Hong Kong Days One and Two

I'm writing now from the USA Hostel in Hong Kong, our second day here in the city. After a hurried finish to our Tokyo experience--Dimitar stayed out all night clubbing, and I made it home on the train despite being detained by a guard for trying to skip through without paying (I ran out of Yen)--we successfully made it to the HK airport yesterday afternoon. Riding the high-speed train from the airport to Hong Kong Island, both Dimitar and I remarked on how modern and Western things here seemed to be. This city is filled with incredible glass high-rises housing multinational corporations, and a great amount of English is spoken, thanks largely to the long-time British occupation. However, amidst the high-rises and wealth is a city of natives who operate street markets for fruit, seafood, herbal medicine, electronics, and just about anything else you can imagine. It's difficult to describe the street scene here or to accurately capture it with a camera. It's as if someone took parts from cities around the world--a poor area of India, the financial district of New York or London, and the street scene of Tokyo--and jammed them into one place. It is an incredible contrast.

The highlight for me has been getting to meet up with the rest of our group. Sanjana and Nisha arrived here the day before Dimitar and I, and Ivo landed later in the day. We met up last night for dinner and went to a bar overlooking Kowloon, the part of the city where our hostel is located on the other side of Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. The views were absolutely spectacular.

Today, the five of us walked through one of the districts on Hong Kong island, exploring the street markets. It was quite a scene. A few of us bought fruit, and we ate a traditional Hong Kong breakfast in a restaurant we found in a city guide. Tonight, Ivo, Dimitar and I will be taking a boat tour around the harbor, and we're meeting up with the girls at 8 to watch the nightly laser light show on HK Island.

Unfortunately, the computers here in our hostel run Windows 2000, and I haven't been able to make the connection to my camera work, so I'm not able to post any photos yet. I may be able to do so in an Internet cafe here, or I may have to wait until we go to Thailand on Wednesday.