Neon Everywhere

October 25th 2016

We arrive. The man at the front desk tells us that someone will show us to our room shortly — after a short wait we find out that said someone does not speak English but still wants to communicate something to us that is probably related to the number two.
Once we arrive at the room, she turns to a Chinese-looking room mate of ours and asks us through him how long we are staying. He translates the number four, she explains something in Cantonese for a minute or so, he nods, she leaves the room. — "Okay guys, I have no idea what she said, I only speak Mandarin." — and he's actually Swedish. Oh well, can't have been all that important.

The next morning

From our hostel room, a narrow hallway leads past several apartment doors and into a tiny elevator that takes us from the second floor to ground level. Down there we pass the building's designated security guard and emerge onto the street, were we are struck right away by a dose of neon and LED signs.
Because space is scarce and expensive here, our hostel spreads out over an entire intersection along Causeway Bay with a few rooms each in one building.

Quick note: Nils went back to the room because he had to get something from there — I was waiting by the door on the street. After about 10 minutes Nils came back out, shaking his head: "I didn't find the room."
I swear it wasn't there when I looked...
After an improvised breakfast we are drawn towards Victoria Harbour, from where we take the ferry over to Kowloon to take a look at the skyline from the other side (too foggy for decent pictures) and get to know the area.
First impressions: Compared to Singapore it seems like there are more people out and about everywhere here in Hong Kong, we see some more trash on the streets and some of the homeless people almost entirely absent from Singapore — but in exchange there is all the more street art and neon signs. Reminds me a bit of Berlin.

So especially the side streets are pretty run down and remind me of a/any large American city.
The skyline is not quite as tall but spreads out over a wider area and consists of more buildings overall.
After we explored the streets of Kowloon alongside the Kowloon Park with its aviaries and water fountains, we enjoy some Dim Sum (think Asian tapas) and Chinese tea with a Michelin star — the second cheapest opportunity worldwide to get a Michelin-star meal (after Singapore by the way).
What follows is a spontaneous visit of the Hong Kong Science Museum, whose target audience is probably between 8 and 10 years old — we have lots of fun trying out different experiments surrounded by kids nonetheless and Jan learns more about electricity than in three semesters of physics class. (The award for the most boring game ever goes to "Virtual Construction Safety Inspector" in the generally very boring "Operational Safety & Health" exhibit — the rest was cool)

Me learning nothing in physics class was my fault and Mr. Spiegel is a very good teacher regardless!

Sometime later the museum closes and we continue or way towards the coast — it has gotten dark outside in the meantime and Hong Kong is coming alive.
Once we arrive at the waterfront we have to admit that yes, the skyline of Hong Kong at night is even more impressive than the one in Singapore.
Here, we wait for the 'Symphony of Lights' to start, during which many buildings of the skyline take part in a large light and sound show — very impressive, even though the light show in the Gardens by the Bay keeps its #1 spot on our list for now (sorry Jacky).

Postscript: With 35277 steps we broke our running record by several thousand steps.