Yesterday, I went to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence as part of my efforts to make good use of my museum pass. I was pleasantly surprised, though not as surprised as I was by the History museum in TST (which I’ve still yet to finish). Part of the museum is actually outdoors… you can clamber around on top of the old fort and through a few old gun emplacements and defensive structures.
The views were nice too—although the warm, cloudless beauty of the past week has come to an end, I managed to find a few fairly clear moments atop the Redoubt with nice views from more or less the northeastern corner of the harbor (as are to be expected from a former coastal defense fort).
I also got to try out a few new transportation methods (and those of you who know me will know that that was at least as exciting for me as anything about coastal defense). I used a slightly slower and slightly cheapest way of getting downtown: 67M bus to Tsuen Wan MTR (HK$7.8), from where I rode all the long way to Shau Kei Wan (student HK$5.7) in Eastern where the museum sits. Shau Kei Wan is also the eastern terminus of the Hongkong Tramways streetcar system. I rode a “Western Market” tram all the way back from the terminus to Central, zoning out occasionally.
It’s good tram weather now (unlike when I first tried it) and getting on at the terminus let me avoid the overcrowding (HK$2 flat fare will do that) which is its other major disadvantage. I don’t have much use for the tram normally because if I’m going anywhere on the Island I’m usually coming from far away (Lingnan) and there’s no point (or monetary advantage) to getting off the MTR in Central and finding the tram when I can just stay on and cruise to Wanchai or Causeway Bay. I think I’d use it all the time if I lived on the Island.
Today I was thinking of seeing some things on Lantau (and maybe Peng Chau) but the weather got a lot less gorgeous yesterday. It still feels nice enough, but I kind of wanted sun. I guess that will have to wait (unless Monday afternoon is nice). Unfortunately, I should really be working on a presentation (to be delivered the day I get back from New Year in the Philippines) instead of sightseeing.
I’ve started to realize how little time I really have left in Hong Kong (don’t laugh). I’m pretty much gone from the end of this week until March with New Year, and I might yet scrape up the funds to look at a couple law schools Stateside in April or so. There’s so much in Hong Kong that I’ve yet to see, never mind China, Korea, Japan… Myanmar… Hmm.
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