Day 5 - Friday June 26, 2009

Started the day with McDonald's again - pancakes this time.

We took the MTR and bus 260 to Stanley Gap road where we hiked up 1 kilometer of one of the twin peaks. It was a difficult 1,000 stairs, but was rewarding at the top, which was a panoramic view of Stanley, the island of Lamma, beaches, windsurfers, a some huge boats. After this we walked, or should I say sprinted to the Stanley market. You see there are no sidewalks in Taiwan, so we had to make our way down this curvy, high speed street while trying not to get killed. We sprinted from side to side depending on which had the biggest shoulder.

We finally made it to Stanley Main Beach and had water and a lemon Popsicle. mmm. Then we went through some shops and bought some souvey's - which we later found out we paid too much for. By this time it was pouring rain. We ate lunch at The Boathouse, which was along the water. We got Chicken and Chips and a Carlsburg beer. After lunch we went through the shops a little more, watched a man carve a stamp for Geoff and Danika, and got back on the bus back to Mong Kok. It had been raining this entire time which only added to the excitement of our double-decker bus racing down the curvy roads without enough space to clear the trees.

Then we found our way to the longest escalator in the world - it was more like a series of escalators up a hill, but still cool. We were heading to Victoria Peak. We got off the escalator, after meeting some people from Iowa, and searched in the rain for the Victoria Peak Tram. Once we found it and bought our tickets we saw that the slope to get to the top was probably 4 to 1 - our backs hurt as they pressed into the wooden seats on the way up.

Victoria Peak was cool, we wondered around the shops until we were hungry at which point we got the cheapest meal we could find at Bubba Gump (to take advantage of their view), where we stayed until it was dark enough to appreciate the lights on top of the viewing area. Unfortunately it was still raining off and on and foggy while we were there, but still nice to see the Hong Kong Skyline with light shows at night.