The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

Here now is a write-up of the Wednesday, August 24th portion of my trip to Hong Kong & Beijing, China. Pictures from Wednesday will be posted on Tuesday morning.

As I begin my Wednesday wrap up, I figure I’ll share with you a few details I’ve observed while in Hong Kong.

• Did you know that money in Hong Kong is printed and issued by the various banks in town? It’s not unusual to have multiple different styles of $100 HK bills in your wallet. HSBC is a major issuer of money, as is the Bank of China. Each bill is very colorful and intricately designed and all share a unifying theme with an image of a Lion. While the design of the bills is very nice, I’m not crazy about the fact each bill is a different size. I like one, uniformed size set of bills. It’s easier to flip through in your wallet.
• Most of the cabbies in Hong Kong seem to listen to some sort of Cantonese talk radio. A couple would listen to music, but most seemed to be listening to talk radio.
• Hong Kong is a very hilly city. When a cab comes to a stop, the driver usually puts the car into neutral and uses the parking break. I’m guessing this is to conserve the breaks of these cars that go up and down the steep mountain side.
• With the weather as it currently is in Hong Kong, hot and humid and often rainy, shorts are an absolute must wear in this city. Even in the pouring rain you really have to wear shorts, an alien concept to this guy from Los Angeles. See, in LA if it’s raining it often means it’s at least moderately cold, so long pants is the usual attire. In Hong Kong, if you wore long pants they’d be soaked quickly and then you’d be lugging around heavy, heavy pants all day. If you must wear pants during the rainy season in Hong Kong, then wear light slacks. Jeans are a definite no-no right now.
• Forget worrying about how you dress much, too. Most people in Hong Kong seem to have horrible fashion sense. Not that I’m the Doctor of Style or anything, but some of the ensembles I witnessed were pretty awful and I’m not usually one who notices.

OK, on to Wednesday’s wrap up.

Wednesday we got a bit earlier start than usual. My cold had finally passed into the good period where it’s just annoying and not all consuming. Although at this point Sharon started to feel a tickle in her throat. It seems she may have caught the cold I had. Not good.

Jimmy, Sharon and I hired a cab and took it to Stanley Market on the other side of the Island. See, Parkview is located near the top of the Island, in the middle, which makes it rather convenient when going to Stanley. We took the ride down windy roads into what is a much less populated section of the Island. The biggest thing on this side would be Ocean Park, a water style zoo park that I might be inclined to visit on another trip to Hong Kong. It’s supposed to be rather nice.

The Stanley Market is much nicer than say the Temple Street Night Market, but that also means a bit higher prices. Things you could get for a buck at the Night Market would probably go for $2 or $2.50 in Stanley. But the selection and variety of product is much better in Stanley. Jimmy did suggest that we do the majority of our gift shopping when we got to the Great Wall where it would be very cheap, but Sharon and I figured we should get it out of the way on Wednesday as we had no idea what was in store for us the next couple of days.

We shopped around for a bit, but soon we all realized that lunch was in order. We stopped in at the New Star Restaurant, a restaurant that appears to primarily appeal to locals. The restaurant was one of those where the menus were all on the walls, but thankfully they had a menu with pictures for us Western types. The waiter said the portions were somewhat small, and the prices were very cheap, so we figured we should each order two dishes to satisfy our appetites. I got a bowl of noodles and dumplings along with Indonesian style fried rice. Sharon and Jimmy each ordered two items as well. The only problem is when all six of our dishes came it was clear we ordered way too much food. The noodle/dumplings soup thing I ordered (around $2.75 US) would have been plenty of food. All of it was delicious, especially the soup thing. The Indonesian style fried rice was pretty much like any fried rice you have had before, although a bit lighter on the soy sauce than usual. It came with two chicken skewers, peanut sauce and was topped with a bit runny, fried egg. Mixing it all together, it wasn’t half bad, but I would have been fine with just the soup. The noodles in the soup were a bit tough to bite through, so Jimmy, our White Super Action Tour Guide, offered up the following tip, “Use you tongue to push the noodles up against your teeth to cut it.” You know, I really should have been able to figure that one out.

