OK, so this wasn’t the swiftest day we’ve ever spent out here on the tourist trail. And the reason? Jet Lag. It’s not that we’re getting older and less capable of handling the uncertainty of a new country with no one to show us the ropes. No, it was the jet lag.

The trip itself went very well. We took off on time from Boston at 1:30 AM and arrived at Hong Kong a few minutes early – 5:30 AM the next day (today, Saturday November 11, that is). Cathay Pacific is a fine airline and the Premium Economy seats were worth the modest extra charge. We both slept fairly well, considering, so we felt ready to take on the world when we reached our hotel in downtown Hong Kong.

The first boo-boo was at the Immigration desk. We thought it curious that we hadn’t been given a card to fill out and sure enough the Immigration officer sent us back to the kiosk right there in plain site with a curt wave-of-the-hand dismissal. “Dottering old fool,” was his body language message.

Our hotel room at the Charter House is very nice and it was ready for us when we showed up at 7:00 AM. That meant hot showers and an included breakfast buffet – a really nice spread. Actually, that turned out to be our second breakfast of the morning since Cathay Pacific fed us quite adequately just before landing. But, hey, we need to adjust to the time change and what better way to do so than getting on the local eating schedule. So eat again we did.

We sat with a lady from Canada who, it turned out, is just finishing an Overseas Adventure Travel trip to Mainland China, Tibet and Hong Kong. Her tour guide, Cathy, joined us and she provided us with some good information about things to do around town.

Before setting out for the day we hit the nearby ATM and 7-11 store for Hong Kong dollars and bottled water. That was the next mess up. The U.S. dollar currently buys about 7.8 HK dollars – call it 8 to keep the mental arithmetic simple. I figured we needed about $100 U.S. to last us for three days here, considering that credit cards are widely accepted. Let’s see, that’s about 8,000 HK dollars, right? The ATM wouldn’t give us that many, setting a rather low limit of 2,500 HK dollars, only about $30 worth, right?

Wrong. I slipped a decimal point somewhere and ended up with more than $300 in local money. It’s the jet lag, I tell you.

The good news is that several places we went for food today only accept cash – no credit. The bad news is that we’ve been eating pretty cheap – $200 HK for lunch and $229 HK for dinner. We may have to gamble the rest away when we go to Macau on Monday.

Before leaving home I signed us up for the Big Bus hop on/hop off service. The same idea worked well a year ago in Auckland and it worked pretty well for us today. But sure enough, we messed this deal up too.

Big Bus has three routes: the red, green and blue. The red covers the downtown area on the north side of the island along the harbor, the green covers the southern portion of the island and is less densely settled, but that’s only a relative comparison. The whole island is heavily built. The exception is the central area that is fairly hilly and there are a number of park areas. But everywhere else it’s one high rise after another. (The blue line covers Kowloon, across the bay, a trip we’ve saved for later on.)

Our plan was to do red today and green tomorrow. Our mistake was to do half of the red, hop off for an expedition and hop back on to complete the red. We instead hopped off the red and hopped back on the green. Jet lag.

The red-green mistake occurred when we hopped off to take the tram railway up to “The Peak,” the highest point in HK, some 1,100 feet above sea level. At the top, naturally enough, there are great views of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon across the bay. It was fairly hazy today, and windy too, so the view was obstructed but we got the general idea.

The view in fact reinforced our initial impression of Hong Kong: this place is defined by its architecture. It’s one glass and steel skyscraper after another. Every large city has its collection of high rises but we’ve never seen such a concentration of high-rise buildings as we’ve seen here. The second impression is one of great wealth. Sure, there are more modest sections, even some that might be termed urban decay, but from what we’ve seen it’s the exception not the rule.

While touring the Peak I had another comeuppance moment: a text message from ATT saying that I’ve run up a $100 data bill so far on this trip. Now I’d signed up for their Passport service, which is supposed to give me data service while abroad. The 800 number they told me to call didn’t go through (it’s after hours on the weekend back home). I think I’ve figured it out; my cell phone wasn’t blocking data roaming service so I was probably using a carrier that ATT doesn’t have an arrangement with. At least that’s what I hope. Can’t blame this one on jet lag – I should have figured it out before we left home.

We’re told the Hong Kong economy is based on finance and retail. Shipping and international trade too, I’d guess, based on the extensive docking facilities we saw driving into town from the airport. Of course tourism is another source of significant income, boosting the high-end retail that seems to be just about everywhere.

Speaking of retail, the Peak wasn’t just a walkway with those funny coin-operated binoculars. No, there’s a fantastic viewing structure, all steel and glass, rising a good 10 stories in height. And every square meter, except the outside roof observation deck, is dedicated to retail shops and restaurants. I’ll include a picture to show you what I mean.

The green route took us to two spots we’d planned to visit tomorrow: Stanley and Aberdeen. Stanley is a relatively small bay side community that today has a market operation along the waterfront. We resisted the gift shop kiosks but did do lunch at an outside restaurant. We had dim sum and fried noodles for only 200 $HK (about $25 US) for the two of us.

We hopped off at Aberdeen, another bay side community closer to town. The deal here was an included sampan boat ride around Aberdeen harbor. Great views of the high rise skyline in the background and a collection of interesting water craft in the foreground.

Back on the green for a transfer to the red and by 6:00 PM we were on foot heading back to our hotel – maybe a half-mile or less from the drop off point. We found our way back home without getting lost (with GPS help) even once. We even found Dim Dim Sum, a dim sum restaurant our new friend Cathy told us about this morning. The four course meal, with bottled water came in at about $230 HK ($30 US), a real bargain. Cathy recommended Dim Dim Sum highly and the restaurant brags as being the best dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong and one of the best 101 restaurants in the world. We’d agree.

So it’s 7:30 PM (6:30 AM back home) and we’re fading fast. I’ve blathered on long enough and we’re ready for bed. Tomorrow we’re off to do the rest of Hong Kong we didn’t get to today. And hopefully we’ll do so with fewer unforced errors. Jet lag will last as an excuse only so long!