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Published: March 24th 2008
bird market
baby parrots!After a long night stuck in the Moscow airport, Alex finally got to Hong Kong on Sunday night! It was a great week full of delicious meals and Hong Kong sightseeing.
We started out in Tsim Sha Tsui where the Garden Hostel was. It was located in an old broken down hotel named Chunking Mansions that were bought out by tons of hostels taking up each floor. It was the most international area I have seen in Hong Kong, with tons of Indian and African visitors. Tsim Sha Tsui is a fun area with lots of shopping, bright lights and it is right on the water. At 8 o'clock every night, you can walk down to the water and watch a light show that is put on by the major buildings (the main skyline) of Hong Kong island from across the river.
We toured through Mong Kok, the most densely populated area in the entire world!! It is not an easy task to walk down the street past the millions of electronic stores and street vendors. Mong Kok is also the area with fun markets full of fake designer purses and clothes, jade jewelry and tee shirts. Next we
went to the bird and flower markets in the area, which were fun to see. The bird market was just one street full of bird cages and little old men caring for the birds. The next street down was store upon store full of orchids, bamboo and other beautiful flowers.
We ate breakfast at the only American diner in Hong Kong, called the Flying Pan and we ate every bite. I'm finally starting to find where all the good food is, but unfortunately the best food is the expensive food! Or...it is street food which tends to be all deep fried! While at the Temple Street Night Market (an outdoor market in Hong Kong only open at night with great souvenirs and trinkets) we ate delicious oyster cakes and a beef bowl (Hong Kong specialties) from a street vendor and sat with two local girls who explained how to eat it all. The vendor brought over a bowl of steaming rice and beef, and cracked a raw egg on top...at first we freaked out, but then saw that the rice was so hot it cooked the egg...haha.
One day we took a cable car ride out to Lantau
bird market
parrot stuck upside down Island off the coast of Hong Kong where we saw a giant buddah. It was a fun ride but kind of cloudy so we couldn't see much until we got to the buddah (which was very cool).
The next day we took the ferry to Macau Island (old Portuguese colony) to experience the Portuguese food and casinos. Macau is known as the vegas of Asia. The casinos were slightly disappointing, but it was overall a cool thing to see the European influence in Asia. All over the streets there were vendors selling dried meats and tiny almond cookies. At first we were grossed out, but when we got the nerve to try it we discovered they were both delicious! I guess it was like Chinese beef jerky and tea cookies....the Macau speciality.
After that, we came back to Hong Kong and spent some time in Kowloon Tong, where I live, and rested a little. I took Alex out to the nightlife area called Lan Kwai Fong which was fun loud and crowded because the huge Rugy 7 tournament is coming up this week in Hong Kong so there are a million tourists here. It is basically a street
flower market
alex with the flowers full of fun bars, restaurants and clubs where you hop from one to the next.
After a great week, Alex left last night to get to Moscow for a 12 hour layover...which will be terrible I'm sure. It was very hard to say goodbye again, and I am very glad that mom, Soph and Shelley get here tomorrow night because I need some family time! I miss home!
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