Daniel visiting us, The Peak and Dragon Boat Festival

As said before, I still have a lot to tell. So here is a second try to catch up... :-)

A few weeks ago our friend Daniel visited us again. This time he didn't traveled from Macao, but from a train from China. So the first day he had to catch up some good sleep. After regaining some energy we took him of course to some cool places, like some bars and most important: The Peak. Somehow he managed to skip the 1# hot-spot of Hong Kong?!

Luckily we had a public holiday, and that very hot day we took the bus to The Peak. It's a bumpy bus ride, over a twisting road. We sat in the front seat of the famous biplane HK buses, so we could have a good look around and feel scared to death when another bus or steep wall just rushes by just a few inches from your head. But we made it without - but close to -having a heart attack.

Since we took the bus, it drives for the last past over the "back" side of the peak. Therefore, you have an opportunity to see both sides of the island. The city part, and the nature park part. So when you arrive at the peak tower, you're pretty amazed by the view (because you can look at once over the whole city), and that's exactly what Daniel's face told us when we got there. To experience it yourself. Here is a photo and a video.

But the day was far from over, since it was a public holiday celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival! So we headed to Stanley, where one of the two big Dragon Boat events took place. However, it took us a while, since half the population of HK migrates that day to those two hot-spots. And hot is was! Burning sun, but with the slight sea breeze and cheerful atmosphere it's pretty okay. At Stanley we split up, and I joined Eva and her friend.

The Dragon Boat races are pretty cool. Slim boats with a team of peddlers and one to hit the drums. The races go very quick, since they move over a distance of about 1 to 2 kilometre. The boats row towards the beach so that everyone can see the spectacular finish before the boats shove up the beach. Each boat has a team of a specific country with their own colour. No use for me to shout "HOLLAND! HOLLAND!", because I couldn't spot our orange Dutch team... But would they have heard that anyway on top of all the other cheering and screaming plus the sound of the drums on each boat? I think not... ;-)

We arrived late in the afternoon, so the races were about to end. Because we didn't want to be in the rush-hour of the giant migration back home, we hurried to the bus stop. Luckily we could catch our bus within a few minutes (that on itself is pretty amazing compared to the time we had to wait to get the bus to Stanley), and went back to Central to jump on the MTR. From there to Kowloon to take the KCR, then in a taxi to arrive at our destination: I have totally no clue... But, our guide (Eva's friend) knew where to go, and we got there. It was a very local restaurant, although that's a fancy name for it. Big place with lots of tables, out-door style: big round tables and small plastic stools to sit on. Great atmosphere, lots of people talking and enjoying their food and (on almost every table) beer. The food was delicious and extremely cheap! What I've been told, is that this is a very local place to eat, even for locals, and that there are only a few places like these left in HK. Too bad, because it is so nice to have dinner there!

To read more about Daniel and his stay here, visit his weblog! He's now on a trip trough China, so it's interesting to read.