Then it was back to the shopping. I bought some presents and a few things for myself. The one thing I really wanted was this odd, retro T-Shirt featuring some sort of Blaxploitation image of a black kung fu master with big time action fro. Unfortunately, the largest size they had was an XL, which in Hong Kong is practically a medium. A note to anyone who visits China and buys a T-Shirt– get it two sizes larger than you usually would. They usually carry up to size XXXL for those of you who wear an XL size.

We were in one shop, when a large thunder clap hit. Sharon reacted to it with an “Ohhhh” or something along those lines, which amused the hell out of the shop keeper. He laughed himself silly, then yelled to someone in the stock room of the shop, I’m presuming his wife, to relay the story of Sharon’s shock, at which point we started to hear a woman in the back laugh. Cracked my ass up.

We finished our shopping and headed back to the apartment for some rest once again. Sharon was starting to feel sicker, so she wanted some sleep in the hopes that it would ward off the coming cold. I worked and Jimmy watched some TV until later that night when we’d go out for dinner again.

Around 6:30 or so we left the apartment for dinner, but we had some time to kill first. So, we decided to go to the Bank of China building (if you recall the the picture I posted a couple of days ago, it’s the building on the far left with the criss-crossing white lines) to visit the 43rd floor viewing station at the building. Now, this isn’t the top of the building by a long shot, but they decided to throw in a viewing station absolutely free to all visitors. It gives you a great, although not fantastic, view of the city. There is something rather nice about being in the middle of all those buildings that high up, though.

Funny story. We took a cab into the city that night from Parkview and told the cab driver to take us to the Bank of China building. He was one of the few cabbies we’ve had on this trip thus far that had some troubles understanding us. We’d keep saying “Bank of China” and he’d keep responding with something in Cantonese that we didn’t understand. Then I remember the Bank of China monetary notes actually had a picture of the Bank of China building on it. So, I pulled out a tenner, handed it to Jimmy, he showed it to the cabbie and we were off to the Bank of China building.

Once we were done there, we walked down to Queensway, one of the main thoroughfares in Hong Kong, and hopped on the tram. These are double-decker cable cars that run up and down Queensway. They’re old and rickety, but kind of cool. They’re also extremely cheap! About $.25 cents US a ride and they take you right through the financial section of Hong Kong and connect you to many other destinations along the way, including the escalators of the Midlevels. They don’t offer any amenities (no air conditioning), nor are they as fast as the subway, but they’re rather convenient as they’re on street level and drive almost as fast as a cab does through that part of the town.

With the ride on the tram, I can now say I’ve conquered almost every mode of transportation in Hong Kong: cab, private car, subway, bus, funicular, boat and finally the tram. And all of them, except the cabs and private car, took the Octopus card. How convenient is that? I am a mass transit riding fool, yo.

Once we hopped off the tram we trekked over to the escalators and made our way back to Dublin Jack’s for a quick drink before dinner and waited for Carrie. The three of us chatted and shared stories and Sharon took pictures with the wait staff. I drank too much Tsing Tao and ended up rather buzzed. That’s good beer! Carrie arrived from work and it was time to head off to Nepal, a Nepalese style restaurant in Soho.

Nepal was absolutely fantastic. The food is similar to Indian food, but without as much curry. Carrie asked the owner of the restaurant to simply choose what he thought would be best for us to eat, and he did so with much enthusiasm. The food was simply amazing. Everything was just delicious. There were rice, chicken, lamb and beef dishes. I think about six or seven total and it was all just unbelievably good. Carrie & Jimmy treated us to dinner, which was very kind of them. I probably would have paid twice whatever the bill was it was so good. OK, that’s kinda dumb, but it was that good.

