HK - One more Day!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

As this was going to be our last full day in Hong Kong and with the knowledge that, sadly enough, our wonderful trip was going to end we decided to end it in style -- beginning with a breakfast at McDonald's! Ha! No, we were not insane nor were we particularly missing this joint as we had lunch there the day before -- there just weren't that many good breakfast spots around the YMCA -- not unless you wanted dim sum! As we were planning on going to a highly recommended dim sum restaurant for lunch we thought we'd get a quick bite at Mickey D's then take a cab over to the Hong Kong History Museum.

This turned out to be quite the museum. We thought we'd end up spending a quick hour then go on to do other things -- we ended up staying for almost 4 hours! It was an amazing place. The permanent collection of the museum had a detailed history and extremely well crafted dioramas from "the Devonian period 400 million years ago" through the various dynasties, the British colonial period to the Japanese occupation during WW II, through reunification in 1997. We had never seen such detail in any museum we had ever been to. Jaw dropping. Seriously. Of particular interest was the detailed history of how Great Britain came to take over the region. We were impressed with the fact that -- unlike the ridiculously one-sided retelling of history the Vietnam government offered with regards to the "American War" -- the Chinese attempted to give both sides of the conflict. They admitted to the unfair treatment of British merchants (being able to only deal with certain Chinese merchants and only being allowed to live in small sections of the island) but also told in grim detail of how the opium trade/addiction began. Every battle was detailed and a 90 minute film was made available. Of other interest was the intense re-telling of the short, yet bloody, Japanese occupation during the second world war. The Japanese treated the Chinese citizens with so much brutality that even today there appears to be strained relations with that country. There was also an interesting diorama of mid-century HK -- complete with a soda shop with a jukebox, Beer ads, LPs, posters, Super-8 cameras including some Charles had never heard of, etc. The last item to see at the museum was in a large auditorium where we watched a video detailing the handing over of HK by the British. Newspapers on the wall gave more info including one story written about how "150 years of shame and humiliation" were finally at an end.

After the museum we headed over to a dim sum place Laura had read about. This was supposed to be an authentic, non-touristy sort of place. Man, was it ever. We did not spot one Western tourist -- so we knew it had to be good! This was our first dim sum experience and it was quite tasty indeed. We left the restaurant stuffed and with our AMEX kindly taking the tab... Took a cab back to our hotel where we got ready for the evening. Went next door to the world-famous Peninsula Hotel. We weren't going to eat there but wanted to have a drink at its restaurant at the top. What an amazing view of the harbor. It was sad realizing that tomorrow we would be leaving but at the same time it was kind of a relief. 28 days was a long time to be traveling!

Went back to our hotel room to watch the Harbor light show. This was a timed light display that was set off from several different buildings all along the harbor. We heard that it was named the World's Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show by Guinness World Records and were eager to check it out. Here is one description:

"The show creates an all-round vision of coloured lights, laser beams and searchlights performing a stunning, unforgettable spectacle synchronised to music and narration that celebrates the energy, spirit and diversity of Hong Kong." Source here

Well...it was ok....not as spectacular a light show as described. After this ended we headed down to the lobby to meet with Philip and Grace, our kind hosts from our first night. They were meeting us again for dinner, this time taking us to Sam Mun Jai Seafood Restaurant in the Tai Po district of the New Territories. As they both knew the owners we were treated well and served up a variety of tasty seafood and chicken dishes. It was a very pleasant evening with good food, drinks and new friends and a great way to end our last night in Hong Kong.