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Day 2
Taking the Peak Tram to the highest Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island was amazing. Travelling up and down the very steep slope had me a bit worried I have to confess.
A swim at Repulse Bay that afternoon in soupy warm water was pleasant but I usually prefer my sea dips a bit colder than that.
BBQ goose at Yung Kee restaurant (Wellington Street) was divine!
Day 3
Hong Kong Park was a delight. In the middle of skyscrapers we saw manicured gardens and cooling fountains, a conservatory with some of the most gorgeous orchids I have ever seen (also cacti), man made waterfalls, an aviary - it was all marvellous and I enjoyed it much more than the market stalls we visited later along Tung Choi Street (although the Yuen Po Street bird market was pretty unique and well worth a visit if you don’t mind seeing exotic birds chained to their perch).
During our first walk of the day, we went to a bank building which was meant to have been designed with good Feng Shui. We found the two lions guarding the entrance and dutifully rubbed their paws for luck. We were supposed to go
up the escalator to the large airy atrium on the third floor. But the escalator only went to the first floor. We asked someone how to get to the third floor and were told “take the lift”, of course. On reaching the third floor there was no atrium and people looked at us with suspicion. We returned to the lions and I pointed out to Mark that the one called Steven was meant to be roaring while the other, Stitt, was not. These two were both roaring. Obviously, we had the wrong building. This sort of thing seems to happen quite a lot on our self guided walks! We eventually found the much grander mother bank building and got acquainted with the real Steven and Stitt and though they were much more ferocious, we were able to pat their paws. We also found the atrium where it was meant to be.
Day 4
We did two walking tours in the morning. We saw temples and lots of markets in Wan Chai and later in Sham Shui Po. In the afternoon we caught a ferry to the island of Cheung Chau - more markets but a lot of stalls were shut.
Nothing much impressed me today. I am too tired to record anything as I am feeling as wilted as a piece of bok choy in a stir fry. Today’s temperature was forecast to be 35 but the humidity makes it feel like the low 40s. The heat is relentless and just makes me grumpy.
ps coming back from Cheung Chau we called into the fish and chips stall called White Beard at Pier 7. We had our second serving of their very excellent fare. Highly recommended if you want a break from Chinese food.
The best of the weird stuff (so far)
Live scorpions and big black hairy spiders - fast food Beijing style
Communal dancing in a square in Xian with. hundreds of people participating
A lot of spitting, mostly in mainland China and only by men
The old squatting toilet’s limbo - when you gotta go, you gotta squat (again, mainland China)
Chinese men walking around in public in the heat with their t-shirts rolled up to their armpits - natural air conditioning I would have liked to have tried myself!
Bags of live insects for sale at the bird market
of Yuen Po Street Hong Kong - creepy crawly heaven
Multiple dead pig heads suspended mere millimetres off the greasy cement footpath in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong
A man sweeping the dust and grime of eons off an overhead fan directly onto the fruit being sold under it (same market). I’ll give the lychees a miss, thanks all the same ?
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