The Peak Tram and The Sky Terrace – What to Do in Hong Kong

I’m going to depart from the usual staid, scholarly, detached-sounding travel-writing-y style characteristic of most travel blogs and articles. Actually full stop. I was never really in that wheelhouse in the first place. Loyal readers of Smart Getaways for Couples (Mom, that means you) know what they’re getting into, and new readers of this spinoff blog (welcome!), especially those who found me through the Google, are about to find out.

But lest anyone get the wrong idea, when I write about a travel destination, I’m first-and-foremost trying to be honest. If I don’t like something I won’t review it. I’d rather die. Flipside is if you’re reading an article I wrote about something, it’s a fair bet it knocked me on my ass.

Loyal readers of Smart Getaways for Couples (Mom, that means you) know what they’re getting into, and new readers of this spinoff blog (welcome!), especially those who found me through the Google, are about to find out.

This is the inaugural post of the Hong Kong trip in Smart Asia Getaways. As I write this I’m sitting in my hotel room overlooking Jianxiazui, having finally shaken off a good deal of the jet lag – good damn thing because the previous day was a death-march across literally (no, I’m not using “literally” to mean “figuratively” the way the kids do) a third of Hong Kong Island’s width, followed by a two-hour wrangling session with a local sim card, my mobile carrier, and a proxy web phone service. (And if you think I’m doing all this trial-and-error so that I can not write about it you’re dead wrong. Every mistake I made and every workaround I discovered through persistence and frustration will be documented meticulously in the pages of this blog, in the hopes that you, the reader, can avoid 100% of the mistakes I made, even if you only read one blog before you visit.) Anyway, now I’ve had a good night’s sleep, been to the gym for the first time in three days, and can, with a clear head, reflect.

Okay, the Peak Tram

I’m going to use a heading, in case a new reader wants to skip the “exposition” and “cut to the chase”.

Readers of SGFC will also know that I’m not, most of the time, a fan of “tourist traps.” The Peak Tram is a shining exception. If it’s emblematic of the way Hong Kong does its tourist draws, there’s hope for Disney World. (And opportunity for someone else to check it out, because I won’t.) If you have to queue up with befannypacked travelers for a ticket booth, fight for space on a tram, then alight in a silk-road-style souvenir shop, you hope it’s one as classy as this. Picture your typical modern shopping mall, complete with clothing shops, electronic stores, trinkets, and food court. The imagine it on the top of a mountain with probably the most breathtaking cityscape of the modern era as a backdrop, and you get the picture. It’s not a national park, but if they’ve gotta take your money, you don’t feel completely seedy giving it away.

Honorable mention – the Pacific Coffee company is almost as ubiquitous as Starbucks here, and their iced Americano is On Point. I didn’t hate enjoying one overlooking the city.

The Sky Terrace

It’s here that I should mention that paying for the “Sky Terrace” is not necessary in order to grab the train. For $40 HK dollars (at an exchange rate of roughly HK $7.50 to US $1, about $5.50 US), you can take the train up the mountain, and have access to every bit of view from the mall and adjoining plaza. You can visit everything…except the roof. The roof where the opening sequence to every Jackie Chan movie ever was filmed. For that, it’s gonna run you $75 (a little more than $10 US).

But it’s difficult to describe the view to someone who hasn’t stood there in person. Yes, it’s exactly like you pictured, but like every in-person experience compared to its photo or movie analogue, experiencing the top of Victoria Peak in three dimensions, with your five senses, is orders-of-magnitude more vivid, and is probably worth an extra $4.50. Take the escalator, take the photo everybody takes in Honk Kong, and savour the memories. (The British spelling was a freebie.)

And try to shake the memory of a Bubba Gump’s in the lobby when you come back down.

Even the tram ride is low-key fun, and made for some interesting tableaus, like this shot taken on the steepest part of the grade.

We’ve got a lot to relate in the next several posts – our crosstown traverse through SoHo and the Cat Street Market, Taiwanese (yes) mainstay Din Tai Fung, the Bird Park and Flower Market, and hacking overseas roaming rates with local sim cards and web-based call forwarding.

Stay tuned.