Hong Kong pt. 1

Dayton and I flew separately to Oakland, CA on January 23. I had credit on United so I used that to fly there which was a huge mistake. I ended up flying to Denver first and then to Oakland. Leaving much earlier and arriving much later than Dayton. He had a nice family from his mission in Napa pick us up at the airport. We spent a couple nights with them before they took us to SFO for our flight to Hong Kong. We arrived pretty late in Hong Kong and found a place on the floor in the airport to crash until daytime. We hopped on the speed train to Kowloon where we found a hostel on Nathan Road. Our room was small to say the least. It fit one queen sized bed and had a sink that drained on the floor. We were cozy, but so tired that we didn't care. Nathan road is full of tourists and hawkers. The moment we set foot on the sidewalk we were surrounded by Indian men trying to sell us suits and watches. I almost had a guy buy my watch for 5o0 HKD but in the end he backed out... jerk. With the help of a guide book we found some awesome restaurants. My favorite was called Life Cafe. Located across the bay from Kowloon and along the world's longest escalator this two floor cafe serves organic vegetarian/vegan food. When the weather is good they open the roof for dining. The restaurant is also full of used books to browse through while you dine on delicious food. The walls are plastered with great quotes from famous vegetarians. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." by Gandhi really stuck out to me and was appropriate for me to read at the beginning of this great adventure. We spent one morning at the park watching the elderly practice tai chi and sword fighting. I took a nap on the bench because I was really feeling the jetlag. During the day we made our way up to Victoria Peak. There is a cable car which takes you to the top up a very steep rail. This was my second time to the peak, the first being in 2008. I was a little disappointed because there was so much fog in the air that the islands of Hong Kong weren't visible unlike the first time I went. This photo is from my first trip there right after a typhoon cleared the air of pollution. After spending some time at the peak walking around and reading we went to hop on the cable car to go down when Dayton realized he lost his return ticket. Rather than paying for another, we decided to jog down the mountain back to the subway. This turned out to be an awesome experience! We came across some great scenery and we were surrounded by beautiful green trees. It was a nice break from the busy city center. Once we arrived back to the city from our jog we were doing all that we could to keep busy so we would curb our jetlag by staying up until it was night before going to bed. We wandered around the island for a bit longer before making our way back to Kowloon via subway under the bay. Once we go back we decided to go to the pier and relax for a while. We both brought a number of good books to read so we walked down to the pier and enjoyed the fresh sea air and watched fishing boats sail in while we read. We took care of some business while in Hong Kong. We got our China visas which I thought would be cheaper to get in Hong Kong than in the states but it turns out the price is the same. It is also 4 times expensive for an American to get a China visa than for any European. Even with this minor setback our spirits were high. During our first night in the Hong Kong airport we had purchased our flight to Cebu, Philippines which would be our third stop for our adventure. Upon arriving to check in at Cebu Pacific airlines we were informed that we needed to prove our intention to leave the Philippines by providing a boarding pass for our exit flight. We scrambled quickly and bought a flight from Cebu to Bangkok and we were soon on our way for yet another adventure.