'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

Oct 31st

Happy Halloween! We knew that we had a full day so we were up at 9 and out the door by 10am- pretty early for us! We hopped on the subway and headed to the main island of Hong Kong, a quick 2-stop ride. I grabbed a muffin on the way out of the subway,  and we were on our way. Our first stop was at Victoria Peak. I had  failed to realize that Hong Kong is so hilly. We walked about a mile from the subway to the bottom of the peak and took the very touristy tram up to the top of the mountain.

I was stocked that at times the tram was at a 27 degree angel to the horizontal. I said a prayer that the tram would keep going and not all of a sudden roll backwards. We safely arrived at the top and entered the Sky Terrace, an eight floor glass building with amazing views of Hong Kong and Kowloon!

It was so beautiful we spend a good hour just looking it was wonderful! We got lots of great pictures!

 

 

 

We took the tram back down and from there we walked towards the escalators. The escalators run daily (different directions at different times) mostly up mountains to help people get to and from work and their homes because it is so hilly here. Before arriving we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a trendy sandwich and smoothie shop called the Mix. We continued to walk and found the escalators.

 

We were amazed as we rode them up how they just kept going and going for miles. It was nice to bypass tons of stairs, especially because we both feel like we’ve climbed millions of stairs already on this trip. We discovered lots of fun areas with restaurants , bars and cute little markets. We made a mental note and vowed to return before we leave Hong Kong. Our last major tourist stop of the day was at the Happy Valley Race Course. We attempted to walk in, but a guard wouldn’t let us go on the main entrance. We walked around the building and found an open door. Being adventurous we went inside and hopped on the nearest elevator. We rode it to the top floor, the doors open and there were about 5 guys working at a restaurant waiting to get on the elevator. They were definitely shocked seeing us Westerners. Confused looks were exchanged, and we quickly pushed the close door button on the elevator and we were off. We stopped at a different floor which happened to be another restaurant that was more formal. There were several wait staff that were setting up for what looked like a wedding, we pointed towards the balcony and they nodded, allowing us to cut through their dinning room and take some pictures.

  

There was no horse races going on obviously, but the center of the race track was filled with people playing tennis, running, and doing lots of different outdoor activities. It was a neat place to check out. We were impressed with the territory that we covered and decided that we needed to rest up for Halloween, so we headed back to the hotel. We made a stop at the grocery store where we both stocked up on granola bars and I bought a sewing kit to mend my bra which is somehow falling apart, maybe from the washing machines here? 

We got back to the room and slept for about an hour and a half. We showered and got ready to go out. I attempted to sew my bra which was quite a challenge because I haven’t tried to sew anything since 6 grade home-economics when I had to sew a stuff animal and practically failed the class because I was so bad. It was quite an experience. We were ready by 7pm and decided to grab some dinner near our hotel. We ended up two streets over on Ashley street at a place classed Sushi One which has conveyer belt sushi. It was fabulous. I am starting to LOVE sushi-- dad be ready to get some with me when I get home! The sushi here was also priced depending on the color plate it was on, all of my favorites (mostly the salmon) is the cheapest which works out well for me. I had lots of unique pieces that I hadn’t seen before. I had salmon with mango in several different forms. I really liked when the Mango was cut into thin pieces and was used as the “roll” part in place of the sushi (although I do admit its slimy and very hard to eat with chop sticks). I also had salmon with caviar which was great! I didn’t think that I liked caviar, but I found myself wanting more and more. We left and both agreed that it was one of the best meals we had on the whole trip.

Feeling very full we jumped on the subway and headed over to Hong Kong to LFK. Lan Kwai Fong is a street that my friend Ami recommended in Japan.

Boy was she ever right, this was the place to be for Halloween! As we stepped off the subway we were stuck in a sea of people and dragged along streets zig-zagging all the way to LFK. It’s a good thing we wanted to be going in that direction because there was no way possible that we could have gone in any other way- the crowd was intense but a lot of fun. We grabbed Smirnoff Ice drinks from a street vender and followed the crowd with drinks in hand.

We were shocked that only a third of the crowd was actually dressed up, the others were like paparazzi and snapping pictures left and right. Jess and I had decided earlier in the day that we weren’t going to dress up and we seemed to fit in with the majority of the people. The locals did snap pictures with us as we walked by simply because we were foreigners, I made funny faces and made the best of it.  We spend the whole night hopping in and out of bars and walking down streets to find more and more people doing the same thing. We found it funny that we basically spend the whole night walking.

We’d popped into bars and danced for a few song and replenished our drinks and were on our way to the next happening spot. We got were annoyed by the amount of people and barricades set up to control the crowds, but chalked it all up to cultural differences and made the best of it. It was definitely a Halloween like no other, we had a lot of fun and will remember it for years to come! We headed home after midnight and happily hopped into bed exhausted after a full day in Hong Kong!


Love,
Katie