Green Tea, Red Bean TaiChi

Hong Kong – Pacific Coast Coffee Shop Nathan Rd.

Yesterday i woke up around 1:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Lsitened to Stephen Colbert's “I am America and So Can You” on my Ipod for 2 hours or so and dozed until 5. We started by wandering down Nathan Road videotaping the neighboorhood, eventually wandering up some steps and coming across Kowloon Walled City Park and a multitude of people practicing Tai-Chi. We sat and watched for a bit. I wanted to join in, but my body had not woken up yet. Kowloon Park is amazing, its huge, and littered with people jogging and practicing Tai-Chi at 6am. There is also a aviary full of exotic birds. Oh, and It is smoke free – No smoking allowed. Really, however, you see cigarettes for sale everywhere, but very few people smoking. There is a great video on our YouTube Channel in the Hong Kong section.

After the park we went looking for some coffee, and found another Starbucks. One Chai Latte, one Grande Mild and a Green Tea and Red Bean muffin Later (And about $10) we wandered down to the Star Ferry Pier. We took the Ferry to Central (on Hong Kong Island) and then boarded another Ferry to Lantau Island. This one a little more expensive, for $16HKD – or about $2 and something – one way. This was a much longer and scenic ride through the bay. The Humidity levels have been high which is a shame, the views from the ferry are not that clear. Lantau Island is one of the Outlying Islands of Hong Kong, Twice the size of HK island with less that 200K inhabitants, a beach resort, fishing village, and three prisons. The ferry took us to Mui Wo, a small beach-like resort town. It reminded us of the Dominican Republic, Cabarete. Lantau has more bicycles than I have ever seen, or could ever imagine, it is incredible. The landscape is extrememly mountainess and covered with trees and foliage. We took a bus ($25HKD or about $3.50 each one way) through the countryside and up a very steep climb to the Po Lin Monestary. There, we visited the 210 tonne Big Buddah (insert Wikipedia Link here). The price of the ticket was $60 HKD each or $8.50 , and that included lunch at the Vegetarian Restaurant at the Monestary. It was really good.

At this point, exhaustion was setting in, again, and we decided to skip wandering around Lantau island any longer, and we took the Ferry back to HK island, chatting with some other tourists along the way. We then took the subway From HK island up to Mong Kok on Kowloon Island (around where we are staying). It goes under the water, and cost us $11HKD each from Central MTR to Prince Edward MTR. When you buy your subway ticket, you use a touch screen and select your destination, the fare reflects how far you are going. You are then issued a card, which you enter into the turnstile when going into the subway, and then again when you leave at the station you had selected to exit at. Like everything else in HK, its a very efficient process. The maps on the Subways have LED markers that tell you what stop you are at. Its almost impossible to get lost in this city. There are information booths everywhere with maps and signs that point to various points of interest. All of the streetsigns are in English and Cantonese.
At Mong Kok we Went to Fa Yuen Street Market or “Ladies Market” which is a massive market that sells basically clothing and purses, shoes and accessories. I bought 3 pairs of socks for $10HKD (or $1.40). Le Coq Sportif jackets were 2 for $100 HKD or $14. The clothing here is cheap and plentiful, however, womens sizing usually is around 25in waist. I could not find much that would fit. Shoes and HandBags are so inexpensive, you could purchase new ones everytime you went out easily. The girls in HK are all very well dressed. They are always very well put together, and the fashion is very boho, slouchy, large tops with tights, lots of tweed, mostly dark colours. They also Always wear Highheels. We are been going out at 6 am and all the girls are in high heels. We found kowloon to be much cheaper than HK island for clothing and gifts.

We then went to Tung Choi Street, which is called the “GoldFish” Market. This street has all pet stores and almost every shop has Goldfish in plastics Bags, and Turtles in little containers. They are absolutely beautiful. All kinds of Tropical Fish I have never seen before.

We then wandered down Nathan Rd looking for a Vegetarian Restaurant and found “Light Vegetarian Restaurant.” We had Sweet Chili Eggplant and some fried Noodles. This place was a little more expensive, we paid $112HKD or $16. We then wandered back to Lee Garden at 8:30 and went to bed.

This morning I got up at 4:20, and we packed our stuff, and came to this coffee house. We have to check out soon and are headed to Macau. We don't have a hotel booked, so we have to get there early.

Impressions of Hong Kong, It is a beautiful cirty with tonnes of things to do, we obviously barely scratched the surface. On next visit, I want to see Causeway Bay, Visit the Peak (so much humidity these couple of days.. poor visability, so we didn't bother) and see the harbour light show. There are serious fines for littering, spitting etc, and the city is extremely clean. They are resurfacing and cleaning buildings everywhere. It is also not nearly as crowded as I expected. Obviously the markets etc were a tight squeeze. Most people spoke a little english, especially “Excuse me” and Hello, etc. Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful. Everywhere you look here there is something crumbling and decaying juxiposed with something high-tech and new. The immense wealth is obvious. Apartments in the Soho Area on the Main island rent for about $3000 CAD a month. Overall, I think this city is absolutely beautiful, and very well organized. Also interestingly, public transit is very inexpensive, and on the streets you see taxis, buses and mini-buses, but very few personal vehicles. If you do see any, they are usually Minis, Bmws or Mercedes, and sparse.
J.