Once dinner was over, Sharon and I headed back to the Temple Street Night Market again to do some more shopping as we really didn’t get to check the market out fully on Monday night. We bought, we haggled, we bought some more, we haggled some more. Some gifts for peoples, some gifts for ourselves. The purchases included Chinese knick-knacks and pirated and fake stuffs. Sure, you’re taking a risk that some of the stuff you buy is crap, but every once in a while you’ll come away fairly surprised. Now, Jimmy had suggested before we went to the Night Market to buy all our gifts at the Great Wall in Beijing as things were super cheap there, but we were concerned that with it being last minute that could become a problem quickly, so we finished up most of our shopping at the Night Market on Wednesday.

We left about an hour and a half after we got there, took the MTR back to Hong Kong Island, hopped in a cab back to Parkview and called it a night.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned previously how cheap cabs are in Hong Kong. When I did my interview on Tuesday, I was on a far side of the island and needed to get back to Central Hong Kong, then up the mountain to Parkview. The cab ride lasted about 20 minutes (mostly due to traffic) and only cost me around 12 bucks. Most of the cab rides in the city have been $5 US or less. Of course that adds up over time when you take two or three cabs a day, but for the most part it’s really quite cheap and the quickest way to go. Most of the cabbies are generally friendly and know the city well.

Photos from Monday in Hong Kong are now up in the gallery. Lots of photos from the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery, the view from Kowloon of Hong Kong Island, a visit to the Peak and then Hong Kong Island at night. Lots of cool stuff to see.

Photos from Sunday in China, our visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, are now online in the gallery.

I’m still quite lagged. When I got back from England earlier this year it took me about a week to feel completely normal again. I’ve been back from China for three days and my sleeping patterns are all messed up, as are my energy levels. For instance, right now it’s 2:40 in the afternoon on Thursday, but I think my body still believes it’s 5:40 in the morning on Friday. I’m a lot more tired than I usually am at this time of the day. Oh well, pop some coffee candies (each with 3MG of caffeine!) and press on. Or at least try to.

A handful of photos from Saturday in Hong Kong have been posted to the gallery. This day we literally got rained out the weather was so bad and just gave up on sight seeing.

I realize now I never posted the Saturday write-up, which I’ve just posted here. I changed the titles to reflect the proper order. It’s not very exciting, other than the fact we were completely rained out that day. Awful, awful rain.

Hey kids, I’ve posted my first set of photos from the trip to China. Not a very sexy set of photos, but it’ll start to give you a flavor of the visit. Go ahead and visit the gallery (excuse the design, no time yet to intergrate it into the WordPress template) and click on China, 2005. Basically the photos from our first day and night are up now.

I’m posting this part of my trip on Monday August 29th. I’m back in LA and recovering from the much lag. I’m working on the images now and will post the rest of my journal entries over the course of this week. I’ve still got some writing to do.

It’s Saturday morning, August 27th, as I write this. I’m on the plane from Beijing back to Hong Kong. Beijing was a real adventure, but more about that later. That’s jumping ahead and that’s not allowed. That would be cheating.

Tuesday was going to be a bit of an unusual day. Before I came to China I had asked around in the comics community about the Hong Kong comics scene. I was referred to Erik Ko or Udon Comics. He knows quite a bit about the Hong Kong comics scene and hooked me up with Alan Wan, the Deputy Chariman of Jade Dynasty, the largest comics publisher in Hong Kong. Alan and I discussed things over e-mail before I left for China and we had arranged to have lunch on Tuesday, followed by a trip to his office and an interview.

My day would start a bit later than usual, which was fine by me as I really needed the extra sleep to take care of my cold. I spoke with Adeline Ho that morning, the licensing manager for Jade Dynasty as well as Alan’s assistant, who asked me to meet them at the Hang Fa Chuen subway station, well on a side of the Island I’ve not visited before. No problem, let’s have an adventure. While I did my interview thing, Sharon met Carrie in town to do some shopping.

