Day 3

Ole writes:
We arrived in Hong Kong last night without problems. We're emailing from a free wifi connection we can pick up on the hotel balcony in downtown Kowloon, Hong Kong. We're staying at the Dragon Inn in Chung King Mansions, a high rise sandwiched between the Sheraton and the Holiday Inn. But it's actually only $20 a night for a small room with attached bath and shared fridge in the common area.

It's early morning Saturday and we will be going out in a few minutes to tour the nearby park and shoot some more photos of the Nathan Road area. It's like the biggest Chinatown you've ever seen -- with plenty of neon and shops galore.

Today we will probably move into dorm style accommodations so we can meet some fellow travelers. Also, we need to check out the airfare situation and determine how we will spend our time on this trip. The main decision is whether we will do a round the world fare going through Bangkok, India, and Europe, or just return to the West Coast via Manila. If we do the latter we will stay almost the entire 2 months traveling around Philippines. Otherwise we will do a short stay there and then return to Hong Kong to resume the trip. Another option, much less likely, would be to return to Portland via Australia, Bali, Fiji, and Tahiti. We figure the airfare for all these options will be similar, although this may not be the case.

The rest of today we will take it easy, try to find some vegetarian eateries, and do some sightseeing. Hong Kong is one of the world's most beautiful cities, split by the harbor between the mainland and several islands. It's very densely populated and a rather intense traveling experience. So far we are really enjoying the experience -- first real overseas vacation together in 12 years. We're taking great care to avoid any of the usual hitches like thefts and tummy upsets.

Last night we had soy milk, spicy Indian snacks called samosas, and some of my homemade whole wheat walnut bread that we brought along.

The flight from San Francisco was over 14 hours long. We had 3 vegan meals. They played 5 movies: Just like heaven, In my shoes, Babe: pig in the city, and one 2 other we did not enjoy so much.

Maitri writes:
Hello, everyone! We took a double-decker bus from the airport to downtown Kowloon. It was my first double-decker bus experience. Pretty cool! We went on the longest suspension bridge in the world to get to Kowloon. As it was evening, we can only see lights and not much landscape/waterscape. Hong Kong people are so well dressed. It looked a huge modeling ramp. With a few pudgy-looking ones, everyone all looked so trim. I'm looking forward to see a couple of gardens and a ferry ride. Hongkong is for shopping. This is where you come and shop. The high-rise in which we're staying is a bit dumpy. So far we've taken the stairs (not a pretty sight due to the piles of trash) because the elevators are very crowded.

After breakfast of our walnut bread and soymilk, we walked towards the waterfront and strolled through the Avenue of Stars. Hong Kong Island across the bay looked imposing. We had lunch at Kung Tak Lam Vegetarian Restaurant on the 7th floor of One Peking Road. Quite pricey.

Money notes:
Changed $100 at airport = HK$716.
Expenses: HK$300 mass transport pass, $150 hotel, $8.20 soymilk, $10 samosas.