Day two in hong kong and I was feeling much more productive. I got up bright and early and headed straight out.

First stop, I needed to get my train ticket to head up to Guilin tomorrow night. I caught the metro from mong mom east down to hung hom and went to a ticket agency where I purchased a soft sleeper ticket for about 600 HK$. That accomplished I walked around for a while trying to find the tsim tsui esplanade so I could take a walk and admire the riverfront. Several to's and fro's later and a Starbucks tea and croissant, I found my way onto the front.

It was beautiful if not misty. I had a sense on the bus journey in last night of the skyscrapers, but now I could see them in the daytime it was truly impressive.

I walked along taking photos of myself with the scenery in the background, down across the 'Avenue of Stars' like the Hollywood walk of fame but for Asians, past the art museums and down to the central piers.

Once at the central pier I obviously wanted to catch the Star Ferry across the bay. After helping an elderly english couple buy a token to ride from the machine (who they say 'couldn't understand anything in this country' despite everything being written in clear English) I boarded the ferry and took my seat. It was a choppy but leisurely crossing over, it takes less than ten minutes to get across but it's a pleasant trip.

One in central, it was time to ride the escalators. Because its all built on a hill, to get up to the mid levels, they have a series of escalators that get you there, hopping on and off depending on where you want to go. I got off at soho and had a quick mooch about, looking down the side streets where you could see bars and restaurants and little markets in the winding labyrinthine streets.

I carried on, looking for how to get the Peak Tram to go up Victoria peak, but couldn't find it. So instead I walked!! It's nearly 2000ft high but I persevered, taking it slowly and taking breaks and it took me about an hour and a bit to finally make the climb to the top. Once there it was like a shopping mall which I ignored to go up to the observation deck. The views were absolutely stunning and made all the effort worthwhile. Vast cityscapes below stretched out as far as you could see with rolling green hills and vegetation coming in from both sides. To the other side of the hills that contain hong kong proper you could see boats zipping about on the sea.

I spent about an hour up there before coming back down to find the team was not running anyway, but I found the coach station and took the trip down to Admirality near central in that.

I walked through the streets listening to my iPod, saw the trams zipping by which seemed quite empty, more of a tourist attraction it seemed than a popular method of travel.

I carried on walking and found my way back to the star ferry pier which I took over the bay back to the avenue of stars so I could find my metro home. I was tired and needed a rest so it seemed like the right thing to do ;)

I got back with no trouble and squeezed myself back into my room, listening to the bustle just outside the door. I showered changed and sent some emails before pulling myself together and heading back out to the promenade to catch the daily light show at the harbour.

I found a spot on the upper viewing platform by the art museum and sat back for 30 mins before the light show started. Once it did it was fairly spectacular, all the skyscrapers across the bay blinked flashed and amazed the audience all set to local music. Some of the main skyscrapers had lasers atop them and they went off at varying intervals.

It was a lovely sight, though I spent a fair while amused at all the tourists who instead of watching the show felt the need to try and catch every moment on camera. It lasted about 15 minutes in total but was worth the trip.

The light show finished, I headed on down to the famous temple street market to see what that was all about. Basically just a big long stretch of road with the usual Asian market stalls set out on each side, cheap restaurants and the like.

I realized I'd been spending way too much money and hadn't eaten much that day (I'd resorted to buying pot noodles to feed myself cheaply) and headed back to the hostel to eat, stopping at a 7-11 to buy some cheese crisps and some weird pecan crisp sweet thing. Back in the hotel I devoured as much as I could as I was just so hungry and fell asleep straight away, it had been a long old day.