First day in Hong Kong

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Ah... what a great first day in Hong Kong. Spent the afternoon yesterday walking the market scene in Kowloon near my hostel. First I hit the flower market- which smelled wonderful. Next it was the fish market- They have an entire city block dedicated to selling tropical fish- and the fish they had were amazing! The hang the freshwater fish from bags on the wall, and people just walk up and buy them- only in Hong Kong! The saltwater fish were even more impressive. I found a bunch of Tang's friends (my fish at home) in one store. Then there was the bird market, with tons of gorgeous hand made cages and exotic birds.

I was very curious about the street food here, but still a little weary. I love the bubbling vats of oil they have on the street. It seems they throw just about anything in and eat it- from small dough wrapped things to live prawn.

I was totally shattered after all my walking and took a well deserved shower and three hour nap and headed out again with some new found energy (thanks to a Chinese "brain energy" drink) to the open air market and bazaars further down south on my way to catch the subway to Hong Kong island. There I met Catie's brother Brian and we headed out for dinner with his girlfriend Eva at a great Shainghainese place in Wanchai. Brian's a writer here for Reuters covering the Hong Kong banking scene.

Ok, so the Hong Kongers (or whatever you call them) really know how to party. There is no "last call" and places only close when everyone leaves (whenever that may be). I had to check this out myself, so we hit the main bar scene on Hong Kong island (name escapes me now) for a few drinks and met up with Brian's friends from work Cameron and Tony (USA). By 10PM I was starting to fade, but I located some red bull which helped me along. We talked about travel, Asia, thailand and even got to catch a classic episode of Jackass in an English pub as we wandered from bar to bar and drank half liters of Stella. We grabbed a taxi back to Wanchai for one more, and met up with some more of Brian's work buddies. I made it back here @ 3, and after some deep fried dough goodness I managed to sleep a bit. It's time now to head out for the day.

This blogging stuff takes forever.

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Photos

Bird market
what are you looking at?

Ergonomic stool
Shaped with the asian tush in mind

Fish market
Only in Hong Kong

Yellow's friends
I miss my fish at home

?????
I almost bought this.......not.

Bamboo workers
Who needs steel when you have bamboo?

Comments

[Marcus]

Pace yourself
It's gonna be a long trip... Kewl phish stoar.

[Catie]

whew!
glad you made it out alive after a night with my brother--ha! hope you guys had a good time...love reading the blog (extraordinarily jealous, mind you) keep writing! and have a wonderful trip! love C