Hong Kong... 11 years later!

It has been 11 and a half years since my parents and I moved to Hong Kong. Which, back then, when I had seen no other foreign places, I thought HK was a crazy place! Now from the perspective of an adult who has seen other major Asian cities, I still think HK is an absolutely A-mazing place! It is truely incredible and CRAZY! It definitly beets out any other city I have been to on my favorite scale. The craziness lies not only within how the buildings are built into the mountains, or just how organized the place is for such a massive population, but the thing so incredible- that I can't believe I forgot about- is just how gorgeous the place is! It is a huge city, built on a tropical island. Actually HK is made up of 250+ islands. And from the north side of the main island (now Hong Kong Island, previously known as Victoria Island before the handover from British rule) you look across the inlet to mainland China. But as you go around the island, out to the east, west, and south HK is speckled with lots of tiny islands, which make for spectacular views, especially now that the new government has gone to great lengths to clean up the environment.
As I landed I remembered just how instrumental Hong Kong was to my development into who I am today. I think it would be fair to say that the traveler I have become has stemmed from the experience of living in such a unique place as a young teenager. And for that, I thank you. Thank you to Hong Kong, and thank you to my parents for putting me there. It changed the person I was at the very core and I could not imagine my life if I had not gone there. Needless to say, I have many emotional ties to the place. It was funny realizing just what the mind remembers. Like I forgot the view from my bedroom window had tons of islands in the picture, but I remembered a sign on the back of a building that you can only see for a second while the bus turns a corner! As I took the ferry to the island, my feet found their way to the bus stop automatically, without asking anyone or looking for signs. My feet just knew where to go. I remembered which buses to get on and the routes that they each took. As I passed certain buildings and fields, I knew their names. Names I haven't thought about for 11 years! Incredible. But I still can't believe I didn't remember just how AWESOME the view was from my bedroom window.
For those of you who visited us while we lived there, you might remember a place called Stanley Market. We took all of our guests there, it was a great place for good deals. I was amazed to find that the meat markets here no longer existed. Instead they have been replaced by a municipal building. The markets themselves were a lot less crowded and the bargaining not as good as it used to be. Now, each stand/store is selling something different. Therefore, you can't haggle with the 'sales associates' as much as you used to because they know they are the only ones with that item. There are a lot of western clothes and other things as well. The back of Stanley used to be a fisherman's area, kind of dodgy. Now it is all built up with cute little western cafes. I enjoyed my afternoon there seeing how much it had changed.
That night I went up to 'The Peak'. When we lived there, my mom and I used to hike up to the peak a lot of weekends. This time, I did the tourist thing and took the tram. Up on the peak you look down on the whole city of crazy and wonderful lights. I stayed up there for a couple of hours just gazing in wonder at the city and appreciating all the wonderful things that place has brought into my life.
The next day I had a flight out in the afternoon, so I spent the morning going to Lantau Island. This is the home ot the biggest Buddha in the world! It is made completely out of bronze, which for those of you who know about metals, you can appreciate this terrific feat. I have been waiting almost 12 years to get there. I never made it there before because as some of you may remember, I spent a lot of my time in Hong Kong very very sick and was even hospitalized at one point for a little while. But when my sisters came to visit, they each went to Lantau. Then when my brother came, I thought I could make the ferry ride with him, but I didn't make it the whole way. I became so ill after the first ferry, I turned around and went home. So now it was my turn, finally, and it was well worth it! After visiting the Buddha, I boarded the ever so familiar flight to LA and thought, 'next stop HOME'!

More pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/HongKong2009#