Round the World 08

Hong Kong Experience 8 Aug 2008

Arrived in Hong Kong to a grade 8 typhoon warning, third worst level...high winds and rain, dont leave your house.Saw plenty of shops boarded up on way into town. Booked into hotel in Kowloon then walked out to high winds,bought supplies and relaxed in room til about 4pm when wind seemed to have died down. Wandered out up Nathan road which is main shopping street, though most were closed!! Got to where night market is held but still setting up.Plenty of live fish,shrimps and shellfish waiting in tanks to be sold, also dried fish!! This area of town is lively, people busy and friendly, stalls everywhere. Wandered back thru streets towards main part of Kowloon and had dinner at chinese restaurant...NZD$14 total!!People are very polite and friendly, no pushy,pushy stuff. Next day headed on underground to Tung Chung on Lantau Island, got bus to Po Lin Monastery where the Big Buddha sits on top of the hill. Walked up the 200 steps to see it closer up, bronze statue built in 1989. Amazing site and very relaxed feeling around...would nearly become a buddhist if they allowed alcohol!! Looked around the monastery - more buddhas and gold decorations - and had lunch there also. Caught bus to Tai O fishing village on the coast, like going back in time a couple of hundred years!! bit warmer here, humid 34 degrees.Shacks built side by side over the water, not very clean looking water either!narrow pathe between shacks that we explored along, everyone either ignored us or smiled, felt very safe.Plenty playing mahjong in groups but not much else happening. Fishing in Sth China sea in Hong Kong territory is banned in July/August to let fish numbers recover so no boats working. Caught metro back to Hong Kong island, nearly couldnt find our way out of a huge mall there, then found the walkway above street level going from building to building. Joined onto the giant elevator goin up Shelley St, rode this about halfway up and found a bar with happy hour drinks special.Hong Kong has narrow streets once you get off the main roads, double decker buses, lots of people, neon signs and not many police or graffitti of any kind.. After dinner at the bar we wandered down some narrow back streets where the locals were cooking meals on the sidewalks, selling fruit and veges and playing mahjong, amazing sights!! Caught Star ferry back to Kowloon and wandered along waterfront, hundreds of people doing the same, great sight of neon signs and lights across on skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island. Next day it was on metro again to visit the flower and bird makets. What an amazing sight, stalls after stalls with flowers, plants, flowers, trees, flowers and more flowers of any sort you could want for about 3 blocks. Beautiful orchids, some big some very fine. Wondered how that many fowers could get sold before they wilted!! Bird market was amazing, any type of bird you would want was for sale, also their food...live centipedes, cochroaches, beetles, grasshoppers etc and other dried foods. We were the only ones walking thru these markets looking, strange! It was 9.30am. Back on metro to Hong Kong park on the island, looked in conservatory where a lot of the plants on sale you can grow in Northland. Huge aviary here out in the open, mainly doves and pigeons though. Found way to Victoria Peak tram, go up there in the clouds. Tram goes very steep, at least 45 degrees at times. After lunch there the clouds lifted a bit and saw a view of Hong Kong below us, all skyscraper apartment blocks!!! Back down we wandered thru some streets, thru the Botanical gardens aviary and monkey cages, saw scarlet ibis, bright red/orange birdes!!Wandered thru streets with towering apartment blocks either side of us, found the top end of the longest elevator and wandered back down Shelley St again, taking in the sights and sounds of Hong Kong from the stools of Cochranes bar. Left next morning for London.

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