Day 2: Hong Kong Cultural Excursion

I started the day off with the breakfast buffet that’s included in the hotel package. It was strange to see foods like Lo Mein and mashed potatoes being served for breakfast, but I was eager to try some of the new things I had never heard of before. Overall, the breakfast buffet was great and I’m grateful we have access to it every morning.

At 9:30am, the group met in the lobby of the hotel to wait for our private tour of the city. We took a shuttle to the Wong Tai Sin Temple where we walked around for about 40 minutes. The Taoist Temple was huge – sprawling over 190,000 square feet of the southern side of Lion Rock. Most of the visitors come to the temple in search for a spiritual answer via a practice called kau cim. They light incense sticks, kneel before the main altar, make a wish, and shake a bamboo cylinder containing fortune sticks until a stick falls out. This stick is exchanged for a piece of paper bearing the same number, and then the soothsayer will interpret the fortune on the paper for the worshiper.

Wong Tai Sin Temple

Incense placed before the altar

Taoists kneeling before the main altar

Our next stop was to see the giant Rubber Duck located in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. Dubbed “Spreading Joy Around The World”, the 54ft tall inflatable duck was designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman to ‘put a smile’ on people’s faces. As soon as I saw the enormous duck floating in the harbor, I couldn’t help but smile. It has already visited famous waters around the world, including the cities of Sydney, Osaka and Auckland. Its next location is a well-kept secret, but it is believed to be an undisclosed city in the United States.

Giant Rubber Duck in Victoria Harbour

Classmates at Victoria Harbour

After seeing the giant duck, we traveled to the other side of the harbour through Hong Kong’s largest underground tunnel. We stopped for a quick photo op outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center

At the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center

Finally, we headed to lunch at Jumbo Kingdom. Located in Aberdeen Harbour, Jumbo Kingdom is one of the world’s largest floating restaurants and one of Hong Kong’s most popular tourist attractions. Boats continuously bring guests to the restaurant from the dock located about 250 yards away. My eleven classmates and our professor enjoyed dozens of Dim Sum dishes chosen by our study abroad director, Christy. My favorite of the items was the Jian Dui – a glutinous rice ball rolled in sesame seeds. The perfect ending to the meal, Jian Dui is crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and lightly sweetened.

View from the Jumbo Kingdom Upper Deck in Aberdeen Harbor

Boat ride to the Jumbo Kingdom.

Boat ride to Jumbo Kindom

Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant

Enjoying Dim Sum at Jumbo Kingdom

Throughout our meal, several other tourists were paying $60HKD to take pictures dressed up as a queen sitting on a throne. I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a queen for 10 minutes AND get a souvenir from the restaurant, so I talked a classmate into being my king. As you can see, it was the best $8 I’ve spent so far!

Queen dress-up!

Sitting on my throne

Our loyal subjects.

After lunch and dress-up, our group headed back to the hotel. I stayed in for the remainder of the night to prepare for our first day of class. Day 2 in Hong Kong was certainly memorable!

First Day in Hong Kong

View from my hotel room on the 25th floor.

After three flights and over 19 hours in the air, I landed in Hong Kong June 2nd at 11:30pm. I slept most of the way on the plane and my body clock assumed it was almost time for lunch; so instead of getting a hotel, I spent the night walking around the Hong Kong airport. When the sun came up at around 5:45am, I decided to make my way to my home for the next month: the Hong Kong Ramada Hotel. I took the E11 bus to the Macau Ferry stop and walked nearly two miles with my luggage in tow. After a couple of wrong turns, I eventually made it to my destination – 308 Des Voeux Rd West (not to be confused with 308 Des Voeux Rd Central, as I found out).

Although I had taken my time, it was too early to check into my room. I was told to come back around 2pm, so I contacted some fellow classmates that had arrived earlier in the week. We met up, chatted for a bit, and ventured out into the city for lunch and shopping. We shared some Vietnamese dishes at a small restaurant and explored the area around our hotel.

By 1:30pm, jet lag was weighing me down. I was utterly exhausted. So, we made our way back to the hotel and I was able to pick up my room keys. As soon as I opened the door and dropped my luggage, I went straight to bed. A five hour nap was exactly what I needed! I woke up around 8pm to attend a Study Abroad meeting in the lobby of the hotel. I met with the director and professor and received a welcome bag with information, an Octopus Card (for use on public transportation and in convenient stores) and potato chips (among other things).

After the meeting it was time for dinner. I joined three others on a walk around the vicinity of the hotel where we found a cafe called “Sammy’s.” We enjoyed some traditional Chinese dishes with the company of a domestic cat, and we made it back to the hotel around 11pm.

To Travel is to Live

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,

To gain all while you give,

To roam the roads of lands remote,

To travel is to live.”

― Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography