Hong Kong adventures - Part 4

Sunday, February 25

I woke up to a beautiful sunny day! Noreen and I went to church. I guess a lot of churches in Hong Kong don't have their own building, because land is so much in demand (more about that later!). So Noreen's church meets at various locations, often at the big convention centre on Hong Kong Island right on the harbour. We took the Star Ferry across the harbour to get there from Kowloon.
After church, Noreen and I went for noodle soup with Harmony, Sherri, and 2 other friends of Noreen. Then Harmony had to go to the school to do some work, so Sherri came with Noreen and I to the Peak. We had been planning to go to the Peak today and were really hoping it would be a clear day, otherwise it wouldn't be worth going, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect! First we took the Peak Tram up the hill to the Peak Tower. It's an old tram that has been running for over 100 years. We went out to the observation deck, which had an amazing view of the city. It was so bright and sunny that when we were trying to pose for pictures, we had to squint so much. Tears were just pouring out of my eyes from the brightness! It was pretty funny, but I was so glad it was so sunny!! I think our pictures turned out pretty well anyway. After enjoying the view for a while, we sat for a while at Starbucks beside the Peak Tower and had some Tazo tea frappuccino and Lamingtons, which are apparently Australian treats. They are a little cube of cake coated in a light frosting all around and then with coconut sprinkled all over it. Tasty little things! We talked all about Sherri's and Noreen's Asian travelling experiences, which was really cool.
Then we went in to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in the Peak Tower, which Noreen had really been wanting to go to for a while. I had been to the one in LA when I was 15, and had really enjoyed it. The three of us had a good time in there! It was a good mix of both Western and Asian famous people. A lot of the Asian ones I had never heard of. We had a great time posing for pictures with various wax people. Then we went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant, also in the Peak Tower. Very Asian - ha! When it was dark we went back onto the observation deck to see the night view, which is amazing with all the lit up buildings.
After that we took a thrilling taxi ride down the hill, and parted ways with Sherri, since Noreen and I had tickets for a concert. The performance we went to was part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. It was the Camut Band from Spain. It was really amazing. They have 4 dancers, and 2 percussionists who do African-style drumming. The dancers do variations on tap dancing. One dance was called the sand dance where one guy actually danced on a thin layer of sand, which had a really unique sound. I was really impressed with the rhythm and athleticism of these men. It was a really good show.

Monday, February 26

Noreen went back to teaching today, so it was my first day adventuring on my own! The first thing I did was take a walk to the Tai Po Waterfront Park in Noreen's area. Then I took the KCR to Mong Kok to revisit the bird market and flower market, because last week it wasn't quite in full swing following the holiday for Chinese New Year. Well, today it was bustling. A few blocks over, I found the goldfish market, which is storefront after storefront of fish and aquarium supplies. There were a lot of fish in aquariums, but also lots of little (and even sort of big) fish in plastic bags, hanging on peg boards, ready to take home.
Then I walked around the Jordan Road/Nathan Road area, browsing in some stores, and just taking in the sights. I am enjoying even just going into regular stores and seeing what they sell compared to at home, like grocery stores and home stores.
I eventually ended up at Kowloon Park. I am loving the parks in Hong Kong. They are so well maintained and landscaped. I guess when there is so much cement and where so few people actually live in a house with a yard, you have to make up for it with parks. A cool thing about the parks is that there are always lots of old people just hanging out. At Kowloon park I was excited to see the aviary and the waterfowl pond, but they were both shut down and closed off to the public because Avian Bird flu had been found in wild birds within 3 km of the park. Yikes! It was kind of a bummer.
I walked around for a while, ate some lunch, then went down to the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula by the Star Ferry Pier and hung out in that area for a while, then made my way back by walking and by train to the jade market. I started talking to one woman who sold me a jade Buddha I was buying for a friend, but then I realized how much I actually paid for it in US dollars and was more than I had planned on spending, so I kind of freaked out and said it was too much, and couldn't I buy a smaller one instead? (all of this with her minimal English and my almost nonexistent Cantonese skills). Meanwhile, while trying to get me to buy more things from her, the woman got it out of me that I was born in the year of the horse, so she started making me a little charm of a jade horse for my cell phone (lots of people here have little charms on their cell phones). She ended up letting me buy the smaller Buddha and the charm and gave me back a little of the money I had already given her. It was still a bit more than I had planned on spending, but oh well. Oops. I guess I have to make one mistake in my converting currencies on this trip!
Then I wandered through the famous Temple Street Night Market where several blocks of this street have people set up selling pretty much the same stuff as at all the other street markets: clothing, electronics, watches, silk ties and robes, traditional Chinese clothing, toys etc. On the way back to Noreen's, some school kids, maybe about 11 or 12 years old stopped me on the street to interview me about what I collect and why, and then they took a picture with me. I think I spent about 10 hours exploring today! I got some pretty nice blisters on my feet, but it was worth it.

