Hong Kong: Having stared death in the face and laughed by riding an escalator, Rob and I decided to tempt fate again. This time we are going to throw caution to the wind and ride the world’s longest, outdoor escalator. Well, it is actually a set of escalators, but it goes for about a half mile while ascending roughly 400 ft.
Setting out in the morning, the weather was a bit on the dreary side.
The forecast was for significant rain during the day and they turned out to be correct. Our route to the escalators took us past a number of shops selling various herbs, dried seafood, and some more unusual items.
My personal favorite among the items for sale are the horse bezoars. For those of you unfamiliar with them, a bezoar is a mass found trapped within the gastrointestinal tract. They were once believed to be capable of removing poison from any drink they were placed in. Interestingly, an old common law English court case regarding a bezoar (that apparently didn’t work) is the origin of the term caveat emptor.
As we walked along, I marveled again at the use of bamboo scaffolding at construction sites.
I have seen scaffolding of this type being used on 30 story buildings as well. Also, note the 7-11 in the last picture. I am convinced that 7-11 is to Southeast Asia as Dunkin’ Donuts is to Boston. They are everywhere. In Bangkok, I was about to cross the street to get to one and then realized that I was standing in front of one on this side of the street. There were two of them literally across the street from each other. It is not at all uncommon to be standing at one and be able to see the next one up the road.
We continued walking past some plazas, interesting buildings, and a sign, that, while translated to English, still made no sense to me.
Finally, we arrived at the base of escalator mountain and began our ascent.
The ride up gave us a good view into various businesses alongside the escalators and the trees clinging to the walls.
Reaching the top after riding a total of 18 escalators and 3 moving walkways, we looked at some of the signs before heading back down.
They really seem to like warning people about things here. I especially liked item #4 on the first sign “Do not wail against the flow.” I assume that they meant “Do not walk against the flow.” But, I think it sounds a bit deeper and more like a life philosophy this way.
As we headed back down, the rain began to pick up in intensity. According to the weather app on my phone, we were currently under an Amber Rain Warning. Hong Kong has a rain warning system based upon expected rain intensity. Amber – 1.25 in/hr; Red – 2 in/hr; Black – 2.75 in/hr (and go hide). In total, we received about 1.75 inches of rain during the day. Given how hard it was raining, we decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant off of one of the escalator platforms. They had a very nice three course menu for $11 USD. I especially liked the shredded jellyfish appetizer.
After lunch, we headed back to the apartment for a bit to wait out the heaviest part of the rain. We went back out later in the evening to visit the Temple St. Market.
In addition to the interesting collection of goods for sale, we also took note of some local artwork.
I am sure there is a political statement in there somewhere, but I’ll be darned if I can figure out what it is.
We finished up our evening with a delicious egg puff ice cream treat.
There was even a decent sized group of people waiting to get theirs on this cold, wet evening. Of course, when you are a Michelin guide recommended street food vendor, that is to be expected.