Still catching up now that I'm back home. The internet connection in Hong Kong was surprisingly poor so wasn't able to get many of our pictures posted. Here's a run down of Day 2-4 in Hong Kong
Day 2 - Tour of Hong Kong Island
Today was an organized tour of Hong Kong Island. Unfortunately the weather wasn't really good although the sun did come out. Our views across to Kowloon from The Peak were a bit hazy. The tram that takes you up to the Peak is actually quite amazing considering how steep it is. It looks just like the trams that I wrote about in my last post, except it isn't a double decker.
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| View from Wan Chai Convention Centre across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon |
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| View looking up at the Peak |
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| The Tram that is on display |
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| View from The Peak across to Kowloon - can just pick out the tallest building in Hong Kong (in the distance on the Kowloon side) as well as the tallest on Hong Kong Island |
After The Peak it was off to Aberdeen on the other side of the island
through what the tour guide kept calling "The Rich People's Area". I
understand why after looking at signs in a real estate office - $6
million for a small condo without a view of the water! It also made
sense why so many people from Hong Kong came to Vancouver pre 1997 and
bought up the real estate here.
Our trip to Aberdeen included a ride into the harbour on a sampan.
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| Sampan Ride |
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| The famous Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour |
After Aberdeen, another drive to Stanley, also on the opposite side of the island. Here is was a visit to the market - mostly clothes and souvenirs. Just finished when it started to pour with rain. Perfect timing!
We travelled back to the other side of the island through the Aberdeen tunnel. This cemetery could be seen just as we came out of the tunnel.
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Cemetery in Hong Kong
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Day 3 - Birds, Flowers and Goldfish
Today we got up and headed over to Kowloon by Metro (aka subway). It was early so we headed to the Flower Market and the Bird Market first. I was definitely fascinated by the birds. You see lots of men (actually all men) walking along with bird cages covered with cloth. I wasn't sure if they took their birds for walks or if they were going to sell them or had just bought them. Anyway, every where you looked, there were birds!
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| Beautiful orchids for sale |
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| Birds for sale |
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| More birds for sale |
On to the Goldfish Market - well actually a couple of blocks completely filled with pet stores - mostly fish from what I could see although there were 2 lonely kittens in one window.
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| All sorts of fish for sale - ready to go in plastic bags |
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| More fish - some were quite large Koi |
It was still early for the Ladies Market so we attempted to find a coffee - left 3 places after being unsuccessful. In one place I asked if they had coffee or tea (I was pretty sure they had tea as I could see the pot in front of me), but we were sent across the street. Still don't know what happened there! Anyway we finally found a place that would sell us a cup of coffee as long as we had something to eat! We never did manage to get to the Ladies Market - we were told it opened at 11am, but as we wandered along the street at 12 noon they were still setting up and wouldn't be open any time soon.
Our trip home was on the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour. It was very hazy on Sunday, so the the view wasn't great.
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| Convention Centre |
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| Star Ferry |
Our reward for this adventure was a beer (isn't it always). This time it was a Belgium bar close to the ferry. We enjoyed the beer over mussels and frites.
Day 4 - Lantau Island and the Big Buddha
Off to Lantau Island today by tour. Lantau is one of the island that make up Hong Kong and is actually bigger than Hong Kong Island itself. The airport is built on re-claimed land on the edge of Lantau. Our trip to the Big Buddha was by cable car to the village of Ngong Ping. It was quite an amazing trip that takes about 25 minutes in the cable car which makes 3 turns on the way up the mountain. We had a fun group of people from our tour with us from Colombia, Paraguay, Uraguay and Italy.
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| First leg across the bay |
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| There were trails all over this island and we actually saw people walking them - it was very steep! |
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| Up and over the 1st mountain peak |
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| Definitely foggy and windy on the way up! |
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| View of the Big Buddha from Ngong Ping Village |
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| View from top of the stairs - it was very windy! |
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| View from bottom of the stairs - we actually got a ride up on a coach since we were on a tour :) |
Lunch was vegetarian at the Buddhist Monastery - it was all really good, but of course there is one every tour who can eat Asian food (can't even stand the smell) - made me wonder why her and her husband decided to tour Asia.
After lunch it was on to Tai O - a small fishing village on the South China Sea. The market is mostly dried seafood and in particular Fish Maw or dried fish stomach. Doesn't sound appealing, but apparently adds great flavour to soups. The price was very expensive. I included a picture below of some for $120,000 HKD (about $15,000 Cdn) for two pieces.
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| Fish Maw for sale |
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| Stilted houses - we had a ride on a boat to tour these |
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| Fresh Oysters and scallops for sale $20 for an oyster (about 26 Cents Cdn) - Terry sampled one and a beer all for $3.75Cdn |
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| These are the expensive ones |
We had a really good day and I would definitely recommend this tour if you're ever in Hong Kong.
We left Hong Kong on Tuesday to fly home - it was a day of waiting mostly - arrived early at airport only to find out our flight was delayed.
All in all a great trip to Hong Kong.
I'm now home after an amazing experience in Singapore and Hong Kong. Have a bunch more trips planned over the next while, but none quite so exciting as the last couple of months. I will continue to post as I find new adventures. I hope you'll stay tuned!
Melva
