Day 2

I got a prep call early in the morning before my meeting with Will Hay from mom and dad. From there I headed down town, back to Central Hong Kong. I was able to find the restaurant we were to meet at easily and I got there about ten minutes early. I went into the restroom, where once I was leaving I met Will. Soon we were sitting at the table of a Michelin one star restaurant with a view of the Hong Kong harbor.
Will’s wife joined us and we sat for two hours, at dim sum and talked about everything China. Will and his wife are very knowledgeable in the area, not only because their family has been living in Hong Kong since the mid 90s but also because they both have graduate degrees in Asian studies. After a pretty great brunch, we parted ways and I left walking, to where exactly, I didn’t know.
I headed up the hill following signs to a Catholic cathedral. Instead I wound up finding a botanical garden and zoo carved out of the mountain side. I visited with the various anthropoids and sniffed a few flowers and tried again to find the cathedral. This time I found it. It was lodged in between enormous apartment blocks that obscured it from view. I was more interested in the apartments than the normal looking church. It turns out that most housing complexes in Hong Kong are public projects funded by tariff surpluses.
Walking through some more neighborhoods I realized I was not finding what I really wanted to find: the Peak tram. Somehow I wound up following some signs in the right direction to get to the tram stop. At the tram stop I became nauseous by how many eager tourists were in front of me. I did something radical and for the next hour and a half climbed the 2km straight up. The endless amount of stairs and paved trails made me sweat buckets in the tropical heat but I couldn’t complain, the views got increasingly better. At one point I was about to give up, thinking I was lost beyond recognition and I wanted to turn around, but just at that point I saw this I saw sign pointing me to the top. Bellow the beautiful city was quiet and peaceful next to the steep green cliffs. The peak did have the best view I had come across yet but it was at a steep cost: the place was overrun by tourists. I thought the place lacked too much class so I was soon heading down toward civilization.
Back in the city I tried to find a place where I could soak up some architecture. I found it on a walkway beneath the Bank of China building, Hong Kong’s most recognizable structure. I stood above a busy intersection for about 20 minutes just tacking in the city. After the urban amazement I was considerably worn out and headed back to my room to take rest, stopping along the way for some world famous mango juice.
At night I went on a mission to find some street food. I went close to the hostel, in a mostly residential neighborhood. I finally found a place that had food in front of the woks and grill (most places had menus which I couldn’t read). I stood in front of the women making food waiting for them to listen to my pointing and food charades until a man who was sitting put his hands in the air and said in English “Ok I will help you”. He wrote down a menu card and then invited me to sit with him. It turned out he had recently retired from owning a live fish selling business in Oakland, he was very happy that I was from the Bay Area. He was half drunk and had some sort of neurological issue so he was a bit goofy but a great dinner companion all the same.