Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Sorry the casino wasn't any fun, I would have felt uncomfortable there too. Very that Mark got a suit from Sam Tailors! Your pictures of the Flower Market are just gorgeous, what a variety. The Jade Market looks interesting too, did you buy anything?
We didn't in the end. Everything I liked the look of was £30 ($60) plus and I hadn't budgeted for that. We did buy a lot of other things while we were there - like our names in Chinese that are framed and hanging up at home and I got a keyring with Hong Kong on and my name in Chinese. We still bought back a fair few souvenirs, don't worry!
The flowers are beautiful and the jade market looker very interesting. Sorry about the people in the casino. The place looked a little too rich for my taste.
Liz
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Wednesday 20 February – part two: a history highlight
Then we walked back down the main road in Kowloon, Nathan Road, which is home to one of Hong Kong’s biggest shopping districts. Every so often, you would get someone trying to persuade you that you wanted a suite or jewellery and these guys were persistent. We had to really ignore them and be forceful with them. Fortunately, there weren’t too many of them.
Yes, you are seeing this right – living samples for sale on the street!
We did get a battery for my poor old Eeyore watch that I’ve had since our honeymoon in 1999. It’s definitely on its last legs though, as it packed up again a few minutes later, then the next day it worked for a few hours, then stopped again.
We also made a stop at a bakery, where we picked up a few cakes that sounded nice and they were. It’s fun trying stuff that we’ve never heard of and seeing what they’re like. Nine times out of 10, you get a pleasant surprise.
Our next stop was the museum area of Kowloon, as the museums do free entry on a Wednesday.
First, we went to the Science Museum, but to be honest, we weren’t that impressed with it. We’ve seen much better in London and found it’s aim to be very basic, which meant that we didn’t learnt learn much from it.
This section is all about what we eat and balanced diets This section explores the use of mirrors
A bit disappointed, we decided to have a look around the Museum of History, which was just opposite. Well, that couldn’t have been more different. It was just an amazing place, taking you through all of Hong Kong’s history going back hundreds of thousands of years, right to the present day. In fact, it was so good that we decided to stop halfway through to go to Sam’s for Mark’s fitting and then go back there to finish it off.
We started with the prehistoric times and gradually worked our way through the Stone Age and then the various Chinese dynasties and the Chinese way of life and that’s pretty much what makes up the ground floor of the museum.
Just caught up - the flower market looks stunning - great pictures as usual. The museum looked very interesting too. And how wonderful for Mark to get a suit from the famous Sam's - can't wait to find how it came out...
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Wednesday 20 February – part three: a one armed suit!
That’s how far we got before we had to head to Sam’s, which was just a five minute walk away. The fitting was interesting to say the least. I have never seen someone wearing a suit with just one arm! It was a good opportunity for some photos….
Look at all the photos behind – these are the photos of Sam with celebrities
Then it was back to the Museum of History to finish our route, which took us this time to the second floor. Now if we thought that the first part had been impressive, we had seen nothing yet. This section took us from the opium wars to the present day and this was quite an eye opener for us. Neither of us had any idea how the UK had originally acquired Hong Kong. It turns out that we supplied China with opium and we ended up with so many addicts that China couldn’t pay its bills to us, so they lost Hong Kong to us in part payment. Hardly the best way to get our hands on it really….
This map shows just how much land has been reclaimed over the last 100 years – all the coloured areas are parts that have been reclaimed.
Then we moved into the development of Hong Kong under colonial rule and that takes you into a three storey building. Not exactly what you usually expect to find in a museum. They are fascinating re-creations of shops from the turn of he century and walking around them was just amazing. Every museum in the world should come here to see how they did this, as they could all learn a lot from this place.
Then it’s into a section about the Japanese occupation during the Second World War and finally how the place has developed over the last 50 years and up to the handover. We left feeling like we had been into one of the best museums we had ever seen. It was fantastic and even better, it’s free on a Wednesday, so we hadn’t even paid for that great experience.
We were going horseracing tonight, one of the great past-times in Hong Kong and it was a smart-casual dress code, so it was back to the hotel to get changed into something a bit more special. Then it was on the subway to the Exchange Hotel, which was where we were being picked up. Oh my goodness, this is one swish place and very nicely located. Maybe if we ever come back here again, this is a possible to stay at.
We quickly found our guide for the evening were led to the bus, where we had to wait for a few minutes for everyone to arrive and then we were off. It was literally just a few minutes away and we were there before we knew it. The experience we were doing is only open to foreigners and we were visited by members of the Hong Kong Jockey Club to get our passes before we were allowed off the bus.
Then it was a quick walk around to the members’ enclosure and up to floor eight. It’s quite deliberate to have it on floor eight, as eight’s an exceptionally lucky number for the Chinese. Let’s just say that there were a lot of people trying to cram in the lifts and getting the doors to close was quite an adventure.
Finally, they did and we found our table. There must’ve been about four or five tables for our big group (there were two coach loads of us) and we ended up seated at a table with two other British couples, two girls from Australia and two others who I didn’t speak to, so I don’t know where they were from. One couple, it turned out, lived just about seven or eight miles down the road from us at home. Altogether now, It’s a Small World after all….
Next: horseracing from the eighth floor and the racetrack!
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that Mark got a suit from Sam Tailors! Your pictures of the Flower Market are just gorgeous, what a variety. The Jade Market looks interesting too, did you buy anything?
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i love museums with the recreations of old towns. i've been to one in columbus. and it really is a small world! 
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