Discovering Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong we really played tourists.  By that I mean that we caved and bought a two-day pass to the Big Bus.  This was at the recommendation of my dad who had been to Hong Kong years ago and still remembered the bus tours.  And funnily enough when we told Matt’s parents that we did the tour, his mom remembered doing a bus tour when she was in Hong Kong.  Clearly it is a popular way to see the area.  We bought our tickets with Sarah and Justin and all of us agreed that this was money very well spent.  For two days we traveled around the entire island while listening to the history of certain places.  We could jump on and off whenever we wanted and pick up another bus.  They have the Big Bus company in other cities around the world and I would definitely recommend trying it out.

On our second day we learned more about the history of HK Island and drove around the various parts.  The thing that stuck out to me most was the sheer amount of people (most of them women).  I have never seen so many people in my entire life and this is coming from someone who has been on a train in Tokyo during rush hour.  There were people everywhere – under bridges, lining the hallways of the train walkways, parks – it seemed that everywhere that a person could fit, three were there.  When I was telling someone about this who had traveled to Hong Kong before, they told me that Sunday was the only day off for domestic workers.  The workers don’t have anywhere else to meet so they meet on the streets to socialize.  I learned that most of the women were from Indonesia and the Philippines and although in some cases these women are treated fairly, in others they are not and it is a form of indentured servitude.  Obviously, I need to do more research, but this made a lasting impression on me and is what I remember most about Hong Kong.

Here are pictures from our second day (some are from the bus, so please excuse the blurriness).