Church, Flower Market and Bird Market

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Geo: 22.33, 114.18

On Sunday, we woke up especially early to turn on the TV to watch the Sport station. Disappointingly the NFL games were not broadcasted. So we connected to the ESPN app on our iphone to "follow" the score there. Glenn would refresh it ever so often and would report to me the score. We did not see the Atlanta or Seattle game nor the New England vs Houston game.

We ate breakfast down in the restaurant. We sat at the same table, overlooking the harbor.

At 8:30am, we started walking towards Island Evangelical Community Church (the next stop off the MTR). It was drizzling a little bit and we stopped to take pictures, especially of the double Decker buses and of the massive sky scrapers.

ISLAND EVANGELICAL COMMUNITY CHURCH We got to the 9:30am service in plenty of time. The church is on the 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th floors of the office building. We chose to sit in the "live" church floor. There was baptism before the service. Interesting, NOT one single person came up to us and introduced themselves. I would say 98 %!o(MISSING)f the worshipers were Chinese and the others were Westerners. But it was quite unusual that not one single person spoke to us. The sermon was very good, challenging and spot on. The music was very similar to NBC style.

FLOWER MARKET After church service we walked to the closest MTR station and got on the subway towards Central station, switching lines to get off at King Edward's station. Each time we consulted to map, to make sure we got off the exit heading in the right direction we wanted to go. About 2 blocks from the MTR station was the Flower Market. Beautiful flowers. All these orchids. It was raining at this time, so we walked slowly, about 2 city blocks along the side walking and looking into the open Flower Market. This was definitely my favorite part of the day. The Hong Kong Flower Market.

BIRD MARKET At the end of the 2-3 street Flower Market was the Bird Market. Imagine stalls filled with tiny cages of exotic birds. And these intrigue designed bird cages. We walked slowly through this much smaller market. You could hear all kinds of sounds of birds as they were chirping. At the end of the market, were several store stalls filled with grasshoppers, worms and crickets - where they would sell these critters to the bird owners for their food supply for the birds.

At the end of these 2 Markets we walked left towards Nathan Road. At one point we stopped on a park bench and watched the traffic. Glenn was noticing the Toyota Hiace vans that they have here. We were observing the traffic flow and the people walking on the side walk. I needed to rest my feet, since we were walking alot and standing.

We stopped at a bakery and purchased several slices of wheat bread, a roll and a coke. We ended up back at the MTR station (King Edward). We looked over and saw apparently 2 English speaking folks. An older couple, I asked "Do you speak English?" Yes. They were waiting for a Hong Kong tour guide at that outside entrance to the MTR station. Apparently they didn't know where the Night Market was located either. When the their tour guide showed up, we asked her where the Night Market was at. This couple were on the Holland America Cruise ship leaving port on Tuesday. And they were from Houston.

NIGHT MARKET We got on the MTR (after I used the public bathroom at the MTR station), we traveled 2 stops. We walked about 2 blocks and discovered the Night Market wasn't opened. I had read that it opens at 2pm, and here it was 3pm. The tour agent at the previous stop had mentioned it wasn't opening until 6pm. We continued walking to a park bench in front of a temple. Here we rested our feet and watched people walk. We observed 2 men with fairly light weighted boxes, pull the carts of boxes to the temple steps. They did this several times.

After a good rest, we walked into the temple. This temple was quite unique. They had candles burning on this spiral shape hanging from the ceiling. Glenn read someplace that for each candle someone lights, it will extend your life by 3 days. The incense was overwhelming to me. Lots of Buddah dolls. It got a good picture of the flowers and buddah.

We made our way back to MTR station, and then switched lines once and got back to our Hotel room in the mid afternoon. Glenn walked down to the local market and purchased some Ramen Noodle soup. Around supper time, Glenn headed up some water here in the room and we had that for supper.

I went to bed around 8pm. There is no heat in the room. We've turned the AC off, but it is still pretty cold in our small room.

CELL PHONE USAGE As we walked around the city today, I especially noticed how many folks are connected to their hand-held devices. Even while maneuvering through the crowded subway station, crossing the street or standing on the corner, young people are looking down at their phones, not paying attention. Several times we have had to stop so these folks would not run into us. I noticed even while riding the subways, people are looking at the phones, sending a text message. One gal was even video chatting while riding the subway. There are signs while getting on the escalators in the MTR station that says "don't be looking down at your devices, but rather hang on". I wonder how are they going to read the sign if they are looking at their cell phone. Humm. Also signs at the MTR stations says "Mind the Door". Interesting wording - for WATCH OUT!

SUMMARY Today, we attended church, walked through the Flower Market, Bird Market and attempted to see the Night Market and we made our way all along the Metro here in Hong Kong. Next stop - NCL Star. And hopefully a Cowboy win.

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