One of the best parts of staying at the Harbour Grand Kowloon (weather permitting) was getting to watch the sun rising in the east (though in my southern-hemisphere worldview, it always seemed to be rising in the west and setting in the east XD). And not just once... but 3 times!
Day 2 - 29 November
On our second morning in Hong Kong, we once again woke up early due to the time zone difference. There's always a strange tranquility in the air just before dawn, but that morning, it was even more special as there was blue sky! Large swathes of blue sky... Something I'd never seen in Hong Kong before on my previous visits!
That morning was also notably because I woke up with a sore throat and mild headache. Maybe I'd caught a chill on the flight, or at some point during the previous day's activities (e.g. like when taking the cable car at Ocean Park), or perhaps it was the overly dry and oily dinner the previous night (deep fried pork chops at some fancy-looking Japanese restaurant which serves only deep fried pork chop + shredded lettuce by the bucketful and nothing much else). Fortunately, a hot cup of coffee and Din Tai Fung lunch soon dealt to that ;)
Pre-Dawn
Early on, half the sky was still covered by a thick, brooding blanket of cloud. But as the morning progressed, this gradually retreated away...
A close up of the opposite side of the harbour, including the massive motorway. Note how in the harbour (lower left corner, where there seems to be a red light/buoy), the sea seems to bulge slightly, with some strange glow coming from under the surface. I'm not sure what it was!
Here the strange glow is even more obvious. Also note the large container ship passing by...
All still.. hardly anything is moving on the water while overhead, the layer of clouds just sweeps right overhead, slowly burning off...
First Light
About 6:50 am - The sunrise begins with a faint peachy/red glow on the horizon, which starts lighting up the cloud layer. All of a sudden, the clouds start looking a whole lot more interesting...
The Sun Comes Up
Suddenly, a tiny sliver of light appeared over the hills in the distance... The sun was rising. Wow! This was spectacular to watch...
Within seconds, the sun began to grow larger and larger, rising very quickly. If you looked hard enough, you could probably even see it moving!
Big and round now. IIRC, it was red/orange at this stage instead of being a bright white orb.
As the sun rose higher, it started leaving a very pretty sliver on light on the ocean surface. Note how even now, the sea seems to have different patches of water, all moving in different directions...
Without noticing it, the cloud cover has faded away even more, and various ships were now busily moving around on the water...
As the sun rose, it also grew brighter and brighter. As can be seen on the right, the rising sun made for some interesting looking shading on the water surface...
The view from the within the room as the sun came flooding in..
One of the large cruise ships coming in to the harbour, likely to park down at the Harbour City mall.
Another view of the harbour with the sun halfway up. About 30 minutes had passed by that point.
Day 3 - Another day, partial sunrise
Following a slightly harrowing late night bus ride through some relatively rougher parts of town (Note: for the large part, it actually felt like the bus was travelling down some light industrial backwater conduit), I ended up missing most of the sunrise the following morning. Having said that, I still managed to see the end of it, as the sun began shining brightly into the room...
Partial sunrise, with a slightly overcast sky. This time, there were several cargo ships passing through the harbour...
The Kai Tak cruise ship terminal in he background. In the foreground, a one-man fishing dingy sits in the water waiting for a catch... Even in such a busy harbour, there were often little one-man-bands like this...
Day 5 - December 2
After a no-show on Sunday and an extreme desire for a sleep in after a lot of walking on Saturday afternoon, we were treated to another brilliant show on our second to last day in Hong Kong. Although it doesn't look like it in these photos, the sun was actually a solid red colour that morning, appearing much like it does in many of the Japanese depictions of the "rising sun" (which forms the basis for their flag).
A fishing vessel - these fast moving boats leave a v-shaped wake behind them, with these waves turning into large turbulent bands which slowly head in towards the shoreline...
Heavy seas following some disturbance on the water. Notice how there are many different cross patterns across the water surface, and how the water surface glistens in moist/glassy way...
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