The thing about flying west is that it makes for very long days. When I landed in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon at about 6:00 pm, I had been awake since 10:30 pm the night before, local time. That left with me just enough energy to find a hostel, find a noodle shop, and collapse on my bunk.

Finding a hostel in Kowloon, across the harbor from Hong Kong Island, couldn't have been easier. Sleeping through the night could have -- especially if I hadn't been awakened around midnight by arrival of a Norwegian backpacker, whom the hotel staff apparently believed incapable of understanding English at anything less than rock concert volume. I gave up on sleep in the early hours of the morning (which, as far as my body was concerned, was midday) and headed off to try to catch the sunrise at Victoria Peak. Unfortunately, I was thwarted by the harbor and the lack of any actual sunrise.

The harbor can't be crossed on foot, so I had to wait for the commuter lines to open up a little after 6:00 am. I spent a while roaming around late-night Tsim Sha Tsui (the area occupying the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula) before catching the ferry across to Hong Kong Island at 6:30 am. Somewhere beyond the more touristy stretches was an oasis of lights and activity on a corner populated by seafood restaurants with food so fresh you can watch it move before they take it away to cook it. (Still recovering from three airplane meals, I passed.)

The 6:30 ferry from Kowloon to Central is the first of the morning, and it was filled with bleary-eyed Chinese en route to work on Hong Kong Island. From central I headed off in the direction that had to lead to the peak -- up. The steep climb dispelled the early morning chill as I hiked over mist-shrouded shoulders of the lush, forested mountain. If I hadn't passed through a half hour before, I never would have guessed that the pulsing metropolis of the night before lay below. My hopes of reaching the peak in time to watch the sun burn the fog off the city haven't panned out as I hoped. The darkness of night gradually brightened into an equally impenetrable fog several hours ago, and the view from the top is still disappointingly short-sighted. I'll probably wait around on the peak for the fog to lift, just to make sure the city's still there. In the mean time, maybe I'll take in Madame Tussaud's of Hong Kong (really, it's here) or Ripley's Believe It or Not (also here). More likely, I'll take one of the circuit hikes around the peak.

If I can keep awake through the day and get a good night's sleep tonight, hopefully I'll be a good way towards adjusting to my jetlag. By tomorrow I should have a more complete impression of Hong Kong, and maybe the fact that I've finally started this long-anticipated trek on the far side of the globe will have sunk in a bit more.

I miss you, Melissa.