Good day all, and we hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving Days!
Our morning started early, at around 8, as we were all dragging a bit from yesterday. We downed another good breakfast from the Hotel buffet. Then we headed out to the MTR station at Tsim Sha Tsui, just across the street from the hotel. We broke out the Octopus cards once again and shoved our way onto the morning red line train, headed for Central Station. Again, the trains were very crowded, and we were not sure if everyone we saw was going to work at 9:30 AM, or were just off for the day.
From Central Station, it was a short, but stiff uphill walk to the lower Victoria Peak tram station. Just out of the train station, we passed through a plaza with great views of the surrounding skyscrapers.
When we arrived at the Peak Tram Station, there were hundreds of people already waiting in line, so we decided to jump into taxis instead. The first taxi that rolled up was only a four seater, so we had to split up. No big deal. So, the rest of the team had to wait for a few more minutes. Just then as we waited, a group of young HK schoolboys spotted UC and Kyle, and raced over to them. The boys were all equipped with paper and pencil (and phones!), and wanted to ask them a few questions to see where we were from. They ended up interviewing Mom more than UC! Hopefully they will get good grades on their school assignments!
When taxi number 2 rolled up it was also a four seater, but we stuffed all five into it and closed the door before the driver knew what was going on. (Apparently, the drivers can get into trouble if they exceed their taxi person limit.) Once we were rolling, the taxis made their way up the mountain along ascending switch back roads with turns where the dropoffs were sometimes very steep. Though the drivers likely made this trip many times every day, for us, it was a bit unnerving. But, not to worry, we all made it to Victoria Peak in one piece.
The top of Victoria Peak had a huge complex of platforms, shops and restaurants. The main building was about seven stories from top to bottom, luckily equipped with escalators all the way to the top. Obviously, the whole team went all the way to the top to the Skyway deck to get the best view of Hong Kong Harbor (and the back of the island and outer islands if you looked opposite the Harbor.) It was a very clear day with bright blue skies, but there was a light haze. Regardless, the views were outstanding in every direction.
Oakie, The Oak Ridge Elementary School Owl Mascot even made it out of the backpack. For a moment, we thought he may just take to the skies, but Tyler had a good grasp on him!
We all took dozens of photos in every direction, with different combinations of each of us in each one. Some photographs even turned out pretty well! Mom was not very fond of heights and the vertigo-inducing views were a challenge for her, especially when she got close (within 20 feet!) to the edge. She was very nervous about the kids, to say the least. She WAS able to take one for the team and she actually got all the way to the rail for a few family photos. We posed and goofed around for some of the professional tourist photos, and spent way too much money for the prints! Kyle even made a small family heart for us at the “Say I Love You at the Peak” exhibit. On the way down we even saw Nicole Kidman! (Or at least a wax replica, outside Madame Toussard’s!)
Thankfully, the lines for the Tram ride down were much shorter so we jumped on. Once again, our Octopus cards came in very handy. We enjoyed the views of the tracks down the mountain as much as we did the views out the window! At some points, the tram felt like it was on a 45° down angle. Even still, it was a very entertaining ride down.
As I was taking photos and videos on the ride down, I thought to myself: the back of this man’s head must be hundreds of thousands of photographs, in frames and scrapbooks all over the world!!
Once we left the tram station, we walked back toward the harbor on the streets and overhead walkways in Central. It was a very comfortable since it was all downhill. On the way, we stopped for a quick cold drink at one of the many Starbucks we saw. In Central, double decker trolleys are a common sight, and most are plastered with advertising. We passed through a small park dedicated to Hong Kong’s War Dead. And, we even spotted a huge Apple store from one of the walkways we used.
We finally made our way down to the waterfront, where we saw the Hong Kong Observation wheel. The tickets were surprisingly reasonably priced so we hopped on to take a ride. Unfortunately, only eight people were allowed to ride in each car so again, we split up into two cars. Mom, Dad & Dylan shared a ride with some other tourists, while the rest of the crew trailed in their own car. Again, the views of the harbor and waterfront were stunning.
From the wheel, we shuffled over to Pier number 7 to board the iconic, world famous Star Ferry. We got rejected at the turnstiles since we’d exhausted our first deposits on our Octopus Cards. No problem, Dad and UC ran down to 7-11 to reload with new funds and we were back in business! Easy Peasy.
The ride was short but this was definitely a cool way to traverse the Harbor – much better than UNDERGROUND via the MTR. The views of the harbor from the Ferry are unique as they are from water level. We sat on the Upper Deck.
After we landed back on the Kowloon side in Tsim Sha Tsui, we took a break to scarf down a few McDonald’s ice cream cones. As usually happens, we attracted a bit of attention – this time from an older Chinese woman, who must have been upset at Tyler’s messy face after his ice cream (but before clean-up). She felt the need to come right over and gesture furiously at T’s face, saying something that was getting by us (she WAS speaking Mandarin, after all!). Also, as sometimes happens, she did her thing, we ignored her, and she was on her way. We think she was upset that we didn’t clean Tyler’s face between bites of ice cream – which with Tyler is usually pointless. Best course of action is to wait until everything is at least in his mouth, then clean-up can commence. It saves a LOT of napkins and wet wipes! The Chinese woman had other ideas. For us, another Chinese parenting fail! That’s all right – we’ll get over it. We always do!
Our Ice cream stop was just outside the Marco Polo Hotel, near the waterfront. This is where we stayed in our first pass through Hong Kong in 2010, when we were adopting Ashley. This time, since the holidays are approaching, the entire area was decorated for Christmas. Once again, we took the opportunity to let Oakie out of the bag.
By this time, our feet were feeling the burn after Kyle‘s Apple Watch informed us that we had again reached the 4 mile mark walking today. But, feeling refreshed from our ice cream, we finished up with the short walk back to our hotel, on Nathan Road.
On this short walk, no fewer than 10 well-dressed, street level suit salesmen shoved business cards in our faces, asking us if we would like to have custom-tailored suits made. Kyle was feeling his oats and thought he would try to negotiate with one of these gentlemen for a young man’s custom suit. (Keep in mind, I don’t think Kyle has ever even worn a suit!) We should have let him try to do it, just to see what would ultimately happen.
Once we turned down the offer for our suits, these suit salesman instantly switched into watch and handbag salesman mode! Again, we had to pass up these possibly great offers – we were too exhausted!
Dylan is feeling a little under the weather, having picked up a cold in the past day or so. He was not himself at all today and was dragging for a good part of it. He was a trooper though, and toughed it out all day long. He celebrated with a 2-hour nap when we got back!
We’ve created travel blogs for ALL of the kids, starting with Kyle. The platforms have differed over the years, but the goal has always been simple: to document their stories. When we started our family we never would have imagined that we’d be REPOSTING this photo below, originally taken in October, 2010 during the first few days of our Journey to bring Ashley home, even before we met her for the first time (when K and D were 4 years old). We started in Hong Kong, as we did this time with Zachary, and on our first day out checking out the sights, we came upstairs from the subway (the underground walkway used to cross Kowloon Park Drive). The very first street sign we saw was “Ashley Road” – so, of course, we got a photo (this was obviously meant to be significant!!). This photo hangs in a collage frame in our home to this day.
Fast forward EIGHT YEARS… today, on the way back to the Hotel, we saw a sign for the same road. This was not the same sign/corner, but today we were only a block North of where we were then. We snapped another, soon to be famous “Ashley Road” photograph. THIS is what makes these journeys and the stories they tell so very special for our Family.
On that Note, we’ll be back soon!