24th May 2010
This morning’s bright blue skies were an incentive to get out of bed and head up to the Peak Tram with the aim of getting to Victoria Peak early for fabulous views over the city. However, although the tram runs from 7am, the 360 degree viewing platform and the rest of the shops and restaurants on top of this 1200 foot mountain don’t open until 10am, so we purchased our tickets, but decided to come back later for the actual trip.
With a couple of hours to kill while we were waiting for the rest of Hong Kong to catch up with us we went for some breakfast and a wander down to the central pier to take in some views across the harbour and look back up towards our destination at the top of the peak. Not that you can actually see the mountain behind all the massive skyscrapers that inhabit Hong Kong Island, but it was interesting to see the land reclamation work that is going on by the ferry terminal.
We were soon back at the Peak Tram queuing to board the funicular. The journey up to the peak was a hair-raising one, at times the tram was at a very steep angle going upwards. After 15 mins we reached the top.
The Peak remains one of the most fashionable and expensive places to live in Hong Kong, and one of its foremost tourist attractions. This is somewhat reinforced by the number of tourist shops selling tat as we made our way to the viewing platform at the very top. However, tat aside, it is arguably one of the best cityscape views in the world. We reached the skyplatform and were blown away by the view. Since it was a clear day we could see right across to Kowloon and around the back of the platform we had views out to the outer islands, including Lantau. Simply fabulous.
We caught the tram back down, a similarly hair-raising experience as going up, but made slightly more weird by the fact that you are going backwards (you wouldn’t be able to sit on the seats if they were facing forward!)
Our next destination was the Virgin office here in Hong Kong to change our plane tickets. We have been feeling gradually more weary since leaving Vietnam and have now got to a stage where we feel obliged to go to Shanghai, Beijing and Japan rather than feeling excited about it. When each time you get on a plane, you are counting down how many flights you have left before you get home, you start to think maybe it is time to call it a day. Having discussed it last night and slept on it, we had decided we would change our flight to fly home from Hong Kong. We can do China and Japan much more justice if we visit them with a spring in our step that currently isn’t there and we’re quite excited about coming home. Decision made. Flights changed. We fly home Saturday night, landing early Sunday morning.
The evening was spent camera shopping again, with a quick look around the Ladies Market thrown in for good measure. We get a two bag allowance to come home, so we’ll be back to do some more shopping before we leave.