When we got to Hong Kong we docked at a mall… seriously, you walk out of the ship and it leads you straight into a giant mall. And what was in this mall?... Ben and Jerry's, Sees Chocolate, California Pizza Kitchen, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, Gap, and a fancy restaurant called Pizza Hut. Fancy as in this was the first time I ever saw Pizza Hut that looked like a 4 star restaurant and had more than just pizza on the menu. Hong Kong felt like New York City to me, except with a London personality and a plethora of Chinese people.
After picking up the latest edition of the "Walking Tour of Hong Kong" Brochure, we set off to find the Jade Market. (Have I mentioned that you can find jade in almost every country I've ever visited and you should never pay more than $5 for any of it?) At the jade market I fell in love with a deep red jade bracelet. The woman asked for $50 (USD) for something that should have cost $5 max. Again I found myself wishing I was at a Walmart with a fixed and decent price. I managed to get it for $13. I'm still bitter I overpaid but after searching the entire jade market and not finding another one like it I came to terms with it… of course I found myself hoping she'd accidentally drop the money on the street, ha ha ha. Anyway, putting my grown up face back on, I also found that pearls are super cheap in Hong Kong. I bought a fresh water string of pink pearls for $15 or so with a pair of earings… and I think they are actually real. One of the girls rubbed one on her teeth and said they felt real. (Apparantly if they are fake they are too slick and slide right off the surface of your tooth, but real ones grab a little.) You can also burn them… real pearls don't burn, I learned that in Mauritius. But I didn't want to risk ruining my necklace if it was fake. And that's pretty much all the shopping I did in Honk Kong. By now my bank account was more than dry. I have to say I spent a good amount of time in the Starbucks, with cheap Internet and American food. I tried the Chinese food a few times and really didn't like it.
I also visited the Space Museum and spent a good couple of hours in there. I'm a closet Science, Space, Quantum Mechanics Maniac. I'm all about the Science Channel and Brain Greene books. Anyway, it was a great museum. They had a couple simulations including a space walk and they had a movie theater. I watched a movie on Einstein and his quest for the Theory of Everything in a sky theater. The movie was projected on the ceiling in a circular room and parts of it were projected at all 360 degrees. I actually took a nap for the last half of the movie since I dooze off. I was so tired from walking around everywhere for so many days. We just walked and walked and walked through markets and streets and anything walkable.
There's a lot of cheap crap for sale at the night market on the street and everything in the stores is waaaayyyy too expensive to even look at. I almost laughed when I ran into the Indians. Yes, there are Indian men on every block trying to sell you things, but this time, they aren't carrying their special merchandise around in front of your face. These guys are dressed well, some even in suits, and they come up to you and very politely ask you if you'd like handbags and jewelry or some other fake design product. And these guys have sticking power too, they may follow you for half a block or so. Overall, individually they aren't as annoying as the sellers in India, but at this point I just want to hurt anyone who tries to talk to me! I found it funny that they just come up to you and I guess if I wanted something they would lead me to an alley? Or a trunk or something? I don't know, it's pretty sketchy. I kinda felt like Hong Kong was a big shopping stop for most people. There wasn't really all that much to do besides shopping, especially not for cheap.
I also went to the giant Buddha statue and a fishing village on Lantau Island. The giant Buddha was giant, end of story. The fishing village was interesting. These are people who are considered poor, they live in little tin shacks on stilts on the water. The government built a huge apartment complex to relocate the people to in like 1992, but no one has ever moved into it. The people refuse to move out of their shacks on the water which their families have lived in for generations. It was funny though because among all these tin shacks was a nicely built bank building. They had a bank and health services and really everything they needed, they just live in tin shacks. Over all it was good to see the flip end of Hong Kong. Not all of it is giant malls and fancy neon lights… they have a ghetto too.
From the ship
Double decker bus
mindsay
