Growing Old in Style – The Peak during the Evening and Night

Growing Old in Style – The Peak during the Evening and Night

Index:

• 40.. wait? You’re 40???
• Off to Heathrow with National Express
• Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 and British Airways Galleries First
• BA936 London Heathrow to Düsseldorf in Club Europe
• Düsseldorf airport and the most boring lounge… in the world (Lufthansa Business Lounge)
• CX376 Düsseldorf Airport to Hong Kong International Airport in Business Class
• Hong Kong International Airport and CX The Arrival
• To Hong Kong aboard the Airport Express
• Over to Kowloon on the Star Ferry
• Exploring Kowloon
• Holiday Inn Express, Sheung Wan
• The Peak during the Evening and Night
• Riding the Ding Dings and Causeway Bay Presents “The Force Awakens”
• Mong Konk Ladies Market – or the “Hard art of haggling”
• A Symphony of Lights (Pictorial)
  
• Temple Street Market or “Haggle more”
• Back to Hong Kong International Airport
• The Pier First Class Lounge
• CX253 Hong Kong International Airport to London Heathrow
• The Great Rush Home
• 40 up

Hong Kong is not short of things to do, or places to explore. One of the places I wanted to visit again was The Peak.

In previous trips when I’ve tried to ascend The Peak, weather conditions have been varying from clouds to rain to just plain nasty.

This trip I struck some gold. It was grey, but the cloud wasn’t low. I’ll take that and run with it.

There are four main ways to head of to The Peak from Central:

• The Peak Tram (HK$40 return, HK28 Single), extra for the SkyDeck
• Bus 15 (Double Decker Bus) – HK$9.80
• Public Light Bus (16 seater mini bus) HK$9.20
• Or Taxi.

As I’ve done The Peak Tram before, I was in a mood for an adventure – so I went for the bus. Soon enough, I was at The Central Ferry Piers, waiting for the Number 15.

Number 15 – every 10 minutes or so.

With my Ocotopus card blipped and another $9.80 off the card, it was time for the bus driver to do his thing – and the bus loaded up as it drove through Central and Admiralty.

Loading up!

Home away from Home (and these have been popping up left, right and centre in Hong Kong).

With the loads done, the bus begun its climb up The Peak.

The Happy Valley Race Course.

Higher and higher…

Turning and climbing higher.

Now, time for some blunt honesty here. (Well, you’ve been around this blog long enough to endure nothing but blunt honesty for some time). I fell asleep during the accent. Why? Mainly because even though I slept on the plane, I hadn’t slept the day before. Therefore my body was happy, warm and decided this was as good place in the world to conk out for a bit.

Such is life. I knew when I descended The Peak later, I would be heading straight back to the Hotel (well, with a divert to get some noodles on the way… but that’s besides the point).

With an arrival at The Peak, I followed the crowd, and found what I was looking for – a view of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon.

And what better way to celebrate this than with a vlog entry? I’d thought you’d never ask.

Once at The Peak there are few things you can do – for me, I wanted to have a look at one thing…. and that’s Victoria Harbor from The Peak

I lucked out this day. The cloud was lot lower the next few days.

I wandered around, trying to find more interesting positions to shoot the city from. Alas, there were a lot of selfie sticks.

Selfie stick themselves – I have no issues with – its the people holding them that have lost all sense of awareness that I have an issue with.

And that lack of awareness is really off-putting at best, and dangerous at worst. Please – if you’re going to use a selfie stick, please be aware of your surroundings….

I found a nice spot and begun clicking away.

Sometimes it’s nice to add a bit of nature to a cityscape.

The harbour and West Kowloon

Peering over to Kowloon

Tsim Sha Tsui and West Kowloon

The Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront – I’d be on the other side the next day.

Sometimes its fun to put something a little out of focus. Your mileage may vary. 

Finally, I tried some long exposure photography… because I had the time to. You’d be amazed the times I travel that normally – I’m on a timetable. This trip… I could stop and think for a bit what I wanted to achieve.

Editors note: I’ll be doing a couple of things from The Peak that will appear in later postings – A review of the Sony Alpha A5000 and Long Exposure Photography… for when you haven’t got a tripod.

As I said earlier, being up for a day, and sleeping for half a flight was finally catching up with me, so I decided it was time to head off back to the madness of Central Hong Kong and Sheung Wan.

However, nothing prepared me for the part where I was to depart The Peak – and there were queues everywhere – be it for The Peak Tram, Bus 15, Bus 1 or the Taxi.

The queue for the bus…. it’s around the block.

There is no way round this – it’s time to queue. For Bus 15, it was a 30 minute wait or so (with one bus loading up totally and going off, and me making it aboard the 2nd bus which left packed solid).

I don’t think these inbound people know how long they’ve got to wait for a bus on the way back.

Finally aboard the bus

The bus journey down The Peak was a blur – mainly as I was out cold for most of it. Somehow or other, I wound up near Exchange Square – in position for the Hong Kong MTR station for the short walk to Central, and a ride back to Sheung Wan.

And after devouring a bowl of instant noodles, I passed out for the night.

Overall: The Peak – like Star Ferry, like the view from Tsim Sha Tsui is one of those things that just has to be done in Hong Kong. And it is impressive watching the harbour below as the hustle and madness of the city below you whilst you watch.

Just bring a coat if you’re heading up at night – it gets a touch chilly.

Next: I’m off to Causeway Bay, and off to ride the Ding Dings!

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