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Published: March 12th 2007
Kowloon Park Koi
A feeding frenzy of Koi CarpWell, having been in Hong Kong 5 days now, I'm slowly getting used to just how busy the place is. It's relentless, there doesn't seem to be a place where a crowd of people aren't!! I can't count how many times I've been offered suits and watches by people on the street, every other step they seem to be in your face!
As of now I think we've seen everything worth seeing in Hong Kong, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is a story that has dogged my time here. Unfortunately eating had become a real problem since being ill on the plane, so after three days of vomiting up whatever I'd eaten(delightful image!), I decided to go see a doctor. After a three hour wait, I got to see him, and he gave me some pills, and hopefully they'll start to take effect. But unpleasantness aside, the sights I've seen here have been fantastic, so I'll run through those day by day.
On arriving on Thurs evening, all we wanted to do was get to the hostel, which was tucked away on the street, and certainly isn't a looker. But the rooms are good enough, although no windows,
which made for an interesting morning after, without daylight to wake us up, as we found out when waking up at one thirty in the afternoon the next day!! So basically that was a pottering day, wandering around Tsim Tsa Shui, and ending up in Kowloon Park, an oasis in the middle of the city, it was a surreal green area amidst all the skyscrapers. That evening we went to the Peking restaurant, where the speciality was, surprise,surprise, Peking Duck. After the meal we went to the Temple St Night Market, which is the place for fake goods of any description. It also contained some more colourful stalls which shouldn't be mentioned here!
Saturday we took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island, and ended up walking to the zoo first, to give the clouds a chance to lift off the Peak. Hong Kong Zoo was a great lttle zoo, although all the aviaries were shut with big warning signs about avain flu wherever you looked. But there were some legendary monkeys, who have to be heard to be believed! After that we went to the Peak Tram, and climbed to the top of the Peak Tower, where
Cunning reflection
God knows what the people inside the building must've thought!! we tried to make out the buildings, which unfortunately was quite hard as the cloud hadn't really cleared at all! Saturday evening was a bad one for me, so Mark and Gus went out for a meal, and I stayed watching random Chinese TV.
Sunday morning was no better, so the others kindly agreed to take me to the hospital, so we jumped in a taxi, and asked the driver to take us to the hospital. Unfortunately he didn't understand the words Queen Elizabeth, so we ended up at a randfom hospital that didn't open on Sundays. We eventually got through via our guide book which hospital we wanted, and the rest after that has already been covered, so no need to drag it up again.
Today we caught the train to the New Territories and a place called Sha Tin, where we visited the Temple of the Ten Thousand buddhas. I lost count at around 900, but I'm assured there are 10,000!! Huge amount of steps to reach it though, so pretty knackered now. After we got back from Sha Tin, we walked along the Promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is Hong Kong's equivalent to Hollywood's
9 of the 10,000 Buddhas
It was like this wherever we looked! walk of Fame, with the handprints of famous Asian film stars. Jackie Chan's were the only one's I recognised, although Bruce Lee had a star, but he'd died before he could leave his handprint.
That's all I can remember for now, it'll be a chilled evening tonight, followed by another visit to the island tomorrow to see the wonderfully named Repulse Bay, possibly another visit to the Night Market for Mark to buy some more cheap goods, and if there's time a visit to the Giant Buddha statue on Lantau Island.
Until the next time, when hopefully I'm fighting fit, I send my love to you all!!
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MTB
non-member comment
glad you arrived safely
hi tom , sorry to hear your under the weather. wasn't due to the arsenal result was it . you could have gone to london to see monkeys in a zoo mate !!! seems a long way to go for that LOL hope your having , and some pictures of THOSE stalls would be good. all the best stay safe MTB