Asia Trip - Day 4

Wednesday, 10/8 -

My second day of Hong Kong was just as exciting and exhausting as the first day. What with the hills and and constantly losing my bearings, by nightfall, I was looking forward to the less frenetic pace of Taiwan again. I had tooled with the idea of doing a half day in Macao, to see the ruins. However, darting around for last minute looksies quickly used up my time, throwing any notions of an attempt at visiting another country (even if for a few exhilarating hours) aside.

Some of the things I saw my second day are edible bird's nests. How anyone eats this stuff is beyond my understanding. I try to be culturally sensitive, but this one boggles the mind. Man Mo Temple was cool but the incense coils burning throughout the place really did my lungs (and my eyes) in. Cat Street was a disappointment and the Mid-Levels area with its escalator system, was a cool neighborhood to walk around in.

Back on Kowloon side, looking for the Jade Market was tiresome. This included walking several blocks before realizing I was going in the wrong direction, getting on a bus, missing the stop, and thinking that it would only be a few more blocks past it that it would stop. Wrong! Instead, it went further to the bus depot and I had to wait awhile before it would restart it's route again. By the time I found the place, and saw what was actually for sale, I wasn't interested in the least.

My previous assumptions of the Jade Market were that there would be several purveyors selling unique pieces and I would hem and haw over which seller to choose. Not so in this case where each and every both sold almost identical pieces of beaded bracelets where you could easily see where it was tied off and cut. Plus the hard desperate sell got to me in my exhaustion. Yawn. All that time for this? Anyway, the benefit to this excursion, and I believe everything happens for a reason, was that I was now in a very non-Western part of Kowloon. We're talking I got some serious stares as to why I would be that neighborhood. I stumbled upon a market on Reclamation St, found a supermarket in which to peruse for some goodies, and most importantly, discovered another cool temple. Not too shabby.

The shopping here is amazing. There are several mall type stores which are really just rabbit warrens of tiny shops selling super cheap clothing. I had heard of this before from the girls at work, but seeing is believing. I left Hong Kong with a heavy suitcase a credit card without a dent in it. For once, I felt I had benefited from a shop till you drop excursion!