Today was the big tour day, which actually lasted from 9 to 2:30 with all the transportation. We went to lots of sites on HK Island and had a great tour guide, who had tons of helpful hints and suggestions.
Victoria Peak. I forgot how little time tours often give you to see sites. We got here and had about 15 minutes time to enjoy it. I remember having more time last time, but maybe we were running late. It wasn't a big deal though, because it was so hazy outside that we couldn't even see Kowloon. Shame. There was just enough time to take pictures at the peak (which is under a lot of construction at the moment) before getting on the bus. We took the tram going up, but the coach going down. Scenic.
Stanley. We did a quick drive by Repulse Bay, but I was on the wrong side of the bus so I didn't see much besides some cool looking buildings. I wish the south side of the island was more accessible to tourists! Stanley Market was good, but we only had about half an hour here. Bought a lot of postcards. :)Aberdeen. In Aberdeen, we took a sampan ride to see a bunch of fishing boats,
some of which were houseboats. It's really eye-opening to see how other people live. Looking at the houseboats on the water, it just made me think about what their life is like, living on their boats, compared to mine. Definitely an experience. And we passed by Jumbo, the floating restaurant I ate at the first time I went to HK. Memories. The guy in charge of our sampan was funny. He kept trying to make people take pictures and wear hats.Aberdeen Jewelry. We went to the Aberdeen Jewelry Factory next to see the showroom. It was pretty, but I hadn't done any research into jewelry so I wasn't planning to buy anything. Although there was a lot of pink sapphire stuff that I thought was gorgeous.
Once the tour was over, we had some lunch at this place called Horoscope Healthy Cafe.
You'd think a healthy cafe would mean non-smoking, but it doesn't. ;-) (I never really thought that, but it occurred to me while I was sitting there that healthy doesn't mean smoky!) Had some more noodle soup, because the guy and I weren't communicating very well in his lack of English and my severe lack of Cantonese. Oh well. The fish was pretty good, but I liked last night's meal better.Came back to the hotel so exhausted that I fell asleep for a few hours. I was intending to power nap, not really sleep. Oh well. I'll blame jet lag, maybe?
When we finally got back out into the night, it had already rained quite a bit, so a little of the humidity had lifted. Watched the light show over the harbor, which was nice, watching the lights flicker in time to the music. Do any other cities in the world do this? Allow all the lights on their city skyline to flicker in time to music every night? Imagine the traffic on the Chicago lakefront if they allowed that to happen.
Walked around Tsim Sha Tsui a little bit and then had dinner at this place called Hing Fat. It was really good - we had chow fun and Singapore noodles, and that made me so so happy, because I've been looking for a good noodle shop since we've been here (and because I was ready for something other than soupy noodles!). We went to that place because it had noodles, it was affordable, it was crowded, it didn't appear overly trendy, it wasn't overloaded with tourists, and the pictures looked good. :) It was very good. The part that amused me most was that the tableside napkins came on attached toilet paper dispensers at the end of each table. Funny.Did some shopping (but didn't buy anything) and then came back to the hotel. The forecast for every day (unfortunately, because it's late summer) is thunderstorms, but we're going to try to go to Lantau Island tomorrow. After all, if the forecast for every day is thunderstorms and we're at Typhoon Level 1, we might as well go while we can and see as much as we can. I'm excited though, because we've been looking forward to Lantau Island. Yay for another day in HK!
(Like the first entry, there will be more photos on the photoblog.)
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