After a day of lots of dried fish, I was ready for something a little more “city”.   I heard about the world’s tallest hotel on the Kowloon side and hadn’t been on the Star Ferry yet on this trip.   Off I went to get my drink at the Ozone Bar….

The sun was setting during the ferry ride and I was hopeful I’d be able to enjoy the view from the hotel.

Who knew it would be so hard to get there when I got off on the other side!!  I got in the cab line and TWO cabs had no idea what I was talking about when I showed them the map (with the building circled) and said Ritz Carlton.  If you look in the picture above, it’s the really tall building and the ferry lets off on the pier on the right.  As a New Yorker, I thought this was totally walkable.   But because I wasn’t sure if there would actually be a sidewalk, I went back into the mall and asked the concierge desk how to get there.  She wrote the directions down in Chinese and off I went to try again.  I think the key was to say “ICC” for the large building at the base.

After a few escalators, and elevators, I made it!  I had a nice glass of rose and from the 103rd floor, with a view of the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.

At this point I was starving, and despite my desire to eat something local when I set out on this adventure, Italian sounded better.   I know the wait staff was really trying, but they aren’t the best in terms of table management.  I was told it would be 30 minutes, and stood on the pier and stayed near because I could see 3 empty tables.  The meal was fine, nothing to rave about.  Just something comforting about a nice big bowl of pasta.

I explored the mall afterwards.  Not because I was actually going to shop, but because I was fascinated with the children/baby wing.  To all my friends, I apologize for not picking something up at one of these stores for you. I’ve honestly never seen anything like this.  Every major brand had a dedicated children’s store.