1,030

That's how many photos I took. Yesterday. I went through an entire pair of batteries and then some.

I'll share 25 with you.

The first photograph of the day, before we even left the Siu Hong station--bound for Causeway Bay!

It took us a couple of hours to get there, mostly because of ticket difficulties (for our non-Octopus-holding members). We also used up a good portion of time staring at the map. Finally we just followed the arrow pointing towards Times Square...and spiral escalators.

But we needed cheap food so--maybe you guessed?--KFC. I don't even eat this much fast food in America. And when I do, it doesn't come with a side of rice with mushrooms.

I really really wanted to ride in one of these. But I didn't want to stand in line.

I keep finding these large televisions everywhere (remember that other one in the shopping center?) and this one looked particularly out of place.


Yes! The spiral escalators! Everyone else seemed completely unthrilled. Admittedly, I too had been expecting something more twisty. Maybe I'll grow up and become a millionaire just so I can purchase a genuine spiral escalator.


After coming back down the escalators we wandered through the mooncake vendors. Mickey Mouse and Garfield shaped ones, and some that were filled with super-fancy gelato. And I got to sample a pineapple flavored one!



McDonald's with mesmerizing sign.


Trams! Everywhere! As common as buses! I read about them once. All I remember is the city once upon a time wanted to get rid of them because of their un-modern-ness, but couldn't because the people protested.


While we were waiting at a crosswalk on our way to a post office of historical significance I spotted this (I think) adorable graffiti. People should learn to park their motorcycles to avoid interference with photographs.


Also, the pizza and KFC delivery folks travel in style.

The post office. I have not included a photograph of the post office because it didn't look particularly interesting. Maybe some day when I have oodles of spare time I'll think, "hmm...I should like to spend this time uploading uninteresting photographs."

The temple! Umm...not much more to say, really. Incense, statues, dim lighting...

Then we just followed our leader, even though he tended to walk behind the group. Now that I think about it, I really have no idea how we knew where to go.

We walked past dirty buildings in pastel colors,


a street filled with chandelier shops,


a basketball court,


and a street filled with fancy furniture stores.

Then we arrived at a large shopping center, where everyone (except me) bought coffee at Starbucks. I ate a Mandarin muffin instead.

A Korean singer who's very popular in China.


This is not Starbucks. But my fingers couldn't stop taking photos, even while we were resting.


As we were leaving I spotted this sign.
P.S. That's where we'd all been sitting.

I took this photo while sitting on the planter. Observe the plants.


Oh no! I've gotten my day mixed up. That's what happens when I wait to long to write about it.
Sometime after the temple and before Starbucks we stopped by the MTR station and two more friends joined us. I'd had no idea we'd been standing outside the station waiting for them. This is proof that I can't understand phone conversations spoken in Korean. Or read minds.


And then we ended up here! In what I'll call the "awesome buildings district."
I'm actually not even sure which city we were in, because at some point we left Causeway Bay and ended up in Central.


Everything was so SHINY.



Some dancers in the park we ended up at.


Next we wandered into a shopping center chock full of designer clothes.
I stole this picture from Diore. Accidentally.
But when I become a spiral escalator owning millionaire, guess whose snobbish no-mannequin-photography-policy store I'm not buying clothes from?


We left and saw that night had officially arrived. Nearly all subsequent photographs resemble the above in blurriness.


Oh! I remember this photo now--on the way to the Mid-Level escalators.
The longest escalator system in the world, and one of the two things I remember from a documentary I saw on Hong Kong a few years ago (the other is custom-made suits).

The escalators go one direction in the morning and switch for the commute back.

And it takes 20 minutes to ride them all the way from start to finish. But we hopped off before the end, unless we began before the start. Either way, we weren't on for an extreme amount of time.

I've never enjoyed escalators more. They go right next to shop windows and restaurants, and night makes it all gorgeous.

Best escalator ever.

We ate at an Italian restaurant, where I ordered my favorite: fettucine alfredo. The waiter's flawless English felt so strange. And the old photographs on the walls made no sense (although I liked them). A sad boy next to a motorcycle, a newly married couple, a lady with hardly any clothes, a color photograph of a people around a table...

And then!

Oh!

I shouldn't even include photographs!

It couldn't be captured!

I give you permission to tap into my mind and borrow my memories of the view from Victoria Peak. If you promise to return them.


I'm only including this one because I can't very well blab on and on about something beautiful and then say, "too bad you weren't there, the end." We took a taxi to the top (first time in a Hong Kong taxi!) instead of the tram because of long lines and expensive tickets. The ride was quite exciting because I kept thinking we were about to crash. Only because I'd forget we weren't in the wrong lane.


Picasso could have drawn a centaur or something (http://www.vpphotogallery.com/photog_mili_picasso.htm). But I like hearts just fine.

In the moon, the Chinese see the wife I from the story I told you.
And Koreans see a bunny.

A lot of families came to the Peak for the Mid-Autumn festival. Everyone carried at least one lantern, some of them traditional paper and candle ones and others inflatable plastic ones with a battery powered light.


One of the final pictures of the night. We're exhausted and waiting for the bus that will bring us directly to Tuen Mun. Turns out the bus ride was even more exhausting--we stood the whole time, with our hands clenching those-things-dangling-from-the-ceiling-for-this-very-purpose to keep from stumbling into our neighbors with every stop.