Adjusting to the local custom
After wed unpacked and settled into the room, we were all a bit antsy to get out and about. I had a vague notion of heading up to Victoria Peak and seeing the lights of Hong Kong from up there. DH was keen to go as well.
A quick call to my parents settled the situation. They would be waiting for our TA friend to arrive. She was flying in on this day and was going to be bunking in with my parents. That was all the encouragement I needed.
I checked in with concierge for directions. The recommendations were:
Take the hotel shuttle bus service from right outside the front of the hotel
which will drop you at the back of the Peninsula Hotel, opposite the Kowloon Hotel, in Tsim Sha Tsui, 5 - 10 minutes later.
The hotel shuttle runs promptly every 20 minutes and we were to come to appreciate this service very much over the next 8 days.
From the shuttle drop off, we were directly outside of the entry into the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. We were to take the Red Line to Central (which was the terminal station for this line). From there, we would walk to the Victoria Tram Terminal and catch the tram up to the Peak.
If you were doing this from HKDL, you would catch the train to Sunny Bay, transfer to the Hong Kong line (Yellow), transfer again at Lai King station to the Central line (Red).
We followed the instructions to the letter. Once again, we thought that the MTR was brilliant and never waited more than 2 minutes for a service.
We checked the tourist map along the way and managed to make our way to the Lower Peak Tram Terminus. I was still being cautious about overtly advertising the fact that I was a tourist, so the camera stayed in the bag for the most part.
It was when we got to the Tram Terminus that we realised it was going to be a loooong week in Hong Kong. I had thought that the queues at
Disneyland had been bad; but they were nothing compared to the queue at 4.30 pm for the Peak tram. We did see a sign for 90 minute wait from this point and the queue was snaking past a sign!
There were HEAPS of people around.
DH and I werent prepared to give up on the idea of the Peak at this stage and we looked round to see if we could catch a taxi. We werent the only ones with that idea; but there was no taxi rank to be seen. It seemed to be a free-for-all system with a bit of push and shove when a taxi did stop.
And it seemed to be a local custom!
Isnt it amazing what the mind remembers? As a child growing up in Asia, I had certainly seen the knack of how to push and shove and get ahead of someone else
in these cases, possession is the law and it is rather difficult to kick someone out of a taxi when they are already firmly parked in it.
I will say that I did try to be polite for about 6 taxis only to find other people jumping into the taxi before me; but in the end, I STOLE a taxi away from another family. In my defence
the taxi stopped because I flagged it down and that other family had only just appeared on that spot right where the taxi stopped. As the mother was trying to ask if the taxi would take them to the peak, I got in and sat in the back.
DH and DS followed my lead without any instructions. Its amazing what 10 minutes of experience can teach them!
Sure doesnt take long to adjust to local custom.
The taxi driver just took off as soon as the door shut. Seems like they know when not to get involved in minor possession disputes either.
(Continued in Next Post)
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Everytime I make the mistake of looking at your signature, I beat myself up!!!
However, when you only look up the skyline is spectacular!
I don't know what I would do without my tub on holidays!
so you are free to proceed! 
