Last day in Hong Kong!
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2008
1
5
26
Trip End
Jul 02, 2008
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Sunday, April 13, 2008
We're leaving Hong Kong tomorrow, so we'll update you on what we've been doing in the last few days.
We're writing this entry from the top of the Victoria Peak tram, in a coffee shop on top of the tram terminal. We can actually feel the vibrations of the tram below our feet... When we've finished here we'll be going on a walk around the Peak to explore.
On Thursday night we went out for dinner in Discovery Bay - had pizzas, sangria and lovely desserts in an outside bar in the plaza. The place was called Cafe Duvet (it had beds you could sit on if you wanted, but we didn't fancy that), was good value and played good chill out music from speakers in the trees
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. We'd recommend it to anyone in the area. On Friday we left James and Sue's boat, and James very kindly took us out for lunch in Discovery Bay. It drizzled a bit while we were there (!), but it didn't last very long luckily. After lunch we caught a ferry back to Hong Kong island, stored our luggage at pier 3 in some lockers, and headed off to Kowloon for the afternoon. We walked through a never ending shopping centre (apparently over 700 shops!) before we reached an entrance to Kowloon Park. The park had a sports and swimming complex, a statue garden, maze, bird garden (including flamingoes) and many other things. It was a nice escape from the busy streets. We sat for a while and watched a man doing Tai Chi next to one of the ponds. On leaving the park, we saw another area designated for exercise by the elderly. This time however, it was children who were using the equipment.
Then we walked up Temple Street to see the setting up of the Night Market. It was about 5pm, so it was just getting going. We decided to wander back later on when it was fully set up. From the end of Temple Street we went to the Jade Market, where Alison's eyes lit up and she haggled to her heart's content to get herself a bracelet and necklace for cheap prices. I swear she almost made a fully grown trader cry
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! We popped over to nearby Tin Hau temple for a quick look, and a sit in the courtyard with lots of old men who were congregated there as well. We walked back down Temple Street (it was more like night time now), and noticed that the jade on offer in the Night Market was at better value (cheaper and more genuine) that in the Jade Market. On the way back towards the ferry we bought some sandwich stuff at a supermarket and ate this by the waterfront by the ferry. We got the ferry over the water, the shuttle bus to the hostel and checked in for 3 nights. We sat outside with cups of tea chatting to some other hostellers from the US who were in Hong Kong applying for Chinese visas. We chatted until late about things such as what a westcountry accent sounds like, what eggnog actually is, and how tractor driving is difficult...
On Saturday we had a lazy morning, walking a lot to see various markets on Hong Kong island. This ranged from cheap clothing to food markets where we saw toads for sale, and people choosing live fish which were then killed on the spot. At lunch time we took a packed lunch to the roof garden on top of the IFC mall again. After lunch we walked all the way to the Hong Kong exhibition and convention centre, and saw the Golden Bauhinia statue outside, with a display about the 1997 handover
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. We tried to find the viewing floor of the building, but got lost and ended up very very far away from where we started! We felt a bit like we'd gone through a worm-hole because we'd ended up magically on the other side of some water without knowing how that had happened!From the Convention centre, we caught 2 ferries to go to pier 3 for dinner on the roof. This place was called Discovery Forest, and served good value food with large portions. It was cool and chilled out with live music, so well worth investigating as a laid back place for dinner, with a great view when it's not misty. After grabbing some Pims in plastic cups from the kiosk on the street beside pier 3, we headed to Happy Valley racecourse in the hope of seeing some racing. On the way we saw the lightshow on Hong Kong island (we went to Happy Valley by 2 ferries again, so that's why we seem to be at strange places!), which was very very busy, but impressive.
Unfortunately, after making our way to the racecourse, there wasn't any racing on (damn the guidebook for misleading us!), but we saw the course a little bit and chatted to the friendly security guard who told us that sometimes races are at Sha Tin in the New Territories rather than at Happy Valley anyway! We didn't mind that we missed any racing really as we got to get a tram all the way back to Western
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. On the way we saw hundreds of shops selling light fittings, including very impressive chandeliers, so that was cool also. We'd definitely recommend the tram system - we rode on the top deck (Hong Kong has the only double decker tram system in the world) at the front, and got amazing views the whole way. It's great value at $2 for any single journey. We got the shuttle bus home with the CRAZY bus driver who likes to drive the bus very fast up the steep and windy road to the hostel!!!So, today is Sunday and we're at Victoria Peak. We'll let you know what the walks are like when we've done them!
Next time we write it'll probably be in Shanghai!
Kate and Alison xxx