Around Noon, Jimmy and I took a cab down to the Causeway Bay station and hopped on the Subway. He left me two stops later when he went to drop his passport off at the Chinese consulate so that he could get a visa to visit the mainland a week later (he was going to Shanghai and then Xian to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers ). I continued on down the line, got off at Hang Fa Chuen about 10 minutes early, went to the Circle K market to get some water. Adeline met me at the market only moments later.

She walked me a short ways to a dim sum restaurant next door where we waited a couple of minutes while Alan parked his car. Adeline asked about my trip and what I had been doing. I told her about my visit to Hong Kong Disneyland the previous Sunday and she said she’d be going the following Saturday and was really looking forward to it. When I went to Disneyland only 5,000 people were in the park. When she was going there’d be 25,000+. I hope the fighting of the crowds wasn’t too crazy for her..

Alan arrived shortly thereafter and we sat down for what was probably the best Dim Sum meal I’ve ever had. Alan told me that in China if a Dim Sum restaurant is very noisy and active, it’s almost always good. If it’s quiet, you should leave immediately as it’s probably pretty bad. Without a doubt this was a very noisy, very active restaurant and I’m pretty sure I was the only white guy in the restaurant. I like those odds!

Lunch consisted of a lot of talk about comics, both American and Hong Kong. I won’t bore you with the details here, especially as it will eventually end up as part of a feature article over at Comic Book Resources in a couple of weeks. Suffice it to say it was a fascinating and delicious lunch and talking with Alan and Adeline gave me another view of Hong Kong that I would otherwise not have. Alan often apologized for his English skills, which I never found lacking. In fact, I found his English to be perfectly fine. Certainly a lot better than my Cantonese.

The food itself was similar to the dim sum I’ve had in Los Angeles, with a bit more flavor and variety. Alan had asked if I wanted more American style or Hong Kong and I told him to bring on the Hong Kong. Unlike Dim Sum in Los Angeles where they bring the food around on a cart and you pick and choose what you want, in Hong Kong you order your food ahead of time and they bring it direct from the kitchen. Probably means it’s a bit fresher. My favorite dim sum dish is paper noodles and they were the best ever here. Tasty!

Lunch lasted about an hour and a half, at which point Alan, Adeline and I drove to the offices of Jade Dynasty where I interviewed Alan for about 40 minutes. He had to leave at that point for a meeting, so Adeline gave me a tour of their offices which was fascinating. Once again the full report will eventually end up on CBR for those of you who are interested in how comics are put together in Hong Kong, which is very different than in the United States.

Around 3:30 that afternoon Adeline saw me off and I took a cab back to Parkview to meet up with Jimmy. It seems the way I got to see Hong Kong was through a series of cab rides. This day was one of my longest cab rides, about $12 US. I got stuck in a little bit of Hong Kong traffic, which was kinda fun. The freeways are littered on either side with massive apartment buildings, sometime butting right up to the freeway. It was odd to think that some of these apartment buildings, which saw the third floor up against the freeway, would have apartments underneath the freeway. Did that make sense? Basically floors one and maybe two would have a view beneath the freeway, while floor three would have a direct view of traffic. I guess that’s true for some places in New York and Chicago as well. Not the kind of living I’d want to do.

While I was off doing my interview, Jimmy was at the Chinese consulate getting his passport visa taken care of. Unfortunately for Jimmy, it took a lot longer than it should have. See, he arrived, took his number and waited for it to be called. He got a number like 189, but at the time they were serving number 150 and the numbers weren’t moving very quickly. OK, no problem, just sit there and do some reading or cross words, right? Except when Jimmy next looked up they had called 190. Shit! Missed his number. So he got up, told the guy at the counter that he missed his number by one, at which point the guy pulled a new number for Jimmy and sent him back to his seat. He wasn’t rude or anything, but clearly there was a system they had in place and they were sticking to it. Jimmy had another hour long wait, so he went next door to the adjacent convention center and poked around in there. Turns out it was a convention of forensic scientists (Chinese CSI?). Jimmy was tried to pop into a lecture or two, but at outside every room was a guard checking credentials, so no chance for Jimmy to check out some dead dudes or mutilated corpses. Oh well.

