Hong Kong (Part 1) - Sweater Weather

It's currently well-after midnight, but I wanted to make a quick write-up to say that i'm back home safely, in Korea. Hong Kong was a very good trip, with an abundance of things to do - staying there five days wasn't enough to see everything, so we had to be choosy. I'll write up a longer entry on what we did from Wednesday through Saturday, but i'll at least write up about what we did the day we got there - Tuesday.

Stepping off the plane after arriving, Hong Kong had the instant perk of being warm. Temperatures weren't exactly summery, but sitting between 14-20 degrees Celsius felt pretty good to me - though according to the Hong Kong travel guide we had, this is what the residents of Hong Kong consider 'Sweather Weather'. Since it's the coldest time of the year for them, I suppose it's the only time of the year they even get the chance to wear sweaters.

The Chinese New Year was still being celebrated when we arrived, so it turned out to be pretty difficult to find a decent place to eat anywhere near our apartment. What we did find open though, was the building pictured here: The Hong Kong Scout Centre. I think my exact thought when I saw this building was 'Holy Crap'. If any Scout movement has the budget to afford anything this nice, it means it's doing preeeetty well for itself. There was even a statue and a painting of Baden Powell in the main hall. Very cool.

When night hit, we went out to Victoria Harbour, to watch the Fireworks display that was happening as part of the Chinese New Year celebration. It was heavily policed, as it should be, what with there being 250,000 people in attendance. According to this article though, it's only half of what was there last year.

Yes, i'm glad I wasn't there last year.

The fireworks were very, very good and pretty lengthy. We didn't have the best view, but it was good enough to appreciate them nonetheless. Near the end of the show, though, one of the boats used to launch the fireworks caught on fire - which I managed to make a video recording of. It's kind of cool - you can hear people gasping and going 'ohhhhhh'.

Enjoy. I'll continue with the morning of Day 2 in a post tomorrow.