There's a point of land in the Hong Kong harbor - one of the very last undeveloped pieces of dirt in this mega city. It's called the West Kowloon Promenade - and city administrators are doing their best to get this space used by the public in a meaningful and healthy way (before more skyscrapers are built on top of it). After taking a jog out there the other morning I quickly realized that the only reason this space exists is to act at the portal for a 12 lane, underwater freeway tunnel to Central Hong Kong on the other side of the bay. Either way it's pretty cool! Crystal noted that there was a beer festival coming up on Saturday night, and it was being hosted at the same site. When we arrived, the formerly deserted area was now packed with hipsters from every corner of the earth! A grungy british band was playing some bit for a crowd of a couple thousand at least. Unfortunately the festival proved so popular that the line to get in was several hours long…. :-( We opted for mini-market brew, and a seat outside the fence where we could still see the band, but had the comfort of a million dollar view of HK harbor and Central City. Beautiful!
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| View of Central Hong Kong from Kowloon |
All of this activity transpires in the shadow of HK's tallest building - the Ritz Carlton. Built in 2011, this 120 story behemoth dwarfs everything in its surroundings - and the best part is that it's classy roof-top bar/club "Ozone" is open to the public! As we made our way up the waterfront, the building's exterior LED light show makes the building shimmer, wave, and undulate with patterns. Occasionally text would flood up the side of the building - "We love HK" or something to that effect. The tower has a level of fit and finish that i've rarely seen before. Extraordinary details abound in every nook and corner - glass and polished metal walls, gleaming marble and dark metallic accents. It stands in stark contrast to my hodgepodge youth hostel over in the "Chunking Mansions." Either way the Ritz staff are very friendly and accommodating, even with my ratty tshirt and jeans. After an ear-popping elevator ride to over 1400 feet, we stepped out into the rooftop bar, and the city fell away at our feet. From this altitude you can see the relatively small size of HK - all tightly packed around the bay on a series of small islands and peninsulas. We arrived just in time to witness the Disneyland-esque laser light show - a city-wide event that occurs shortly after dark on the weekends. It's quite a thing, especially as many of the effects are mounted on top of the Ritz tower. What a city!
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Crystal and I on the 120th floor "Ozone" bar -
what a view! |
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| Crystal on the Kowloon-HK ferry |
On Friday night Crystal arranged for us to meet up with her friend Madhit in Central HK. We decided to take the long way from Kowloon, including a ferry ride across the bay, and a stroll up the longest outdoor escalator in the world (according to Crystal). Its quite a thing - they've built a raised walkway that snakes it's way through the tight, hilly streets all the way from the bay to the top of the hill. The powered walkway ferries thousands of people past hundreds of shops and restaurants. You're free to hop off wherever you like, as we did at "The Globe." This is a new venue in town, and their speciality is….. microbrew beer! Horray! I love this town more and more. :-) Madhit met up with us shortly after arriving - this guy is a HOOT. I immediately recognized his Silicon Valley swagger - the kind kind of casual-millionaire party animal that can only be bred in California. The drinks started coming fast (and free!) - beers from all over the world. It didn't take us long to notice the questionable art on the walls, and Madhit had the brilliant idea to try and sell it to the other patrons of the bar! Hilarity ensued as a small, quiet Chinese girl (Crystal), a gangly white boy (me), and a big boombastic Nigerian man (Madhit) did our best to sell some moderately terrible artwork. By the end of the night we had failed at our endeavor - being unable to GIVE the paintings away. However we now knew about half the clientele in the bar, and had had a blast trying. Crystal even made a new friend, and they've been texting back and fourth in the days that have followed.
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