Yesterday was a really long day. We left the hotel at 10am and rode out to the edge of town and then caught a bus to the Tai O fishing village. It amazing...downright astonishing that a village like that exists so close to the ultra-modern Hong Kong. When we got off the local bus we found a little tour outfit that for about $3 CAD drove us on a twenty minute boat ride through the town and out into the sea. The town is built around the little baylets that feed the sea and because of the tides coming in and out, a lot of houses are on wooden stilts. Having helped to install our dock this season, I had to wonder how they kept the wood from rotting. We were so close we could look into people living rooms. In fact, the whole town is like that. People sometimes leave their doors wide open. Once we got out into the sea our driver started looking for dolphins because there is a region around there where there are these famous pink-white dolphins. Too bad for us but we were not lucky that day. We did run into tourists later on who had seen them. Too bad. Maybe next year.
We wandered around the village for about an hour. We had lunch at the local noodle shop and then wandered some more. People bring in their catch and then hang the fish out to dry. On the main street there was shop after shop selling bushels and bushels of dried fish slices and other things I didn't want to look at too closely. A lot of them also seem to string pearls and bottle their own bean milks and there is a dark red berry juice that appears to be everywhere. I wasn't feeling brave enough to try it since I'm not sure they know the meaning of the word pasteurization. But it sure was interesting.
We stopped off at one of the new malls that just opened up and meandered for a while. That mall had a lot of upscale stores and it had a very curious layout. It was zoned into "Wood Zone", "Water Zone" and so on. I just didn't have the mental energy to try to figure out where the Ecco store was even though I was curious. I barely made it past the H&M. There was some kind of music festival going on in the mall so I watched a bit of a Capoeira show and wondered how they dared do some of the stuff they do on the extremely hard marble floor.
After our stop at the mall we went on to Victoria Peak. This is a must-see in Hong Kong. We caught a bus that snaked it's way up the mountain. The mountain is so high and steep, and the condo buildings downtown are so tall, that we could practically see into the windows of the people who lived on the 40th floor. The ride was great. There is also a tram but the wait was too long. At the top we found the lookout point and watched a bit of the famous Hong Kong lights show. Every night the buildings are all lit up with moving and flickering LEDs and it's really something to see. I'd like to see it again from the Kowloon harbour side some time this week. There are only a few places to eat up there and we ended up at...Burger King...(I know I can't believe it happened either...and I tell you...NEVER AGAIN). But then we found the Pacific Coffee and I had a fantastic latte (although they called it a cappuccino) and we relaxed a bit while overlooking the city lights.
We snaked down the peak again but this time in a taxi and then took the Star Ferry across to the harbour on the other side before taking the bus back to the hotel. A lot of walking and a lot of feasting for the eyes.
Today was a lazy start and we headed out to Stanley market for an afternoon of bargain and stuff hunting. This is another must-do because the ride to the south side of the island is gorgeous. I am figuring out all of the buses for these things. I talked for a bit with a locals heading to one of the beaches for a barbeque and birthday celebration. I saw those BBQs on the way home. They are these concrete fire pits with grills on top. Imagine having access to such a stunning day trip using fast public transit that costs less than a latte. The only drawback is that the water around the HK harbours are kind of dirty and if you (non-locals) want to swim you should go out to one of the outlying islands.
Stanley market is a large permanent series of shops stuffed with everything you can imagine. handmade cheap cloths, knock off purses (I tried to find a decent Coach copy wallet and could only find ones with nasty vinyl inside-disappointing-but I will not buy a copy purse for myself-I don't wear the real thing - what's the point), silk kimonos, mass produced oil paintings - real art galleries with original oil and water colours...I stayed in one of those for a long time admiring a painting. Only $1000 CAD. The art galleries are nestled among so much junk and crap that it's hard to believe it's serious business. There are also lots of places to buy jewelery of various grades of quality. We got a lesson in jade from a really nice man who sometimes spends his weekends at Stanley but other times teaches gemology here and there. Got his card but could not figure it out. He put my the bracelet I bought in Shenzhen under a UV light and put a piece of A jadeitte next to it. He let me know that I did not overpay for my bangle and it's always nice to hear that. In fact I got a pretty good price. Apparently there are two types of Jade. Jadeitte is a generally more desirable and come from only certain parts of the world. When you shine a light on it and look at it through a special filter, you can see different colours to gauge the grade and type. Jade comes in different colours and even in the "green" family there are so many different types. The rarest colour is this "ice white" and it kind of looks like surface of the Rideau Canal frozen over but maybe with a hint of green. The purple jade is expensive because women like that colour. The dark green jade that we see as BC jade is valuable because it has a very desirable meaning (although after seeing a lot of jade lately I think it might be the other kind of jade from BC). Very interesting. And all this just for the joy of sharing knowledge. He didn't even try to sell me anything.
Barb and I went back into downtown and returned to that noodle place for another shrimp wanton bowl of noodle soup.
All in all another good day and an excellent weekend.
Thanks for visiting.
Leslie