After I arrived, Jimmy and I hung out at the apartment for a while, as Sharon and Carrie finished up their shopping. Later that night we all met up at Taco Loco in the Midlevels. Sharon wanted to see what Mexican food was like in Hong Kong. Why not? Los Angeles has some absolutely amazing Mexican food and pretty much everywhere I’ve tried Mexican food that wasn’t in the American South West, it’s been a disappointment. Now while it wasn’t awful food by any stretch, Taco Loco would classify as barely average Mexican food by Los Angeles standards. It was a tiny little restaurant, as most of them are in Soho, run by Indians, which was odd. Almost all of the diners were expats, except for one Asian couple that came in as we left. A lot of people had come in to order take away. Guess it’s the place for expats to get a taste of home.

Following Taco Loco we headed down back to what became our regular stop, Dublin Jacks, where we enjoyed some drinks. Jimmy his usual Carlsberg, Carrie her usual Vodka Tonic, while Sharon and I enjoyed Tsing Tao beer, which I think tastes similar to Rolling Rock, but for some reason it gets me drunk much faster. I bought a Dublin Jack’s Hong Kong Cup Rugby jersey while I was there. It’s my first and only jersey I’ve ever bought. I’m not a big fan of jesey’s, but this one’s rather unique so why not?

We left Dublin Jacks about an hour later and made our way over to Loft 9, a popular expat bar in Soho. There we enjoyed a few more drinks (I switched to Diet Coke, or Coke Light as it’s called here, because Jonah doesn’t do the much drunkenness) and met with Carrie’s friends Brenda and David. The bar was another pretty hip joint, frequently by almost entirely expats while we were there. Sharon and I were both pretty tired, so we spent about 45 minutes there, then hopped in a cab back to the apartment and called the night early. That, ladies and gentlemen, was Tuesday.

Monday morning started with the usual trek over to the grocery store for bagels and stuff, then we figured out how to get to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. The Monastery is located in the New Territories, so we’d have to take a different train system than we’ve been using so far, the now familiar MTR. We hopped in a cab at Parkview and took it down to a subway station, rode the MTR for a short bit, then transferred to a KCR light rail train that services the portion of the New Territories we were visiting. (I don’t have my travel guide with me as I write this, so I’m not sure where).

Now, when we left the apartment the front desk said take the KCR to the New Territories, then flag down a cab to take us to the monastery. When we arrived at our destination, we just did that, at which point Jimmy was yelled out of the cab. “You walk! You walk!â€? He wasn’t particularly rude, just insistent! The cabbie was right. The monastery was a short walk from where we were. But that’s where we were faced with a big surprise– the 10,000 Buddha’s were located high up on a mountain and the only way to get there was by climbing hundreds and hundreds of steps.

Well, we weren’t going to let any steps stop us, so we began our climb. The path the entire way up had life sized buddhas of all sorts on both sids of the path. The path was long, very long, a bit slippery, and the steps weren’t exactly the best made steps ever made. And while the weather this day was rather nice, no rain at least, it was quite hot and very humid, typical for Hong Kong at this time of year. The climb wasn’t easy. We’d have to stop every three or four stories to mop off with the towels we stashed in our bag from the apartment. Jimmy pointed out that this may have been hard (and it was), but it was nothing compared to the Great Wall. 10,000 Buddhas were just a warm up. Add to all of this that I now had a full blown cold and well, damn, it was a tough climb.

