Last night (5.02.07) Will's mum and brother arrived in Hong Kong. After we got their luggage home and introduced them to our HUGE apartment (not) we headed to SoHo for dinner at Nepal. Simon sampled his first Nepalese beer along with their first Nepalese curry.
In true Hong Kong fashion the girls ended the evening with foot massages and Shanghai pedicures whilst the boys headed to Lan Kai Fong for a beer (or two)!! Welcome to Hong Kong.
DAY 2
After a lazy morning in, we took off to explore Hong Kong. First stop (after the steps to our house) was the temple just down the road.
After the temple, we continued through the Wanchai wet market heading for the MTR station. Simon and Val may never eat meat again after witnessing a local butcher and the fish market (filled with yummy fish, toads, eels, turtles - you get the picture!!!)
We made it onto the MTR - bound for Yau Ma Tei... we are off to explore the markets
Our first pit stop - the Jade market. Whilst Chinese New Year is a great time to visit Hong Kong from a cultural point of view, the immediate days surrounding New Year is a little crazy (rather like Christmas eve at home) and many of the market holders had packed up shop to head to their village to celebrate the New Year with their families. That didn't seem to matter too much as we still managed to find plenty of goodies to buy:)
Val was SOO intriged to see all of the elderly people still hard at work (despite being well into the 80's and 90's and not being able to stand upright anymore!!).
Dan - we were thinking of you when we passed the seafood stalls in the local market (dried sea-food that is). Everything you could imagine - sea cucumbers, scallops, squid, oysters - fresh from the boat (NOT). Hungry??
The fam the midst of the wet market.
Val was very concerned to find out how this ambulance could possibly transport a patient to the hospital... lets try not to find out!!
and also at how people could live in such densely populated areas!!
Ah, kids are the same the whole world over.
The crowds...
Aside from the width (or lack thereof) Val was also amazed to see the bamboo scaffolding on this building. Anyone game to give it a try?
A tourist shot with the local police:) Nice Harrods bag hey (there's a story to that one which we will save for another time:)
Next stop was the flower maket (bad move). We neglected to realise that the whole population of Hong Kong was on their yearly pilgrimage to the flower market to stock up on their "lucky" flowers to celebrate the New Year.
We couldn't walk past the bird market (well I am sure Val and Simon could have once we told them not to breath in during our tour - just kidding). We managed to escape unharmed - oh except, Val, what about that nasty cough you have now developed...
Enough markets - time for a break. To rest our weary feet we headed to The Peninsula for their famous High Tea. We could have sat there all afternoon listening to the string quartet, sipping fine teas, and indulging in the amazing selection of scones, cakes and pastries. This is the life!
Time to head home now, thats enough adventure for one day. We caught the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour, passed the Star Ship cruise boats and reminisced about Suzie Wong all those years ago.
The happy campers on the Star Ferry
Home time!!
Tomorrow we are off the Macau, lycee packets in hand.
Happy New Year!!
.jpg)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment