Hong Kong Adventure, Day 3

On our 3rd day in Hong Kong, we were originally planning on going to Macau, but when we got to the ferry ticket counters, the next tickets sold were for 1 p.m. or later, which meant we wouldn't have much time available.  So we bought tickets for Sunday instead.  Then we headed up to Hollywood Road and the Mid-Levels Area, which has antique stores lining the street.

Typical street.


Another street, with a Thai food restaurant sign.


Man Mo Temple.  Inside are two areas, full of burning incense.  So much burning incense that they have huge exhaust fans running to keep the air flowing through.

After walking along Hollywood Road to the Mid Level Escalators, we took them up to Soho, and saw wine shops, wine bars, and cafes.  Then we headed back down and caught a tram out to Happy Valley.

Happy Valley Racecourse.  When there are no races, the park inside the Happy Valley Racecourse is open, so we walked around the race track.


Trams at the Happy Valley terminus.  When it was time to leave, you just go get on the first tram in line heading in the direction you want to go, and after the driver has had his smoke break, he gets back on and away you go.  It's quite like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, especially if you're sitting on the upper deck in the front.  But at $2HKG, you can't beat the price.


Shop cat in Wan Chai.


Signs seen from the pedestrian overpass from the Wan Chai MTR station to the convention center.

Hong Kong Adventure, Day 2

The second full day of our adventure was actually Christmas day.  Which was a little weird because I've never been out and about on Christmas day.  I've always been at home, or on my way to home to celebrate with family, not staying in a hotel. But it was fun!

This year on Christmas, however, we headed out to Kowloon, via Star Ferry, which took about 15 minutes to get over to the Tsim Sha Tsui landing.

View of our hotel (the shorter of the two buildings) from the ferry.


A purple Christmas tree.


A sign for the Hong Kong Ballet's Nutcracker.


Sign outside the performing arts center.  Queuing is not something commonly seen in some parts of Asia.  When the ticket counter opens, say at the train station, it's a free-for-all to work your way to the counter to buy your tickets.  Throughout this area in the subway stations, we saw signs saying crowd control would be in effect beginning at 6 p.m.  Which to me meant that that was not a place I wanted to be after 6 p.m.

Street view from pedestrian walkway.  Hong Kong has a system of raised pedestrian walkways on both the Hong Kong and Kowloon sides, so you can get from one part of town to another without stepping foot on the street.  It's almost like a maze, and without the street level information, it's a lot harder to navigate and figure out where you are, unless you know the names of the different buildings.


On the Kowloon side, there are different market streets, such as the goldfish market, the ladies market, and the flower market.  The goldfish market has stores on both sides of the street selling goldfish in plastic bags, and tanks and anything you could think of for your fish tank.  The ladies market was a street lined with stalls, which reminded me of the Dongdaemun and Namdaemun markets in Seoul.  The flower market was a whole street of florists, with cactus, bamboo, real and fake flowers, and herbs, plus even a few Christmas trees for sale.  We didn't make it to the bird market.

After a morning walking through Kowloon, up Nathan Road, we took the MTR (subway) back to Tsim Tsa Shui station.  The escalators in the MTR station move quick, so you have to be on your toes.

Street on the Hong Kong side (I can tell because of the tram -- the double decker trams only run on the Hong Kong side).

We stayed near the Convention Center, in the Wan Chai area.  Wan Chai is what used to be the center of the red light district in Hong Kong.  It's been cleaned up considerably and is now home to restaurants and bars that cater to tourist/ex-pat/conventioneer clientele.  The Bottoms Up as seen in James Bond no longer exists.  But this corner is where it was.  Now it's a bar called Typhoon, with an Indian Restaurant and vacant space upstairs.  Around the corner is a British style pub, and down the street is a wide range of south-east Asian restaurants.


View of the main street through Wan Chai from raised walkway.  For Christmas, the buildings had these elaborate holiday decorations up.


Lights on the buildings as seen from our hotel room.  Every night at 8 p.m. there is a laser light show featuring buildings on both sides of the harbor.  So, before we had our Christmas dinner, we turned out the lights in our room, and watched the show.

Hong Kong, oh, how I love you!

We just spent a few days in Hong Kong over Christmas!  A little trip to someplace warmer than Seoul, and to a place that I have always wanted to see.  I loved it!!  And there were palm trees along the road from the airport!  I never knew I missed them until I saw them there, lining the road.

The view of the Hong Kong side of the harbor to the east from our hotel room window:


Since Hong Kong is a former British colony, they drive on the left side of the road.  So along the cross walks, they painted which direction you should look.


The Star Ferry terminal at the Convention Center.  It takes less than 10 minutes to cross the harbor from this terminal to Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon side.

On our first day in Hong Kong, we rode the tram west out towards Kennedy Town and walked back towards the convention center area where we were staying, checking out the dried seafood store area and some of the main shopping areas.

Poinsettias at a nearby building -- definitely a holiday flavor.  In the more crowded areas, Christmas music was playing on the streets.


A walkway along the harbor.


Sign in a park.  Spitting is not allowed in Hong Kong, which makes for a nice difference compared to Seoul, where you need to watch when you're walking along the street for men about to spit.  There is also a lot of no smoking laws in Hong Kong, so bars and restaurants aren't filled with smoke.


Sign on building.

Tram that runs along Hong Kong Island.  $29 for a Subway value meal seems like a lot, but $29HKD is really only about $3.75USD.


A dried seafood goods store.


A narrow building.


Street off of the main drag in one of the high end shopping areas.  Note the large crowds -- this is normal.  Although out at the more residential ends of the tram line, it's much less crowded.


The Victoria Peak Tram, as viewed from the observation deck. Riding the tram up is kind of like riding Thunder Mountain at Disneyland, except there are no curves, it's just straight up.  And riding it down is like riding Thunder Mountain backwards, because you sit facing the peak.


View of Hong Kong Harbor from Victoria Peak.

Dumplings!!  We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant there at the top of Victoria Peak.  We had (clockwise, from upper right) beef balls, pan fried pork dumplings, and steamed bbq pork buns.  The pan fried pork dumplings are my favorites.  Or is it the crab, pork and asparagus?  Or the Shainghainese style dumplings in Macau?  Oh, they're all so good.


More poinsettias.


Building in Central area.