The Buddha’s littering the sides of the path came in all sorts. Some fascinating looking Buddhas, my favorite of which I took pictures of which I’ll post later. We finally arrived at the top after a 15 or 20 minute climb. I can’t be certain how high up it was, but I’d say at least 10-15 stories. Once on top we saw the various temples and Buddha’s located up there. The main temple had thousands and thousands of small buddhas inside. There was a beautiful Pagoda that you could go up inside, as well as what looked to be a mausoleum housing possibly thousands of ashes. I could be wrong, though.

The 10,000 Buddha’s monastery is a relatively new creation. Once again I don’t have the pamplet from there, but it was built in the late 1940s by some famous monk. It was all very colorful and quite beautiful. We spent some time up top, stopping to have a drink in their small reception area (when I say reception it’s a very modest room with some tables and plastic chairs). I’d say there were maybe 10-15 visitors up there total, which included a handful of worshippers. After about half an hour or so we began our trek down. There are two ways up to the monastery, so we took the other way down which afforded us a look at even more buddhas. All told there are actually 12,800+ Buddhas, but really, does the 12,800 Buddha’s Monastery sound quite as cool? I think not.

As we came down the mountain we were left off in a small, rather poor looking community. A vendor was there selling all sorts of vegetables and dry meats. I would have bought some, but with the cold I wasn’t feeling very adventurous. We got back on the KCR and stopped in TST on Kowloon Island, across the water from Hong Kong.

At this point we were all rather hungry and needed a beak (as Jimmy said, “10,000 Buddha’s kicked my ass!â€?). We were all soaked through and just needed something familiar to eat. Before I came here I said, “No American Food Stuffs!!!â€? Well, I broke that rule on Monday by suggesting we just go to McDonalds since the other places near by contained mostly mystery food and we all wanted something fast. Before heading to McDonalds I changed my shirt (taking along an extra shirt is key in Hong Kong), then got my lunch– a Big Mac value meal. The Big Mac tasted quite different than its American counterpart. The sauce was slightly different and the meat didn’t taste quite the same. But the large Diet Coke and food really hit the spot.

We left the Golden Arches behind and walked to the Star Ferry. Early on in the trip I told Jimmy about my weird public transportation jones, so he wanted to make sure I conquered all styles of public transportation while in Hong Kong. On the way to the Star Ferry we stopped for some day light pictures of Hong Kong Island, then hopped on the Ferry across the water to Hong Kong Island, about a five minute boat ride or so. Mostly smooth, but rocky enough to bother my sister Sharon who just doesn’t like that sea motion.

Once we arrived on Hong Kong Island it was time to take a bus to the funicular that would take us up to the top of the Island, or as it is called “The Peak,� to get a view of both sides of the Island. The bus was uneventful, as most buses should be, but it did have air condition which offered us a brief respite from the beat down the heat was giving us.

When we arrived at the funicular station, it was jam packed with people. Jimmy said he’s never seen it that busy and has taken it up there a number of times. So, we waited in line for another half hour, which is when my cold really started hitting me. Blech! But I wasn’t about to let that stop me.

By the way, I should mention here that that Octopus card I mentioned earlier, the metro card, can be used everywhere in Hong Kong basically as cash. The Star Ferry, the KCR, the bus, the funicular, even McDonalds or a host of other stores such as Starbucks, all honor the Octopus card. It makes getting around very very convenient, and it’s still rather cheap. Most bus rides were less than a buck US.

The funicular ride was amazing. The car was jam packed (we were in the front of the line, but a chain of girls, who all held each other by their waists, pushed their way in front of us, so we ended up having to stand on the ride, which wasn’t exactly easy. See, the climb up the mountain is steep. Very steep. Sharon and I each had a wall to lean against, but Jimmy was standing in the aisle at almost a 45 degree angle at times. The funicular would stop occasionally as it made it’s climb. In fact, there are two stations before we reach the peak for people to get off at. Jimmy said one time when he went up there he saw a little boy, appearing as having come home from school, get on at the first stop, then get off at the second stop. What a way to get home from school.

