Good morning all, and Happy Thanksgiving!
We are all still adjusting to the time change so sleep patterns were a little wacky, with most of us up and around before 6 AM. Our day officially started out early at 7:30 AM with a buffet breakfast and our hotel. There were almost too many choices: from eggs and omelettes, to Chinese noodles and soups, to cereal, to bok choy (go Ashley)! With our stomachs full, and energy levels high, we decided we had the courage to navigate The MTR (HK Train Network) with our new Octopus cards. The cards were easy to buy and easy to use. All of the directions and train route maps are in English with well placed navigational signs. The biggest challenges were guiding Tyler and Ryan through the turnstiles, and collecting and distributing the cards so the kids could use them individually, but not risk losing them by holding on to them
Our first leg today took us on the Red Line from Tsim Sha Tsui to Prince Edward Station, where we changed trains to the Green Line. The crossover was easy and quick. We ventured on to the Diamond Hill station to see the nearby Nan Lian Garden. The garden was beautiful and was a quiet refuge given the size of the surrounding highrises and cityscape. The Garden had some interesting lotus ponds, a few large pagodas and several smaller pavilions with various exhibits. We timed our visit just right, because we just beat the masses of tour groups that were arriving just as we were leaving.
Then we made our way on foot to the nearby Chi Lin Nunnery, which was originally a retreat for Buddhist Nuns. Today its main attractions were the many large and ornate (and Golden) Buddhas, each of whom had fresh offerings of fruit in front of them. Many locals were praying and the site is one of religious significance, so no pictures were allowed.
Today was apparently also bonsai maintenance day since we saw workers meticulously trimming the many bonsai trees. After a quick trip around a disappointingly small park (Hammer Hill Park), we made our way back to the MTR and took it back to Print Edward station. We strolled through the Mong Kok flower market which was overflowing with beautiful orchids, which smelled amazing. The market was also just getting their fresh Christmas tree and holiday wreath deliveries. It would be neat to go to the market to buy fresh flowers all of the time at these little local shops. One shop was even filled with artificial Christmas trees and decorations!
Next, we wandered over to the Yuen Pro St. bird market – Dylan’s favorite! The shops had all kinds of exotic birds, bird cages and bird delicacies, such as meal worms, crickets, grasshoppers, locusts and cockroaches. We actually saw a man walking his own pet bird by the shops’ cages, I guess to allow his bird to say hi to all of his bird friends. Only in China!
After that, we hit one of the many open street markets where you could find everything from baby bibs and bras to luggage. Kyle was dying to try his negotiation skills so, with a little help from UC and Dad, he was able to haggle for a set of keychains and bottle openers. He was very excited with his HK$40 purchase, especially after the shop owners first offer was HK$80.
Then, we strolled through a pet store market place lined with shops on both sides of the street. There were puppies, kittens, cats, rabbits… Whatever sort of small pet you could want. We were able to take a few pictures of a cool grumpy cat look-alike, before the store clerk yelled at us after we (Mom, actually) tried to pet him. The Pet Market was on the way to the Goldfish Market, which had hundreds of bags of goldfish and Betta fish (and countless others) hanging from their walls. We saw many exotic fish in tanks large and small and many different types and sizes of turtles. As we wondered through that market, we kept smelling this horrible odor. The more we smelled it the more we figured out that it was stinky tofu. The odor is distinctively horrific and brought back memories of some of the local street vendors near our hotel in Wuhan several years ago, when we adopted Ashley. For further information, please contact AR!
We made our way back to the MTR again, after a quick McDonald’s break. We visited Kowloon Park where we saw several cats who live there, a totem pole, and a huge kids playground. The children played for a while and Kyle and Ashley made fast friends with two little boys aged 5 to 6 who kept laughing and laughing as they raced around playing tag. Kyle wanted to bail on the game, but for two little boys were relentless. We took a different way back through the park as we headed home toward our hotel. We discovered a unique little sculpture park, just before we got back to street level. The Park was very well-maintained, but we could also see significant damage from recent storms – several large trees were completely uprooted.
Just in case you were wondering a huge billboard at the top of one of the buildings told us that the temperature was about 70° while another message told us that the air quality was “good.”
Hung Kong is a much different city than many in mainland China, and even in the US. Very few people we encounter even looked twice at our family and large traveling group, which for us was a bit unusual. One of the workers at the Nunnery caught my eye, counted the children, and asked a few questions. We parted to a sweet, simple message of “Thank you”.
Hopefully we’ll visit HK Central and Victoria Peak tomorrow.
Now for a Gallery of images from today…
