Weather to buy postcards to

  Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

To market to market...yesterday we caught the 45min bus to Stanley markets, which are to the South of the main island. The bus was a real adventure! As its a double decker, we chose to sit up the top, right at the front. Given how close our window got to the hillside and every corner we appeared to almost mount the curb, we soon regretted that! 

Maritime museum, near Stanley Market

The Stanley markets are located in what seems to be the 'Bondi', or Brisvegas of Hong Kong in that there were a lot of penthouses, and a lot of sunning tourists and locals alike. The markets themselves are wonderfully cramped, full of interesting wares and bustling. Just one problem - they won't bargain! Completely took the fun out of it all! Undeterred, I managed to locate a perfect pashmina, and fell in love with the art of Iain Anderson Scott.

He's an English guy, born in Malaysia who now calls Hong Kong home, works as an architect and you can tell this way of thinking has infiltrated his artwork as well. The pieces I loved the most were pen line drawings, just black and white and completely one dimensional. He draws street scapes completely flat (kinda like how the ancient egyptians painted) but includes every single little piece of detail so you end up with these intricately complicated, but not overwhelming images of Hong Kong street life...I'd love to post one back home, but when they started at AU$100 and I am looking at needing to stretch my Euros in a few days time, the price was just too high :( Another time, perhaps! I found an example of his work here, but it's one of the not-quite-as-swoon=worthy colour examples: www.zeestone.com/exhibition.php?exID=25 (hopefully that link works)

Today was another adventure as Claire decided to stay home and have a bit of a rest, so it was me VS Hong Kong! I'd worked myself up into a bit of a tizzy, given that I found the journey through the shiny mall and labyrinthine covered walkways confusing enough when Claire had been leading me through them, but at the same time I'd survived and conquered Singapore, so surely Hong Kong wouldn't be so hard? Turns out I was doing my usual and stressing over nothing - before I knew it, I had followed all the signs to the train station, travelled into Hong Kong and then followed more signs to the Peak tramway. I kid you not - there were signs ALL the way. *sigh* more stress over nothing!

Which reminds me - Hong Kong can seem really confusing initially, as it doesn't follow the usual town planning rules that we Westerners are used to. Not only can you walk up and down roads here, but lateral geography comes into play when you add all the connecting walkways and consider that shopping malls are as much locations of transit as commerce. All of a sudden you can be going up and down levels, cutting diagonally across a street but not having to wait at lights as you're on a walkway spanning the traffic and barely touching the ground at all. It seems a strange way of getting around at first, but eventually you realise its one of the best, most interactive ways of getting around.

Arriving at the Peak tram, I got another reminder of just how cool having an octopus card is. Claire organised one for me before I arrived, and it practically becomes your passport to Hong Kong. This rechargable card is primarily used as your transport pass when using trains, ferries, trams and buses around the city. Just rest your card on the reader and through you go! But it gets better - this same card will get you discounts (I got to jump a little ahead of the line at the Peak tram, and it cost me less than if I'd paid in cash) and it's even the security pass to get in and out of Claire's apartment! So if you are considering a decent length of stay in Hong Kong, definitely get your suckers on one of these ;)

Back to the Peak tram - this shuttles up and down one of the highest points in Hong Kong and most people use it to get up to the viewing platforms that overlook the city and harbour. The tram itself is worth the trip though, as it travels up the hill at a 45 degree angle, with most alarming jiggles! It's good fun though, and I'd certainly recommend it.

View from the Peak

Unfortunately for me, my positive thinking did not manage to clear away the mist which has hovered over the city for my entire stay here. So while the view was still very pretty, it didn't make for effective photos. Good weather to buy postcards though, so at least I now have images to show me what I was missing out on!

Ugly or Beautiful?

My initial plans to visit the Art Gallery then the History museum were thwarted when I realised that they both closed at 6pm and I could only get to the Art gallery by 5. I managed to see two of the temporary exhibitions - one which explored language, and the hazy area between English and Chinese which has resulted in 'Chinglish'. Better yet, across the hall was an exhibition on an artist called Lin Fengmian. Walking in, I got such a strong sense of recognition. This guy was Chinese and painting a curious mixture of European informed Chinese artwork from the 20s through to the 80s. I studied the work of the 'Shanghai artists' group in high school and I am positive that I analysed either Lin's or one of his contemporaries' works. Given how hard I had to work to get any information on them, and then find it in English, it was such a wonderful surprise to stumble on such an extensive showcase of his work. There's a bit more info here, but my favourite images of birds and reeds aren't featured :(  http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/english/exhibitions/eexhibitions_s_20070401_1.html

Once the gallery had closed, I wearily wandered my way up Nathen Road with a mind to visiting the Temple street night markets. I chose to go via the Kowloon gardens and found a most amazing place - they have these lovely open spaces bordered by plants and weeping trees and several fountains. I sat there for a while and watched a woman practice her Tai Chi while others hurried though after their day at work. But that's not all - the park also includes a piazza, a public swimming pool and other sporting fields, a chinese garden, and aviary and goodness knows what else I didn't manage to peek at.

The Night markets must have been having 'time out' because they were so 'quiet' compared to the others I've seen so far. Don't get me wrong - there were people there, but they had a decidedly more touristy feel and lacked the buzz the goldfish market had given me. I wandered up listlessly and even considered getting my fortune read like the guide books suggested, except that I could only find one fortune teller, and he was busy deciding the future husband of another traveller. The one thing the night markets did have was lots of little Asian eateries with outside seating, lengthy menus and excitable vendors. So at least I got a good feed, had a chance to do some people watching and even struck up a conversation with some nearby traveller who were, of course, Australian! They're heading over to London to work for a year, so emails were duly exchanged and I may just have two more people to call in on when I finally arrive in the Motherland.

Hong Kong from the Cultural Centre

The best really was saved for last though. I'm not normally a person for city lights - I can see they're pretty, but they don't excite me much. Looking at Hong Kong before I caught the Star ferry back over the the MTR station though, I was transfixed by it's luminence. Despite my unfortunate camera shake which resulted in terrible photos, I will forever remember Hong Kong as the multi coloured city.