Day 2 (December 24th)
We spent our first full day in Hong Kong on Christmas Eve day. Since we had arrived late the night before, we decided to take it easy this day by starting a bit late. Our plan was to explore a bit around Discovery Bay and visit the Hong Kong Science Museum.
Discovery Bay is a community on the Lantua Island. It is an upscale area that tends to cater to Western residents of Hong Kong. It is accessible to the main land via a ferry (number 3) or by a bus to an MRT (subway) station.A few things noteworthy about Discovery Bay. There were a lot of apartments, but I did not see any stand alone homes. its possible that that they exist, but if they did, I certainly didn't see them. Perhaps the reason is that condos in Discovery Bay range from several hundred thousand to several million dollars.Another interesting feature of Discovery Bay is the lack of cars. Access to Discovery Bay via private cars and taxis is extremely limited. Since residents can't bring their car, many have golf carts to travel around Discovery Bay. Along with the golf carts, the most common vehicles seen on the roads of Discovery Bay were public buses.
At the ferry, there is a small shopping plaza with a nice selection of retail shops and western restaurants. The center of the plaza is a huge circle where stood a little play house decorated for Christmas. You see kids playing in the large circle while parents sit and drink coffee or eat at the tables around it.
We had lunch at Discovery Bay, walked around a bit, and then took the ferry into Hong Kong. There are nine or so ferries that dock at the Central Ferry. From there, it is a fifteen or so minute walk to the bus and MRT lines.
One of the challenges that we initially faced was change for the bus, MRT and ferry. A lot of the machines don't take bills, or if they do, they only take one bill. I had a lot of difficulty getting change. I would ask for change for a 100 in 10's (the highest coins) and I would always get back five $2 coins and the rest bills.
On the fourth day we broke free of our change chain and bought Octopus cards. Wikipedia describes the Octopus card as ".. a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong. " You can use the card for transportation, restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets and more.
If you travel to Hong Kong and are going to use public transportation (which you almost certainly will), I cannot recommend the Octopus card more highly. An adult card initially costs HK $150, of which $100 is credited on the card and $50 is a refundable deposit. The card can be replenished all over the city.
The brochure stated that the Science Museum was open until 9:00 p.m., so when we arrived at 3:00 p.m., we thought we had six hours to play and explore. When we arrived, we discovered that this was one of the few days during the year where the museum closed at 5:00 p.m.
Despite our shortened stay, we had a lot of fun at the museum. The Hong Kong Science Museum boasts over 500 exhibits of which 70% are described as hands on. The hall of mirrors was pretty cool. I think the kids enjoyed seeing themselves stretched and shrunk, and although I know they didn't completely understand the science behind it, I think Jacob understood that some of it had to do with the shape of the mirrors.
I'm not sure that we saw even a third of the museum before we left as they closed the doors at five. We had hoped to visit it again before we left Hong Kong, but ran out of time. If we return to Hong Kong, we'll definitely go back to the science museum.
After eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant that Tim really enjoyed we made our way to the MRT to head back home. we saw a restaurant named Charlie Brown that had a sign with the Snoopy characters on it.
As it was rush hour, the MRT was absolutely packed. We were going against the direction of most people, so getting to our train was like swimming upstream. I was more worried about the kids getting stepped on our lost, but they held our hands and followed closely behind.
By the time we got back to the flat, I think we were all a bit tired. There had been a lot of walking, and I think the kids weren't fully recovered from the late night before. Still, it was a fun first day in Hong Kong.
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