China

Hong Kong Heat

OG

16 Sep 2016 • 5 min read

One day my son, this will all be yours. Haha, just kidding. It'll all be under water in no time. But it's a killer view, innit?!

Dear reader,

And just like that poof we're in Hong Kong. The flight went a lot smoother than the authorities had anticipated (always pays to expect the worst) and our first day in the city went off without too many tantrums from either side. But the heat, oh my Lord, the heat is incredible. Together with the humidity it hit us like a brick wall over our jet-lagged heads.

But first, we had to get here. Quick stop-over in Amsterdam:

Hi peeps, this is your captain speaking. We are good to go so I hope y'all are tucked in tight cause I'm taking this baby for a ride!

The Dutch sure know how to make families welcome - a baby room with lots of cribs, separated by curtains. Either for breastfeeding or letting the baby sleep or even just play quietly wile the parents repack their duty free spoils.

Like I said, the heat was CRAZY on that first day.

But after everyone had a shower and some fresh clothes, we felt up for a little stroll around our new neighborhood.

The kids on the wheel go round and round, round and round, round and round, the kids on the wheel go round and round until one gets dizzy.

The next day it was sunny so we started with the most famous attraction of them all, Victoria Peak. It's a mountain on Hong Kong island that gives you a great view of the whole area. After you stand in line for about 100 hours, you ride up in a super-steep cable car.

The tram is so steep in places that the skyscrapers seem to be toppling over. Apparently this has even been written about in scientific reviews. It's hard to capture with a camera though.

Then you arrive at the top and you're in a mall. No kidding, it's a mall. With beautiful views. Or you can walk a few meters and be almost by yourself.

We opted for a walk around the peak instead of hanging out at the mall. (There's even a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant there. Sheesh people...)

The view to the other side was a bit hazy but still very nice.

Of course we had to take the shortcut through the jungle. Have you met this family?! (Yes, it was exhausting. No, it probably wasn't worth it. But hey, we made it!)

When we got back to the peak station we finally went up to the roof and got that million-dollar view.

It's all fun and games until someone looses a baby over the railing.

And now one without all those annoying people in it.

When we got back down the line to get into the cable car was so long, it went up the road, ACROSS the road and then wrapped around itself several times. As in, the people at the end of that line were probably going to make it to the peak just in time for closing time. And we thought we had it tough when we had to wait for half an hour in the morning.

San Francisco is nothing compared to this place. They have escalators running up this street. Escalators!

We all needed a drink to recover from that beautiful and exhausting first day.

Transportation had to ask several times for my glass of milk at the bar because they didn't know how to handle that order. Anyway, we all got our favorites in the end. Except for BabyPaw, he got bupkis as usual.

Then today, the weather was even better! Actually bonafide blue skies. So we headed out to Lantau island and took the gondola up to Ngong Ping village to see the Big Buddha. (That's the actual name, not making that up. It does have an official name too, Tian Tan, but nobody calls it that.)