Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED About This Page:

[RobDVC]

Glad you were able to find some true Chinese chocolates and that they were a hit.
The pictures from "Symphony #2" are terrific. I love the pictures of the flowers too.

[lauren-roxy]

Beautiful photos of the flowers!

[chezp]

Friday 22 February – part two: lost in the park on my own!

The next thing I wanted to see was the Aviary, but I ended up going on my own, as Mark didn’t feel he could face the steep climb to get there. In fairness, the first part of the climb up there was just that, very steep and I could see that Mark had had enough. It’s a real shame that he didn’t come with me, as the rest of the climb wasn’t nearly as bad as the first bit. When I got there, I was greeted by an amazing free flight aviary, which you walk through on bridges that are about halfway up, which makes watching the birds a lot easier.

I saw some beautiful species and got some lovely photos. It’s probably one of the best aviaries that I’ve ever been in and there are some zoos that could learn a lot from this place.



The only problem was the right through was one way and I came out in a part of the park that was totally new to me. I had no idea where I was and didn’t even have a map of the park with me, as I had left everything with Mark and literally just had my camera. I looked at the signs and they appearing to be taking me the wrong way all the way to the top of the park. I decided not to follow them and followed my instinct instead and headed down a track I found, as it seemed to follow the outside of the aviary. Fortunately it was right and I finally saw a smaller sign and headed that way. Unfortunately, it meant a heap of steps, which was not what I needed. Still, I came to a very nice garden, which was interesting.



Finally, I was back where I started from and quickly found Mark. As we sat near the Conservatory, it started to rain again, so we decided to head off. We headed into the Olympic square, but there wasn’t much to see there. They didn’t even really explain why it was there. I guess from the fact that it dates from 2005 that it’s something to do with the Beijing Olympics, but I don’t know for sure.



From there, we walked round the Reflecting Lake and found ourselves by the Flagstaff Ware Museum of Tea.



In we went to the museum, but to be honest, there wasn’t much to see in there, which had something to do with the fact that an exhibition on the first floor had just finished and they had closed it to make way for the next one, leaving only the four ground floor rooms. Of those, one was a movie, which wasn’t showing and the other three rooms just didn’t inspire, they were dry displays and didn’t captivate us at all.

A few minutes later, we were back out and walked through the rest of the park.



We managed to get a taxi from a nearby hotel to take us over to the Man Mo Temple, as I figured that it would be quite a walk even from the subway. We were there in about 20 minutes, as the traffic was pretty bad (I got the impression that’s nothing unusual), but it only cost us HK$40 (about £3.70), which I thought was reasonable. I was amazed at how long the meter stayed on HK$15 (the base fare) before it moved. If only that was the way taxis everywhere worked.

The Man Mo Temple was quite something, with all the incense burning. The smell was quite overwhelming, so much so that Mark had to leave and I must admit I found it a bit much as well.



Next: Christmas pandas!

[poohmaine]

Another great installment. That park was beautiful!

[Colexis Mom]

What great pictures of the park and aviary

[RobDVC]

You were able to capture some great images of the birds in the aviary.
I can only imagine how strong the smell on incense was... it sure looks smoky in the temple.

[lauren-roxy]

Great photos of the birds!!

[CastleWishes]

Sounds like an exciting trip...can't wait to read more.

[Cam22]

Catching up again! The museum of history seems so incredible. I museums. The floating restaurants was so interesting, too. So many marvelous pictures! Thanks!

[clio]

Great pictures of the gardens and the aviary.
Liz

[chezp]

Friday 22 February – part three: Christmas pandas!

We came out of there and headed down Cat Street, well known for its antiques and street sellers and, although we weren’t intending to, we ended up getting six Christmas ornamanets for HK$150 (about £10). They were a lovely Oriental design and we got a combination of snowmen, Christmas trees and pandas. Yes, you read that right – pandas, it’s very Chinese.



