for my sister and her girlfriend, who are supposed to arrive in a couple of hours. Not to mention, it’s almost time for PL’s nap anyway.

Before heading back to our room, a quick stroll around our hotel to see what’s around us.

Chungking Mansions is just a couple of buildings down from our hotel. I read an entire book(Ghetto at the center of the world: Chungking Mansions)about this building. It’s a fascinating building that has an eclectic mix of uses and houses all sorts of businesses, traders, whores, drug dealers, restaurants, cell phone sellers, hotels, laundromat, etc. You name it, they probably have it in here.

I’ve always wanted to check out the building after reading the book. I will say, it’s very intimidating, especially since I am carrying the baby. You get swamped at the entrance by lots of shady looking people offering their services. I have no idea what they are offering me as I just walk past them. This place is full of ethnic minorities that you don’t usually see in such concentrations around other parts of HK.

Just a quick loop around the first floor for us. RL didn’t feel comfortable walking around here, and I don’t blame her.

And just like that, we took a look and we are out. Reminds me of India, just the hectic environment inside there. I think I would have liked to look around some more if not for the baby and wife. Back to hotel, and nap time for everyone. According to the forecast, we may get a window of no rain mid to late afternoon. The plan is to wake up from nap around then, and head out over to Victoria Peak.

As promised, the rain did finally stop mid afternoon. Let’s go!

I suck at taking photos. Actually, I think the lens was smudged all day and the camera had trouble focusing sometimes. (Gave the lens a good cleaning, so hopefully will end up with less blurry photos tomorrow.)
Found the subway station, down we go.

That’s a lot of stairs!

Just a couple stops.

Her first time in a subway. How cute.

Now, a short walk to Peak Tram Station.

Bank of China building, I still think it’s the most distinctive building here in HK.

The subway exit brought us to a park, and it’s full of people. There’s some sort of event going on, but can’t quite figure out what it is.

There was also a giant tv with soccer showing. Camera didn’t focus correctly, not my fault…

The tallest phallic symbol on HK Island. Sure, it’s tall, but I don’t think it’s distinctive like the B of C building.

Our posse. As you can see, my sister and her gf have both arrived. There are two people in our posse with high visibility apparel, we stand out so much.

I remember seeing this type of tree in India.

So that’s what it is…Again, camera not focusing, not my fault.

Heading up hill, I am leaving everyone far behind me even though I am carrying the baby. Speaking of which, it’s really humid out here with temp up in the high 70s. I’m sweating up a storm.

Reached the tram station. Ugh, so many people.

Ticket line…sigh, so many people. I guess the rain didn’t keep everyone away. It doesn’t help that it’s also Sunday today.

Come on line, let’s move it!

Interesting, pudding flavored koala cookie. I’ve only had the chocolate and strawberry flavored ones before.

Almost there…

Let’s go!

Despite what looks to be a really long line, it only took us about 30 minutes from the time we waited in line to purchase tickets to the moment we got on the tram. Faster than I thought.

Super steep. They call it a tram, but really it’s a funicular.

Got to the top in no time.

Of course, at the exit, you must walk by all these gift shops selling useless junk.

They even have a Bubba Gump here. Surprised that a restaurant like this can survive in this high rent environment.

Made it to the top of the observatory, and here’s the amazing view of HK from Victoria Peak. Not the clearest day, but the fact that the city isn’t completely engulfed in clouds or rain counts as a huge win for us.

Some of the most expensive houses in the world are up here.

Tram tracks below.

The view on the other side of the peak.

One last look, and now down we go. It’s 5:30pm and we need to get back down and head over to dinner.

While trying to find our way out of the observatory, saw this ad for snail face cream. WTF!

Again, camera issues.

There is a line for the tram to head down, but not too bad.

Made it down, ok, let’s see if we can get some dinner.

Took us a couple of tries to find a restaurant that wasn’t already fully booked out.

Lots of people still waiting in line to head up to Victoria Peak. They are probably all heading up to see the night view with the whole city lit up below.

Into the taxi we go for dinner.

Restaurant is located in the Lee Gardens Mall.

First time for me to see a Rapide in person. Driven by a lady actually, cool.

Dinner spot, HK style cuisine.

Ohhh, mantis shrimps on the top left corner tank. Must try, never had it before!

Typical Chinese culture, super expensive whiskey and scotch, get sloppy drunk on it during dinner all for show in the name of conspicuous consumption.

PL is super tired. I’ve been carrying her around in the carrier all afternoon, but she was having a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep in it. The only way for her to not fuss is for one of us to walk around holding her. I guess let’s check out the fish tanks if we are walking around.

Love the live seafood tanks at Asian restaurants. How come PETA protests the lobster tanks at Whole Foods, but they never seem to protest Asian restaurants?

Beer tastes delicious after a long afternoon in the high humidity.

The dish in front is actually not supposed to eaten. It’s merely a display showing all the ingredients used to make the soup stock for our soup…which I forgot to take a photo of. It was just this cream colored soup that has the flavor of seafood.

This I am excited about, mantis shrimp. The head is cut up and deep fried, and the tail is deshelled and stir fried. The deep fried shell can be eaten whole, but it was still quite a bit of work. Tastes similar to lobsters and very sweet in taste. It was also very expensive, roughly $40 per mantis shrimp.

Abalone.

This was a really odd dish. It’s made of some sort of crab meat mixed with some sort of grape fruit…did not like. Really funky tasting. RL said she thought is was really nasty.

Soft tofu, pretty amazing how they were able to cut soft tofu and display it so well.

PL started losing it big time, RL and I decided to head back to our hotel first before everyone else.

Goodbye mantis shrimp, you are delicious, don’t you forget that!

We exited the mall to find SWARMS of people walking around outside. When we had arrived earlier in the day, there were very few people out and about. What’s going on? We knew some sort of event had just finished, and everyone is leaving.

Shit, with this many people there’s no taxis available. I guess we need to go to plan B and head to the subway station. We saw that most of the people around are white and many are drunk…very drunk. Some sort of sporting event? Eventually I asked a couple of the people and they said that it was the HK Sevens Rugby tournament, and the finals had just ended. So, now we are stuck with a tired fussy baby and walking trying to find a subway station while being around a lot of drunk people singing their rugby chants.

Wasn’t planning on taking the subway, so did not know where to find it. The map on my phone offers a little bit of help, but maybe if we just follow the crowd, we’ll be able to find it. Not happy about this. We are tired and just want to take a taxi and go back to our hotel in a quiet and fast fashion.

This is kind of stressful with all these people that we didn’t expect. Reminds me a little of the time we were in Ireland and we drove our car straight across the starting line of a running race that was 5 minutes from starting.

Yes, finally! Found the subway station.

Now, we need to contend with all the drunk singing rugby fans. Their chant is a version of Hey baby, Hu Ha(they added this part to the song), I want to know if you’ll be my girl. Again, why is this one their rugby chant for the tournament? Strange drunk rugby fans…

So many people and we had to get our tickets. Thankfully, in anticipation of the crowd, they had set up extra manned desks selling tickets, so we were able to obtain our tickets quickly.

While on the subway, a man saw our tired baby and made the comment that parents must be tired too—no truer words have ever been uttered.

Happy to make it back to our hotel!! It was annoying when we had to deal with the rugby crowd, but now that we are back to our hotel, I am sure we’ll remember it as a fond interesting experience…just like that time we drove our car across the starting line of a running event as the race was minutes from starting…

To be continued at Hong Kong Day 3.