I was having problems with blogspot yesterday and the day before. I am going to go ahead and publish the post I had worked up for the day before yesterday and then catch up from there.
Thanks for your patience and indulgence.
And now for the news:
Today was my last day in Hong Kong. I head out tomorrow on a 10am flight, which (thanks to the training afforded me by an over anxious mother) means I will be leaving for the airport around 620am. Up to today I had hit all the highlights that I intended to hit and found myself at a bit of a loss for what to do next. Then I thought, “This is Hong Kong! There is definitely enough stuff to keep a girl busy for 5 days stupid! Think!” And with that I reread the guidebook my friend Drew was kind enough to lend me and came up with enough stuff for two days. I have always been an overachiever.
I decided to hit the Goldfish Market and Jade Market. Sadly, I was too early. The markets between the two were open but apparently the glamour of being a destination unto themselves means they don’t have to work as hard as the poor saps with the tented stalls. Strike 2 goldfish market.
Rallying, I decided to head over to Hong Kong proper, or more correctly Central. I had touched on this area a bit yesterday ever so briefly but today was the day to do it up right. And by golly, did I. The first stop was a bit of housekeeping. Someone requested a postcard and it needed to be mailed. Only in HK can a trip to the post office involving 2 different teller windows still take less than 5 minutes.
Then it was off to the escalators. You see, Hong Kong is built in the foothills surrounding some lovely mountains. The deeper you head into the city, the hillier it becomes. God bless the Chinese, they’ve built escalators to save you the trouble of climbing up stairs. There are no down escalators, that would just be lazy. The escalators take you through excellent places to shop (which I did), sacred places to visit (I’m looking at you Man Mo Temple), and even some places to relax (Zoological and Botanical Garden, you rock!). Some walking is required but in the oppressive humidity of HK, every little bit helps. At one point I looked down and realized I was sweating sunscreen. It was a sad moment.
The real goal of the day was shopping. And shop I did. I won’t say more because the four of you who are reading this are probably the four I bought presents for.
Once the shopping was done, I got to spend a little hang out time with my friend Drew who is in town visiting his girlfriend Nikki. I dragged him through Ladies Market where he endured the abuse of hawkers while relating his own HK adventures. Then I dragged him to the Goldfish Market where victory was mine – it was open! Yup, I’m counting that as a victory. We finished up the night at the Harbor watching the “Light and Sound Symphony”, a choreographed light show with sound blaring in Kowloon and the biggest buildings on each side of the harbor lighting up in time with the music. It was actually pretty cool.
And that is how I’m going out with HK. I’m mostly packed now sitting in my room. Tomorrow I head to Bali. But tonight my heart still belongs to Hong Kong. I bought the shirt to prove it.
This fruit smells like trash.
I'm not saying that I sang the Monkey Song from the Jungle Book to this particular primate. I'm also not saying that I didn't.
It's like an Asian Madeline book. "Wait hat, wait!"
Goldfish at the goldfish market.
Cat Street Market. I am using this photo as a place holder. The best photo I have from Cat St. involves a disturbingly well endowed hermaphroditic bovine Halloween costume.
Random Asian dude in my picture of the bay at night.
Another post in 5 minutes...
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