The previous day I had made a list of things to see in Hong Kong, and so the first thing on the agenda was to see The Peak. A giant hill in the centre of Hong Kong, home to the rich and famous. Doris’ sister drove us up the ridiculously steep slopes to the very top where there is giant viewing platform.
This is the real home of the western tourist, which in comparison to the asian tourists, look like giant blond buffalos. I’m so used to seeing a foreigner and expecting them to be American that it was nice hearing German, Swedish, and British English accents for a change. We took some snaps then looked around the shopping centre before taking the peak tram back down into the city.

View from “The Peak”

- Inside the peak tram
This ancient railway descends almost vertically at points, and offers amazing views down across the harbour through the thicket of trees. A Chinese tourist was so overwhelmed by this beauty that he insisted on standing for the entire journey snapping pictures with his overly large camera.
When the tram suddenly descended steeply, he fell back several meters, but luckily a hairy italian stuck out his arm and propped the man up. Even this near death experience (or rather, broken camera experience) didn’t deter him and he continued with his pictures.
Once at the bottom, we crossed the road and entered one of Hong Kong park’s. Inside this mosquito haven was a giant Eden project style Avery, full of exotic birds, and even more exotic cameras. After being bit one too many times we took a tram to a coffee shop, and then to a giant computer emporium filled with all manner of computer accessories and apple connector cables. Approaching nightfall we walked to the harbour.
All of the party boats chartered by white bankers were returning as nightfall descended and we and took a 1o minute boat ride over the Kowloon in order to look back across the harbour at HK island from the promenade. The viewing gallery gradually filled up with thousands of tourists and the show began.
It was a bit slow to start with, and didn’t really end with a massive bang, but seeing lasers and LED’s put to the sound of pumping music on world-famous buildings was worth seeing. It happens every night at 8pm so I recommend it if you ever go.
After the show finished we walked along some busy shopping streets and entered one of the many many restaurants. We both had beef noodles and milk tea, and later got picked up by her parents and drove home after a long day of walking about town.
Here is a video teaser of the light show. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8504439/HK%20Light%20Show.MOV