Once we had finished browsing, we walked down to the subway station and caught the MTR over to Kowloon, where our first stop was Sam’s Tailors to ensure that Mark’s suit fitted fine. Fortunately, it did. My goodness, he looked good in it. OK, so I knew it was made for him, but it did actually look like it was as well.



While we were in there, I asked if they had a recommendation for a good Chinese meal nearby that would still be serving lunch at this time (by now, it was about 2.40). We were told to try Very Good Restaurant downstairs. Yes, that’s seriously its name. I didn’t pay too much attention as it sounded tacky, but as we left, sure enough, we saw a sign for them and the items that they had looked good to both of us, so in we went. It’s always a good sign when you see locals in there and this place was packed with them. Once again, we were the only westerners in there until a guy came in with a Chinese friend.

Now considering that this is in such a tourist hot spot, I was surprised that we had such a problem with language here, but there only appeared to be a couple of servers who spoke English. We worked out what we wanted and then sat there and sat there. Someone offered us a pencil that as on the table and we figured that meant write down what we wanted. I mean, after all, all the dishes had numbers and surely that’s the way to do it.

Just as I started to do that, someone came over to help and took our order for us, I did originally go for the scallop and watermelon soup, but was told that it was out of season, so went for the fish and sweetcorn soup instead, while Mark had the sea cucumber and meat soup. OK, so mine was pretty much what I could get at home, but the difference in taste was quite something. It just seemed a lot more natural, rather than the artificial taste you get at home.



For main course, I went for a dish that you often see at home, but with a twist, fish with pineapple in sweet and sour sauce. This was so good, but I just couldn’t finish it all. Mark had the chicken in black bean sauce and again found it very different to at home, especially as the chicken was on the bone. That proved to be a real challenge with the chopsticks and yes, we managed fine with those this time, no laughing from nearby tables.



We also shared some squid in sea salt and I have to say that after tasting that, I’m not sure that I will ever eat this dish at home again, it was that good here. The best bit of all was the cost. Had I realised how cheap it was, we could’ve paid cash for it, it came to about HK$500 (about £32) for the whole thing. Bargain and a great recommendation from Sam!

We walked down Nathan Road, the main shopping street, and ended up stopping at one of the shops I had seen yesterday, which sold Chinese outfits. You probably already know how much I like these from my previous purchases in Epcot over the years and this time, I could see price tags and they weren’t too bad, so in we went. A few minutes later, we escaped with a Chinese jacket for HK$399 (about £27). I say escaped, as they were determined that we would buy a lot more in there and the danger was that I could have done so quite easily.

We headed for the Promenade, so we could walk along the Avenue of Stars. This is Hong Kong’s equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, featuring famous Chinese movie stars. I will be honest, I was struggling to think of many familiar names and most of the starts were people we had never heard of, but there were more than I thought. It also explored the development of the Chinese film industry, which was interesting.

As we walked down this though, I couldn’t help but think that we should do something like this at home. After all, we’ve got lots of famous British movie stars and even studios, such as Pinewood, where they’ve filmed lots of movies, including many of the James Bond ones.



It was still a damp day with rain every so often, but it did seem to be easing a bit. Having said that. The view towards Hong Kong Island still wasn’t great, as you can see from these photos…



Next: heading home

[emtpej]

Looks like a great time!
I would like to see that jacket you got. Mark looks pretty sharp in his new suit.

We have some great Chinese restaurants here and they kind of spoil you, too.
They can come up with some pretty funny names! 'Eat First' is one (as opposed to pay first) I think it was one of the first buffet-style places.

Some more of the great stuff fillmed in the UK: Wallace & Gromit and 'The Muppets'!

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had some great food! Love Mark's suit And what a great Avenue of the Stars Sorry it's all coming to an end

[Dawn in Scotland]

The food looked great and cute little touches with the presentation. It would be nice to see a photo of your little mascot!

[jpod523]

i love their avenue of the stars!! it looks so much nicer than the stars in hollywood (not that i've seen them in person, but my sister brought back tons of pictures). i can't believe it's almost over!