Another day in Hong Kong
Breakfast in the Salisbury was up to the usual high standard. Reading the paper over breakfast, there was some concern over 6000 dead pigs floating towards Shanghai, due, it was thought, to the government crackdown on the use of dead pigs for meat (ie pigs that die from natural causes). The health minister when asked about the dead pigs, talked at length about the different types of funeral services people liked, and never once mentioned pigs. Sounds like a politician!
Out and about and I started thinking about things we weren't seeing. Dogs - saw a couple, and some in a pet shop, but few others. Smokers - have seen surprisingly few. Perhaps they feel they can get their daily fix from the thick air around them? Beggars - again almost none. Perhaps they are discouraged by local constabulary (who are also inconspicuous) Security guards are much more visible, as are the Brinks trucks carting the money around. Rubbish - there is none on the footpaths, on the roadsides, in the bay. None. I don't know how they do it. There are no armies of street sweepers, so I guess the locals must each take care of their own rubbish. Most impressed. (I did actually see three guys sweeping the beach with brooms, so maybe there is an army of sweepers, but if so they generally keep a low profile.) There are quite a few tourists around, but for the most part the tourists are of chinese ancestry. In almost any crowd, at least 98% appear to be asian.
We walked down to catch the 973 bus to Stanley Village. The bus drove away as we walked down the street. We checked the timetable and it appeared the bus had left 3 minutes early. No problem, the next one was due in 20, so we headed down the street to gander at the shops - the type that never bother with price tags. 10 minutes later, we thought it was time to start wandering back, and the next 973 passed us! We rushed back thinking it might wait but no such luck. Obviously the buses don't actually stick to a timetable, so we hung around to wait for the next one.
Had a great ride out to Stanley Village. 1.3 hours bus ride for A$2. The bus went under the bay to Hong Kong Island, then around the western and southern parts of the island (the centre is very hilly - where we were yesterday. We went past many, many residential skyscrapers with fantastic views, but there were also a couple of shantytowns. I saw a number of 3 bedroom units advertised at $45M or more (about A$6.5M) so some people have money!
Riding in the top of a double decker is a bit eerie at times. One starts to learn how close you can go to a sheer wall without hitting it!
Stanley village is a beach resort but the weather wasn't inviting today. We walked through the markets area and were pleasantly surprised to find that the sales persons were not at all pushy.
Strolled around and came to a temple dedicated to a local woman from the 10th century. We have come across very few religious buildings of any sort, and in fact churches, while few and far between, appear the most numerous. There however, reasonably frequent votive offerings of various sorts around the place.
Caught Bus 6 back to Central. We were first in the queue and had first choice of seats on the top deck. I climbed the stairs taking great care not to hit my head on the ceiling and rushed to the front and sat down only to realise that the seat I had chosen had enough leg space for a 6 year old chinese kid. By then however I was firmly jammed in and two other people had grabbed the more spacious seats on the left front side of the bus. I went the whole way back without complaining (much). Memo to self - check head and leg space before sitting down.
Caught the MTR (metro) back to our side of the bay and headed to look for the goldfish markets. We are feeling quite comfortable getting around Hong Kong now (apart from head and leg space). We wandered into the fish and vegetable markets. All very well presented and a wide variety. Many live (just) fish and crustacea in small containers .
From there we wandered through all sorts of markets and tried to buy a pair of joggers for me. You would have thought I was Goliath the way they expressed surprise at my modest 10.5 shoe size. They sent runners to scour the area, and one or two shoes came close, but having a low pain threshhold, I opted not to trim my toes to make the shoes fit. Sue got a nice pair though.
Decided to have an early dinner at a local cafe. They had a menu with english notations. I skillfully avoided the menu items with chilli ratings - some had a 6 chilli rating. The food was very tasty. The vegetable dish we chose had about 5 types of mushroom and a variety of other, as yet unidentified vegetables. Very tasty though.
Then back down to the bay for the nightly "lights". It was very illuminating!
Now my feet are recuperating from another days walking. We are enjoying Hong Kong. I hope you are enjoying reading.
