Hong Kong: the Layover

Skyline. For the astute Batman fan, the building in "Dark Knight" when Batman kidnaps the accountant Lau is to the right behind me. Best comic book movie ever!

En route to Thailand, we had a 10-hour layover in Hong Kong. This could not have been more ideal, as Mindy's sister, Karen and her husband, Viv live in HK. We had a jam-packed layover that would impress Anthony Bourdain (does he still have that "Layover" show? My references might be even more dated than I thought). Arrive at 10am, take the airport train to Central, the aptly-titled central Hong Kong business district. From their, we hike Victoria Peak, which offers a stunning view of the city. After building up an appetite, we went to dim sum at the famous Maxim's, but the wait was too long so we jetted to the Kowloon-side (quick ferry) to Nanhai #1, located on the 30th floor of the Isquare building (a gigantic shopping mall as far as I'm concerned). Beautiful panoramic view of Hong Kong, pricier than most dim sum because of the atmosphere, but certainly worth it. After grabbing lunch with the fam, I met up with my Aunt Margaret from my father's side who I probably haven't seen in 10 years or so. We catch up, and it's surreal to me because I noticed so many behaviors similar to my dad that I never realized before. After tea and coffee with my aunt, we hopped back on the ferry to have one last drink before heading to the airport by 7p.

From the ferry, Victoria Harbour.

View from the balcony of Nanhai. Kowloon is in the foreground, HK in the back.

All of these photos were extracted from my GoPro as I didn't really take too many with my iPhone. Problem - foreshadowing - would be that the GP was lost later in Thailand. Therefore, these are my only photos of HK.

On the Cathay Pacific flight from HK to Bangkok, I noticed the airline has a really strong affinity for "21 Jump Street." I actually loved that movie, so I'm not gonna criticize it as a western classic along the likes of "Butch Cassidy" and "Casablanca."

Next:

Bangkok