Get it on in Honkey Kong

We drove back into Hong Kong for the first day of Xin Nian (the Chinese New Year). Xin Nian is the largest and longest celebration on Earth, it lasts for 12 days. By this point in my travels I was not allowed to cross a street by myself because I would forget which side cars would come from; in each country/city I went to the driving rules seemed to switch.   

An agoraphobic would not last 10 seconds in Hong Kong. Walking around in Hong Kong was like exiting a sports stadium; the place is swarming thousands of people. As crowed as Hong Kong, their transportation system is so efficient that you can get almost anywhere in the city within a half hour. The first night in Hong Kong we went to see the firework show over the Victorian Bay. The show was explosive, way bigger than any I have ever seen. Afterwards we walked down the avenue of stars, which is exactly like its Hollywood counterpart, but with Chinese celebrities.

Bruce Lee statue

The next day after reading a guide book, I convinced the group to go see an enormous Buddha statue on a nearby island. Had I continued reading, I wouldn’t have made such a folly, as the book emphasized not to go during any holidays. To get to the island, one needs to travel by a cable car, to get onto the cable car, one needs to stand in an excruciatingly long line, we’re talking DMV meets new iPhone 5 coming out on Black Friday, line. Four hours later we climbed into the cable car, the sight beneath us of the island was gorgeous. I would have loved to have spent a half a day walking around, but we were on a time crunch to get back to see the New Year’s parade. If time is money, the cost-benefit of this excursion would go under the fiscal loss category, although by no means would I call the day wasted.

From the cable car, we took the metro to the parade just in time to catch the beginning. Like the firework display, the parade was enormous, and had performances from 17 different countries. The United States representation was the Seattle Seagirls, the Seahawk’s cheerleaders. As expected, the Chinese performances were the best. Lots of acrobatics and dragon dancing to get the crowd energized.

Hong Kong was chaotic, the celebrations went on all night for days. Our friend John, for the last two days of the trip had to go to the hospital for dengue fever. The staff wouldn’t allow any visitors, but we could talk to him through a hospital phone. At one point there was a possibility that he would have to stay in Hong Kong for two weeks by himself. The job fell upon us to make sure he made it back to mainland China. We were a bit scared that he might get quarantined at the border, but like most things, it all worked out in the end. John is now completely fine, or as fine John can be.

On a personal note, I had a McDonald’s big mac for the first time ever. Compared to the rest of China, Hong Kong is a bit of an expensive city, but for some inexplicable reason their Big Mac’s were only 80 cents.

Batman Tower