The trip through Aberdeen and Stanley is exquisitely breathtaking. The roads are high up on a cliff with unmatched views of turquoise waters and lush, jungle covered cliff faces. We both sat there alternating between marveling at the sheer beauty of the area and jerking our heads up from dozing off in a jet-lagged stupor. Stanley is a suburb of Hong Kong that has a resort-town vibe with ridiculous views. Aberdeen seems to be another seaside area that has a slightly less affluent feel. The rest of the tour afforded views of a harbor where a certain group of people live on their boats anchored a little offshore, the famous Hong Kong shipping areas and other small towns.
Pulling back up at the ferry dock we dragged our exhausted selves back on a packed Star Ferry boat bound for Kowloon.
Arriving at the Kowloon terminal we grabbed a cab and went back to our hotel where we found our luggage ensconced in a new, larger home on a different floor. However, apparently AJK had worked some pretty strong magic on the staff and within minutes a bellboy knocked on our door to bring us to our third room of the day, a suite aptly named “Fantastic suite” on the 28th floor.
[What I do to review all these rooms for you guys, huh? =)] We quickly settled in and then raced down to catch a shuttle to the Avenue of the Stars for the nightly Symphony of the Lights. Avenue of the Stars is a pretty promenade that affords stunning views of downtown Hong Kong across the harbor with its myriad of towering skyscrapers and bright billboards that give Hong Kong its reputation for a brilliant skyline that rivals (and in my opinion), completely outshines New York.
The nightly light show is a laser and spotlight show that is supposedly coordinated with music. The lasers and spotlights are shone off of the tops of the skyscrapers and some skyscrapers themselves light up while loud music is pumped out of speakers on Avenue of the Stars.
Click here for a large panoramic of the skyline.While we found the skyline absolutely beautiful, the music and the lights were underwhelming, and after appreciating it for a little bit we walked towards the Shangri-La hotel and the Mul Hayam restaurant next door. Again, for people who usually spend their vacations eating PB & J with a side of microwavable meals, the opportunity to see a city like Hong Kong and then eat in a genuine restaurant with delicious food is absolutely incredible.
The restaurant is on the top floor of a shopping area and next door to the Kehillat Zion shul, which has minyanim three times a day packed with visiting businessmen. The restaurant has a fancier feel with comfortable, large sofa-type chairs and intimate lighting. We ordered a delicious beef, ghoulash soup, a steak and Citrus chicken along with Vietnamese rice. The food is absolutely delicious, though the portions are smaller than New York standards, but the taste is on par with or even better than some of New York’s nicest restaurants.
We finished up dinner with a wonderful chocolate cake and then got out of there before our faces fell in our Vietnamese rice. We both managed to fall asleep in the eight minute cab ride back to our hotel. However, upon arriving in our room we decided to take full advantage of our time in Hong Kong and run upstairs for a dip in the Jacuzzi and a view of the skyline at night from the 74th floor. We quickly jumped in, appreciated the view and jumped right out and headed down for a much-needed night’s rest.
The next morning dawned too quickly and again completely fog covered. AJK left to daven at KZ and we made plans for me to meet him there for the breakfast that they serve after davening. I joined him at about 8:15 at the restaurant next door to the shul (where we had eaten the night before) and they had put out a spread of made to order omelets, shakshuka, French toast, Israeli salad and coffee, all which were extremely delicious.
We then decided to head over to the Ritz Carlton, which is a two minute walk from our hotel to see a friend of AJK’s who was actually in town at the same time and staying there. The Ritz Carlton is located on the 103rd floor of the third tallest building in the world (by number of floors) and holds the esteemed title of the world’s tallest hotel. Indeed, the hotel is basically in the clouds and, with the fog of the day, you could see nothing from the lobby windows but white.
AJK’s friend met us in the lobby and we went up to see his room which was opulent and luxurious even by Ritz standards. His room, which earns its price tag for the breathtaking views it is supposed to afford of Hong Kong harbor and Hong Kong itself, basically gave you the impression that you were floating amongst the clouds. One could see not a thing out of the windows and it actually made me kind of claustrophobic. The room has floor to ceiling windows, which I am sure is a crazy experience should it be sunny out but with the thick, white, puffy, clouds surrounding you on all sides it felt a little weird.
[Luckily for him, the weather cleared up the next day and the hotel earned its price tag.] We headed back to our hotel to pack up with plans to meet up shortly after and head out together to the glass bottomed cable cars at Ngong Ping which is quite near the airport.
We left the W and took the elevator to the station under the hotel where there are actually airport ticket counters where you can not only check-in for your flight but also check your luggage in as well which is absolutely fabulous. This is inestimably convenient as we were able to take care of checking in as well as get rid of our luggage. The ride to the airport took about 15 minutes and upon arriving, we left the terminal and caught a ten-minute cab ride to the cable cars.
We waited in line and were finally shown to a glass-bottomed cable car for the twenty-minute ride up the side of the mountain. The ride in a glass-bottomed car gives you incredible views of the South China sea, surrounding mountains, villages and the airport where you could see huge A380s on arrival and departure. Even on this foggy day, the view was pretty astounding. I am certain that with the best of weather the ride must be a little nerve-wracking for even the bravest of souls, but with 20-30 mph winds buffeting our little car, I have to admit that I may have felt that I was dishonoring my promise to AJK’s father not to do anything stupid.