Hong Kong and Bali= AMAZING! (Part 1)

Hello!

We got a week off of school (typically called reading week) but most people take it as a "spring break."  Since my boyfriend, Nick, was studying abroad in Hong Kong this semester, I decided to go visit him for 10 days in my time off.  Also, as it was during Easter, Nick had some time off too so we booked a mini-vacation to Bali!  Here are some of the hilights:

First off, the hotel we stayed at was in a part of the city called Sheung Wan.  It was pretty easy to get around to the whole city from here on buses, trolleys, and even ferries!  Here is the view from our hotel: a concrete jungle!

The first day after arriving, we decided to go to the Stanley.  It was a really pretty area of HK with a beach and markets that sold everything from silks to ties to ornate chop sticks!  It was such a pretty busride there, that I would probably rank it as one of our favorite things we did in HK.  Here are some pics:
Me and Nick at Stanley beach
The markets...chaos with all of those people!!
The next day was Easter Sunday, so we decided to try the traditional Chinese cuisine of Yum Cha (tea and dim sum...which can really be anything).  We looked up a place in the Lonely Planet-HK book but we VERY surprised when we got there.  We were the only non-Chinese people there and it was packed.  It took us about 10 minutes and lots of sign language to get a table!  A lot of people in HK speak english but in the very traditional places, you will be lucky to find an english menu.  This was one of those places.  

Usually, during yum cha, you just kind of wait until the waiters come around with these carts of food.  They normally tell you what is on the carts (in these little bamboo pots) and you tell them how many of each thing you want and they give you a stamp on a menu card to keep track of how much you own them.  At this place, however, we had no idea what we were getting as hardly anyone spoke english, so we just kind of guessed what we were eating!  Most of it turned out okay, but Nick made one very poor choice of bamboo pots.  Haha!  He thought that this little wrapped thing was a chicken leg (which I later made fun of him for, as I couldn't imagine there being chicken legs served at dim sum) but later discovered that underneath the wrapping was a duck foot!  (pic below)
Luckily, I discovered this right before Nick was about to take a bite out of it.  I convinced him that it was a good idea to check inside. hehe  It was unbelievable though...the people next to us were just eating these things like a drumstick!

Throughout the next few days, we decided to explore a bunch of different places in the city.  Next up was Kowloon: since it is technically attached to mainland China (although part of the country of HK) we had to take a ferry across the bay to get there. (Pic below)

In Kowloon, we went to a bunch of interesting places including a goldfish market (there is really a block of stores dedicated solely to goldfish and beta fish!) and the Mong Kok markets.  Mong Kok was a crazy area of the city...there were so many flashing signs everywhere it was hard to tell where you were going!  Here's a pic of me on one of the busy streets:
After finding some cool things in the Mong Kok markets (including a really pretty fake Swatch) we headed over to the temple street area.  Here they had this really lovely little "resting" garden and tons of cool temples.  Right next door, they had a few blocks of nights markets that sold tons of little gadgets and statues.  Here is a pic of one of the tables:

The next day, we wandered around the city until nighttime where we walked along the Promenade to see the beautiful lights of the city.
And had the BEST Thai green curry that I have ever tasted!!!!
The city was filled with transportation...busses, taxis, and trolleys made the streets fairly crowded!
One of my last days before Bali, we decided to head up to "The Peak"- the tallest point in the city where you can see the whole place.  To get up there, you take this cute little trolley that is only held up by a thin steel cable.  If it wasn't so steep, I think I would have enjoyed the ride a bit more!!
Finally at the top, it immediately began raining and clouding over! :(  We managed to get a few pictures (Nick has rain in his eyes in this one) before going inside and waiting for the rain to blow over.
Finally, it cleared up to reveal a really awesome skyline!
After visiting most of the areas of HK, we headed over to the more westernized area called Soho.  There were little to no Chinese signs and TONS of restaurants and bars.  We ended up having a meal at this great little Mexican place...my first burrito in 3 months!  (There are almost no Mexican restaurants in Australia!)
The next day, we headed off to Bali for a quick 3.5 day visit!  I broke that one up as this is getting to be quite the novel!

Caitlin