Once we arrived at the peak we took in the view, which was spectacular. I took a bunch of photos, but I dare say they don’t do the view justice at all. It just doesn’t capture the size and beauty of it all.

Now, at the top of the peak they’re building a new viewing station. It’s still under construction, but you can go in it at this point. Jimmy said we should shine it on, and instead make our way to the viewing platforms at the top of the Peak Mall. That’s right, there’s a mall at the Peak of the Island. They put them everywhere! So, we did just that, going up the escalators to the top of the Mall. The views from there were fantastic and gave us a look at both sides of the Island, the highly populated “downtown� side, then the other side of the Island which plays home to the Stanley Market, a trip to which we’d make on Wednesday. If you ever make it to the peak, shine on the viewing station and just go to the mall. You’re afforded fantastic views with no wait and not as many people. Jimmy said the day we went was one of the busiest he’d ever seen it and there were maybe 10 people up there total.

We spent some time taking in the view and even did a little bit of gift shopping, at which point we took a cab back to the apartment. It was time for some rest.

This was the point at which I realized there’s really not much to do in Hong Kong other than party and shop when Jimmy and I had discussed what to do the next couple of days we were in the city. He said Sharon and I might want to check out the Big Buddha, but that he’d already seen it and didn’t really need to go back. See, I was under the impression that the Big Buddha was thousands of years old, but when I discovered it was erected in 1976, suddenly it didn’t hold quite the same appeal. Jimmy said the bus ride up there was long and a major pain in the ass, so I said let’s screw it. We’ll find something else to do.

That night the three of us made our way over to Kowloon Island again to meet Carrie at the Intercontinental Hotel for drinks. This is a must visit for anyone who goes to Hong Kong. It’s got a fabulous bar that affords you a spectacular, and I mean spectacular view of Hong Kong at night. During the summer months at around 8:00 at night the buildings on Hong Kong Island all take part in a fabulous light show. Just amazing looking. It’s a bit like Vegas, but all in a row instead of on two sides of a road way. Plus, there’s many, many more tall buildings, instead of just expansive building after expansive building. Just amazing.

We had drinks until about 9:30 or so (this is the one place we visited where drinks weren’t cheap, but that’s perfectly fine. You’re paying for the view), then Sharon and I left Carrie and Jimmy and walked outside to take some pictures of Hong Kong from the Avenue of the Stars, pretty much a walkway on the water with kind of a Hollywood Walk OF Fame, but once again it was Hong Kong style. I didn’t recognize any of the names, hoping I’d see some familiar Hong Kong action stars among the mix. We did see plenty of Asians placing their hands in the cement casts of some of their favorite stars, or taking pictures along side of them.

After we were done taking in the breathtaking view, Sharon and I picked up a cab and headed over to the Temple Street Night Market for some bargain shopping. The heat was still pretty awful and I was feeling damned sick, but we pushed our way through. Now, this was really the first time Sharon and I were on our own in Hong Kong…and it was at night. A bit intimidating at first. The cabbie dropped us off at the night market, about a $15 HK ride (just about $2 US). The night market is a loud and busy place, with all sorts of vendors around to bargain with. Lots of junk, lots of fake stuff including fake Rolexes and pirated DVDs. If you’re not in the mood to haggle or are intimidated by pushy, pushy sales people, this isn’t for you. Hell, Hong Kong isn’t for you. We arrived at the night market around 10:00 at night, but didn’t know what time the last train to Hong Kong was, so we only stuck around for an hour, which wasn’t nearly enough time to take everything in and make the necessary purchases. Plus, the cab situation in Hong Kong was still a bit alien to us. Certain cabs stay on Hong Kong Island, certain ones stay on Kowloon and only some go back and forth. So, we decided to play it safe and made our way to the Jordan subway station to head back over to Hong Kong Island. We got off at Pacific Place station, got a bit lost as we left the station, but found our way to the United Centre to catch a cab back to Parkview. Not a problem really as Hong Kong is a very safe city.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Monday.