After my journey to the Peak, I returned to the city proper and made my way to the nearby port where all the ferries departed. By this point in my stay in Hong Kong, I pretty much had the route from Hong Kong station to the pier memorized! Not bad, I'd say. Despite how crowded the city is, it doesn't really take up much land mass, making it relatively easy to navigate, especially by bus and train, and great for walking if you know where you're heading. That being said, some areas were nearly impossible for me to navigate- especially near my hotel, due to my inability to read Chinese symbols and how I'd hit a point of sensory saturation that almost every street started to look the same.
But onboard the Star Ferry, none of that matters. The city on one side grows slowly smaller and more distant, while Mongkok grows ever closer until it looms above. The lights of the city glisten off the glossy black water, reflecting the nightly light show in synchronized displays. It's truly beautiful, and easy to see why this ferry is world famous.
Once back in Mongkok I stopped for dinner at a claypot rice restaurant I'd passed many times. Sitting alone, awaiting my meal, the proprietor decided to hang with me and discuss the fame her small venue had attained, pointing out different photos of her with various guests over the years. She was certainly a character and when the time came, she returned to demonstrate to me how the rice in the bottom of the hot bowl had crisped into a cracker adding another element to the experience. As delicious as this meal was, I have to admit it put a real damper on the rest of my trip... I ended up cracking a tooth while crunching into that super crispy rice at the bottom of the clay pot, which resulted in one of my molars being extremely sore and angry. The pain persisted until I was able to visit a dentist back in Japan, which lead to it's own nightmare... Dentists in Japan, or at least my dentist, don't like to use much anesthesia. When he was replacing the filling with a crown, a week after clearing out the old filling to take a mold then stuffing in a temporary filling, I could feel EVERYTHING. It was awful, just absolutely awful. He'd force the crown into place putting pressure on the tooth and gums, then yank it out and file at it some, then shove it back in and repeat the process ad nauseum until I broke down in tears asking him to please, please just give me some more anesthesia. Not only am I 5'10-5'11" tall and weigh quite a bit more than the average Japanese lass, I have a high tolerance for pain killers and they don't effect me nearly as much or as long as they might normal people. As I was trembling with tears rolling down my face, the dentist rolled his eyes and told me to quit being such a baby so he could just wrap it up. As a result, I've had severe anxiety about going to a new dentist ever since. My most recent visit to a dentist, here in Seoul, was multitudes better. When I started wincing halfway through the procedure because I could feel things again, they didn't even need to ask or have me raise my hand- the dental assistant/hygienist went and grabbed another syringe of anesthesia and numbed me back out for the remainder. Thank you, kind lady.
Anyhow, for more photos, click below!
Check back soon for my next post!
XOXO
NAU
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