Photographic Evidence to Suggest That I Actually Am in Hong Kong

Please bear with me as I attempt to post photographs. These pictures are in no order, and I have no idea why I chose these particular five with which to impress you. One of them is of the Bank of China building, which Batman (apparently) did not blow up, for you see it still stands. It looks even more majestic at night. I may or may not post some night shots in the future, so stay tuned.

I had the last two days off, so I took the opportunity to explore and seek enlightenment or something. Monday, I had my first voice lesson in the morning and set out after lunch for Victoria Peak. Just north of all the skyscapers is this famous peak (my guidebooks tell me what is famous). I rode the "Tram" --which celebrates its 120th anniversary this year--to the top.
It appears that they have not updated the technology of the Tram since the colonial days; yet, I feared for my life only once and it had more to do with the unruly group of middle-aged Japanese women in matching faux-canvas baseball caps than it did with the tram itself. Yes, faux-canvas; I didn't know that was possible either.
At the top, I gazed at the incredible views and yearned to have a photo of myself in front of the skyline. As luck would have it, I caught the eye of a young guy in a Red Sox hat, so I said,

"Excuse me, Red Sox fan, would you mind taking a photo..." yada yada yada, he became my insta-friend for the day. He had 5 weeks off between finishing NYU Law School and starting with a firm in NYC, so he took a trip around the world. Turns out that he and I lived in NYC at the same time in the same neighborhood. But I never saw him there. So we took the tram back down, browsed and haggled in a few markets, ate dinner at the Press Room, formerly the home of a colonial newspaper, visited Man Mo Temple (one of the oldest in HK), walked down to the Harbour, and took the Tram across the Island. Then we departed without exchanging contact information so as to make it all the more mysterious.

Today, I took a ferry out to Lantau Island (there are about 234 islands considered part of Hong Kong--some are just rocks jutting out of the ocean) Lantau is home of the FAMOUS Tian Tan Buddha, aka Big Buddha. I have included a few pictures. In one, you will notice that I am in it and displaying the peace sign. This is not my customary practice. It is everyone's customary practice in China. I asked someone why people always do that, and she said it's because they think cool Americans do it. I'm not a dream killer, so I kept that fable alive for them, and they rejoiced.
I ate at the vegetarian restaurant (no meat or alcohol is allowed on the premises) and made several self-discoveries there. Self-Discovery #1: I like peppers. When one's meal is comprised of tofu and peppers, one quickly discovers an appreciation for peppers. Self-Discovery #2: Soup is scary. Perhaps this is less of a self-discovery and more of a general observation, but I'm almost certain that they gave me a vat (yes, vat) of soup that had previously been on someone else's table. I have no problem with this method of preventing waste. The scary part was when I laddled a cup for myself and multiple unidentifiable objects came up. I ate it anyway, banishing my first thought that there were eel carcasses in my soup by remembering the vegetarian nature of the establishment. Besides, I ate a lung the other day, so I figured I couldn't sink much lower than that.
I climbed to the top of the Big Buddha mountain and up there, I made another insta-friend. I noticed her American accent when she asked if I could take her photo, and the obligatory questions ensued. She was/is the head of PR for the US Olympic Team. She had been working in Beijing for the past month and took some time off to travel around Asia before going back to Colorado and start work on Vancouver 2010. Fascinating people exist!

Ok--the other pictures on here (maybe, if I make it work): the highrise covered with bamboo scaffolding and green plastic is my flat building, Nan Fung Sun Cheun, and the 26th Floor thing is what I see every time I get off the elevator.

If I feel like it, I might post more pictures for you later.