Tuesday, February 27

This morning was beautiful and sunny, and I took the KCR to Sha Tin. I got some coffee from that local coffee shop chain, Pacific Coast Coffee, and went walking in Sha Tin park, which is along a river - another gorgeous park with nice landscaping, pagodas, waterfalls and ponds etc. There were lots of people out doing Tai Chi all over in the park, some in groups, others alone, some with their music, others not. I also saw a group of women line-dancing together, which I thought was hilarious! Sort of a newer twist on the morning exercise in the park. One area of the park actually had what looked like playground equipment, sort of, but it was exercise equipment for adults, and several people were using it.
Then I went to try to find the 10, 000 Buddhas Temple, which was supposedly also somewhere close to the train station. On the way I saw the Pai Tau Village which are homes that look like how people in Sha Tin used to live. People actually still live in those houses, but they just look different than a lot of other homes in the area.
I found a temple with lots of steps up to it, which the 10,000 Buddhas one has, but there were no signs with English on them anywhere. The big temple had a lot of Buddhas, but not really THAT many. This place was basically a mausoleum. It didn't seem like I was in the right place, but I wasn't sure. Then when I was on the way down the hill, some Chinese ladies were there, and one of them spoke English and told me that I was actually at a temple for the ancestors, and that the 10,000 Buddhas was around the corner. I found the entrance to the path up to it, but didn't have time to go up because I had to get to Noreen's school for the afternoon. I want to go back and check it out another day.
I took the KCR, then a taxi to the school, a Christian international school. Noreen teaches grade 1, and although the school uses Canadian curriculum and most of the teachers are from Canada and a few from the US and other countries, most of the students are local Chinese. There are some Korean, Japanese, Indian, and other students too though. Noreen has one white girl in her class. Noreen's students were so adorable. I just hung out in the back of her classroom while she taught. At one point, if the kids were finished their work, they had free time, and 2 little girls came back to the table where I was sitting and were drawing. One of them, Jessica, really latched on to me. She is really tiny because she was born premature. She has some physical limitations, like she needs a big gripper on her pencil to be able to write. Anyway, she is a very sweet girl, and she drew me a picture that said I love you, and she asked how to spell my name. At one point she just randomly kissed my cheek! She was cute! Noreen said she is always very affectionate. :) Anyway, it was fun to be in grade 1 again for part of a day.
After school, Noreen and walked to the Kowloon Old Walled City Park which commemorates the old city and then the slums that it became. The highrise slums that had been built on top of it were only torn down about 10 years ago. That area of the city is improving, but there's still quite a bit of public housing there, I think.
After that, Noreen and I met up with her teaching friend Drew at a Vietnamese/Thai restaurant in that neighbourhood. Drew has been there 4 years, like Noreen, and is from Minnesota. He was fun to hang out with. Then Noreen and I came back to her flat and had yummy mango cheesecake that she made. Right now it's mango season, and there are lots of those small yellow mangoes from the Philippines around. Mmm...