Hong Kong

Our trip to Hong Kong was a great one; Hong Kong is a really interesting city to explore. There are lots of street markets all over the city, so just walking around the streets was a fascinating and enjoyable experience, except perhaps for the guys trying to sell us tailor-made suits or fake watches. (Nice fake watches!) I thought just being able to stroll around and see the interesting blend of people, the various items for sale, the architecture and the wide variety of food available was a lot of fun.
We sought out a few specific street markets because we thought they sounded interesting. We started one day with the bird market, which is where you go for all your songbird needs. It was pleasant-sounding with all the warbling birds. Many of them were fairly cute, too, although it was a little sad to see the cages some of them were in. Next to the bird market is Flower Market Road, which was probably the sweetest-smelling street in Hong Kong. Chelsey enjoyed browsing the stores and getting some ideas for ikebana. Further down from that was the goldfish market, which featured lots and lots of fish stores. There were a lot of varieties and colours of goldfish, as well as some other aquatic animals. We liked looking at the turtles. There were some large ones, and some with triangular-shaped heads that we had never seen before.
Of course there were also more traditional or general markets. The night markets were a fascinating collage of clothes, accessories, games, electronics and almost anything else. They always seemed quite active, too - I said to Chelsey that Hong Kong didn't seem like a city that shut down early. We also walked through some food markets. We weren't buying any groceries, obviously, but it was certainly eye-opening to see what we could get. Watching some of the fish vendors and how they dealt with their product was both captivating and somewhat off-putting.
Aside from the markets, a couple of our other highlights were Victoria Peak and Victoria Harbour. We took the Peak Tram up to the peak on one of the clearest days we had while we were there. It's a beautiful view from the top, looking back over the harbour to Kowloon and beyond. We also walked up to the actual peak, or as near to it as we could figure out. From the top we could see off the other (south) side of Hong Kong island to the sea. We also had an encounter with a suited man doing laps of a little rest area while singing into his cell phone. Can't explain that. We went up again at night to see the lights of the city. It was a little bit hazy that night, but we got some pictures and had some dessert while looking over Hong Kong.
On another day we took a cruise around the harbour on an authentic Chinese junk. We had booked this through the Hong Kong tourism agency, which actually has a lot of interesting programs for non-residents. It was a nice, relaxing trip around the harbour, and it gave a great look at all the buildings along the waterfront. In our guide book, it says to take the Star Ferry from Kowloon to the island the first time you ride it. We actually rode the ferry in both directions, but this advice might explain why there were only six of us on the harbour cruise - we left from Hong Kong Island and ended at Kowloon, where there was a whole boatload waiting for the next trip. But we had most of the boat to ourselves.
On our last night in Hong Kong we went to the Walk of Stars, a waterfront promenade in front of the Intercontinental Hotel, to watch the light show on the buildings of downtown Hong Kong. It was an amusing way to cap the trip.
-Jason