Straight
Down
The
Mountain
A View From The Window Seat
The glass clad steel columns rise straight up from the harbor reaching all the way to the sky. At first sighting, the skyscrapers of Hong Kong seem utterly immense. They stand like silent sentinels on the dock awaiting your arrival as the Star Ferry bounces you across the waves from Kowloon. Standing fifty, sixty, even seventy stories tall ... they are dwarfed by their towering backdrop - Victoria Peak!
There are trails that can take you to the top of the peak, roads too, if you could ever navigate a car through all the traffic ... but for most people, they reach the summit by tram, on a rail straight up the mountain. Of course that means, to return to the harbor, you will ride straight back down the hill! 
From the summit of Victoria Peak you have a panoramic view of
Hong Kong, the harbor, across the straights to sprawling and
bustling Kowloon, Tsim Sha Tsui and on into the New Territories.
Behind you are the misty islands and ships plying the Lamma Channel.
... and waiting for you ... the tram ... and the plummet back down the mountain ...
Grab a seat! Preferably a window seat. Better yet, get a seat right up front!
Hang on!
Here we GOOooo . . .
...the train pulls out of the summit station
slowly and steadily at first, then
as the rear railcar clears the terminal,
the train begins picking up speed ...
... soon we are careening down
the steep slope,
heading straight for downtown.
The tram lurches and jerks,
back and forth
along the track. Everyone leans left
as we pass the sky-bound sister train
Charging down the mountain
we catch a little air
as the train flies over a knoll ...
... we thunder past a steeply terraced
platform, only used for uphill exchanges,
then squeeze under a bridge,
just before swerving, then screeching
to a halt in the downtown station!
 |  |  | ||
MrBill, Gather Essentials: Travel Correspondent | ||||
MrBill’s column, “Where the heck are You?”, is published twice monthly to Gather Essentials: Travel “Where the heck are You?” is the usual greeting I receive from friends and family since they are never quite sure just where I have been. “Where the heck are You?" is a traveler's column. Come with me for a journey to foreign shores, tropical locales, and places you may not have even heard of. Along the way I will introduce you to people; their cultures, art and cuisine, and together we will share an adventure. | ||||
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Comments: 20
Actually, I gave up my window seat and stood
in the aisle behind the tram driver so I could get
these shots ... must have been a premonition ...
since this was a year before I came to gather. (-;
It was a bit hazy that day. The smog was real
bad, and the WTO conference was going on at
the convention center. Central Hong Kong was
pungent from the troops gassing the protesters.
you for the connection invitation!
the panorama and simulated ride down the mountain.
I wanted to try something a little different
this time and it seems to have worked.
I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 6,500 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)