Muslim Cemetery, Hong Kong

This cemetery in Hong Kong is just on the other side of the hill from the Catholic Cemetery. Despite being next to one another, the Muslim Cemetery has a completely different look and feeling. All the graves were located on the hill side in narrow, seep rows. 
A sign in English greets visitors at the foot of the hill.
"Beware of snakes."


These images were taken with my a digital camera...circa 2007.

These images were taken with a Black and White disposable camera.

Transportation in Hong Kong: Escalators, Ferries, and more

So how did you get around?

It's one of those questions you hear every time  you come back from a foreign country, as though being mobile were  nearly impossible without understanding the local language or having any resources. It's true that plenty of taxi drivers don't speak English, (even in English speaking countries), and that subway maps have never been easy to understand. Yet somehow, no matter where you go, you manage to get by. In fact, it's something every experienced traveler takes for granted. Indeed, it wasn't after I returned form Hong Kong that I realized how truly mobile I had been.
In a space of only 1,000 square kilometers, I maneuvered through the urban terrain by way of bus, subway, taxi, ferry, and escalator, all with surprising ease and comfort.

The subway is probably one of the preferred methods of transportation by visitors. All announcements are made in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. It is safe, clean, fast, but a bit boring. You don't get to see any of the landscape, and nothing unexpected happens.

The ferry, again, is probably the most touristy thing to do in Hong Kong. That's not to say that the ferry isn't used by locals, it most certainly it, but no trip across Victoria Harbor is complete with the clicking of dozens of tourists' cameras.



I rode a tax only once, and it was to Repulse Bay. The thirty minute drive cost me less than $20 UDS, making that cab ride one of the cheapest in the urban world. Hong Kong's taxis are notoriously cheap.

view from Repulse Bay

The bus was a different experience entirely. I didn't feel like catching a taxi back down from Repulse Bay into the city, and besides, none were to be found. Outside the market there was a woman selling bus tickets behind a glass counter, and she told me the bus would take me down to Central. Oh, she was right about that. What she didn't tell me was that the next thirty minutes of my life would be spent wedged in between 30+ high school students, no doubt on some kind of school trip, clinging onto the seats in front of us trying not to fly out into the aisle every time our bus took a sharp, fast turn down the windy path to Central.

Probably the coolest mode de transport I took in Hong Kong was the escalator connecting Central to the Mid-levels. Deemed the longest outdoor escalator in the world, it absolutely lived up to expectations. The entrance to the sculptor begins  humbly enough, on the ground floor of Central. It's easy to find, by nothing about its looks give one any indication of its size. The escalator is not particularly wide or lavish, but it does go on forever and ever. 

walking down many, many stairs

I got on sometime in the early afternoon. Stopping only once to grab a donut in Krispy Kreme, I rode the whole way up continuously. The higher you go, the more residential things become. The restaurants, bars, and shops start to slowly fade and way, replaced with elementary schools and churches. By the time I got to the top, I was the only person there. It dropped me off right in the middle of a fashionable neighborhood. That was it. The climax. The zenith. Just a row of horses with nicely landscaped lawns. 

It was time to head back down, and then I realized, the escalator went in only one direction…up. Apparently it was something i didn't notice on my way. I just assumed that it is went up, there would also be a mirroring side that went down. It turns out that there is only one escalator, and it only goes on way, at least at certain times. In the morning it runs in the direction from top to bottom, form the Mid-levels to the city. That makes sense because it was originally designed as a method of commuting, not a tourist amusement. Then in the afternoon the direction reverses, and it goes from bottom to top, Central to the Midlands. That was when I got on…and it wasn't going to change anytime soon. I stared down at the staircase beside the escalator. I was going to have to walk down. 

      And I did. How long it took me, how many steps I descended, I didn't both to think consider. All I know is that when I made it to the bottom my shoe had a hole in it, and it went straight into the hotel trashcan when I finally made it back. How long it took me, how many steps I descended, I didn't both to think consider. All I know is that when I made it to the bottom my shoe had a hole in it, and it went straight into the hotel trashcan when I finally made it back.

Lesson learned.

view of Central from the escalator

Hey, I've Been There! - Kowloon

I came across this postcard in a bookstore in the US. I immediately recognized that street in Kowloon. When I visited Hong Kong back in 2007, I stayed in a hotel in Kowloon, so I was able to wonder the streets easily by foot. 

See that orange Yoshinoya sign in the top left corner? Remember that. 

Although I did not take any photographs of this exact street from this exact angle, some of my pictures are quite reminiscent. 

This one is most like it in composition. 

This is a shot in at night.

I ate at this Yoshinoya restaurant near my hotel in Kowloon. I don't think it's the same one from the postcard, but it was definitely in Kowloon. I missed Japan too much back then...

Christmas Lights in Hong Kong

These are photographs I took a few years back when I was in Hong Kong for the holidays. It still makes me smile to look at them!

Tea at the Peninsula

On the morning of November 20th, 2007 I was late for afternoon tea because I spent too long in the cemetery…..it was one of those days…..

That was to be the first high tea experience of my young life, and I celebrated it alone. 

I had done minimal research before leaving Los Angeles for Hong Kong, but the one thing that kept popping up on every website was "High Tea at the Peninsula." Such a thing appealed to me because at the time I had just begun working my first "real" job and the disposable income I was earning lead me to fantasize about myself as an aristocrat. Having high tea at a hotel I could never afford to stay in seemed like it went along with my desire to live like a rich person for a day. 

So after spending several afternoons eating $3 (USD mind you) lunches on the street, I sat down for a whopping $30 tea and pastry fare.  

 I remember choosing Darjeeling tea because I had just seem the movie Darjeeling Limited. I know that's a lame reason, but for someone who knows less than nothing about tea you have to admit that was a little cute of me. 

At the time, I was engrossed in the Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I never felt alone in Hong Kong as long as I carried that book with me. I spent my afternoon at the Penninsula reading in between sips of tea. The waiter was so kind as to snap this photograph of me.

Apparently I can only seem to take creepy pictures of myself. 

I can't believe I finished it all! It didn't look  like much but I was outrageously stuffed by the time I was done. 

This was all that was left....

Photo Diary: Best of Hong Kong

St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery, Hong Kong

From the window of a city bus, I noticed the most beautiful cemetery on a hill in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. I scribbled the location in a notebook and returned the next day to document it. What is truly amazing, is that I had stumbled upon not one, but two very distinct cemeteries on one hill. The largest, and most elaborate was St. Micheal's Catholic Cemetery.


The first two images were taken with a digital camera. At this point in time, I was only interested in documenting the graves in black & white, but I could not resist capturing the beautiful colors of these tombs.

All other photographs were taken with a Kodak black & white disposable camera.  I still carried a disposable camera for sentimental reasons.

Old, elaborate tomb juxtaposed with a stark, modern city.

This tomb, baring a striking resemblance to a Buddhist alter, shows the fusion of Eastern aesthetics and  Western religion.

I was captivated by the facial expressions on all of the tombs.

This woman seemed to be peering out at me from behind a garland of roses.

English inscriptions were rare extremely  in the cemetery.