Day 4: Walking Around As If I'm In Shape

It seems there's this escalator which people use to get from the city up to their homes... so today I decided to check it out. Turns out everyone calls it an escalator, when it's actually many of them, strung together one after the other. I took it all the way up to its top, and discovered that... there's nothing there. Just a sign that says you can walk to the tram from there. (The tram is another way to get up and down that mountain; it goes up at about a 45-degree angle.) So I walked... and walked... and climbed some of the steepest sidewalks on Earth. And kept climbing. Thinking this might be a way to start getting back into shape, I continued my ascent up the mountain... it seemed I was nearing the top (thank god; I was almost dead), when I looked to my left and saw some apartment buildings towering over me by about 20 stories. Remembering that, from The Peak, all buildings were below us, I realized that I had to at least do the equivalent of climbing the stairs of that building from its midpoint to its top. Further realizing that, in this case, trying to get healthy was likely to kill me, I did the wise thing and started back down the mountain in defeat.

Still wanting to take the tram down the mountain, I flagged down the first cab I saw, and asked him to drive me up to it. I said "take me to the top of the Peak tram," and he smiled, nodded, and started down the mountain. Down!? Well, you see, Hong Kong is full of one-way streets, so sometimes you have to go away from what you're trying to get closer to. Only in this case, not. So I ended up at the bottom of the tram line, and rather than stick to a plan that was obviously not working for me, I made the best of it and explored Hong Kong Park instead.

I explored the aviary first, a soaring arc of steel supporting some webbing. What's most interesting about it is its setting; it's nestled into a lush hillside, between skyscrapers and a mountainside.

Then, in the Tai Chi garden, I found a freestanding corkscrew tower spiral staircase with a lookout observation deck at the top, and a sign at the bottom warning anyone not in shape not to attempt the climb; it's 105 steps without any landings! Still smarting from the mountain climb defeat, I launched right up those steps and made it to the top without any problem. Hah!! Hah. No mere 105 steps is going to defeat one such as I.

After that, I walked to a tram stop (not the Peak tram; a super-skinny double-decker bus-like thing that runs on rails), and took that home.

Back at my apartment, I got call from Ken Tsumura, a Producer on the TV show; we agreed to meet for dinner. When he arrived, we decided on California Pizza Kitchen, which was delightfully identical to the ones back home... except that here, they don't serve bread beforehand. Barbarians.
After dinner, Ken gave me another whirlwind tour of the surrounding area; we saw everything from the ritziest stores like Gucci & Luis Vuitton, to the HK equivalent of our 99 cent stores: the $10 stores (which translates to about $1.25). He showed me several decent restaurants, several Starbucks, and the local Ikea.