On Saturday 13th April we took our first major excursion since arriving in Hong Kong. It was a trip from Hong Kong island across the harbour to Kowloon on the mainland. This trip revived fond memories of previous trips to HK, and especially the night when a doctoral student of mine based in HK put me up for a night in his Kowloon apartment right on the edge of the water. I had a water-front view and it was difficult to get to sleep watching the dynamism of numerous vessels navigating the water way.
Our trip began with a walk through crowded streets to the local railway station where we caught one of the unbelievably frequent and massively long subway trains.
Here we can see Dot and Bec awaiting the arrival of our train towards Kowloon ... after changing to a new line under the harbour.
We alighted at the first stop in the north shore near the Peninsula Hotel shown here. You can see below and interesting sculpture of a procession.
Down on the waterfront we could see the array of massive office and apartment blocks on the Hong Kong island.
On our side there was an impressive array of architecturally distinguished buildings.
Walking westwards, we came to the historic clock tower - amidst mostly modern buildings. But looking back to the harbour we saw a cruise ship coming westwards up the harbour to dock and release its passengers.
We also found the ferry terminal which I have used several times on the past. While Bec posed for this photograph.
And I took a selfie while admiring these local sculptures
After our sojourn on the waterfront, we took a train for a few stops northward to visit an area populated by some interesting markets. These dealt successively with (a) pets, (b) flowers and (c) birds. Before portraying those, have a look at the HK method of scaffolding using bamboo!
The sign above says PETS Co. and betokens the start of a long line of stalls and shops selling pets and pet-foods and equipment. There are cats on sale below left, while below right we can see the sale of live fish in plastic bags and food for them
More food on the left and, on the right, we have rabbits for sale. Elsewhere there were dogs - smaller breeds preferred because of the high density of population and the prevalence of apartment living.
Up the road we came to the flower section. Again, there was a high density of shops and stalls all selling flowers.
Many of the businesses seemed to be selling very similar produce, so I wondered how many of them managed to survive! However, I can guess that the huge population - over 7 million people - and massive density of population would deliver high demand for flowers, especially for residents of high-rise apartments. It's one way of communing with nature!
Nevertheless, this market was very attractive.
Our next destination, just up the road, was a bird market. It seems that HK residents love to keep caged birds in their apartments.
It wasn't much different in my young days in England. Our family had a budgerigar called 'buddy' in a cage, where it stayed much of the time. However, once a day it gained the freedom to fly around our lounge room.
Well, the bird market had plenty of budgerigars along with various other Australian parrots. For example, we saw quite a few galahs - large pink-chested parrots like the fellow shown below.
The poor bird looked rather lonely, whereas in Australia they tend to cluster in large groups. We have such clusters in our garden regularly and they're here to consume the seed we place in our three feeders.
Then we saw these rosellas, similar to the species our garden also attracts. However, these birds are believed to pair for life and we see them arrive in twos. I'd guess that they're more likely to lead a solo life in HK apartments.
And, in the two cages below, we saw some budgerigars.
It's a pity that some many tradition Australian birds are caged up for human enjoyment.
After rambling around these carious markets, we also visit the nearby Moko district shown below. This was a mixture of densely stacked apartments, shops, other businesses, and humongous traffic jams. Some of the architecture was boring, but others were exciting - below left.
As the afternoon wore on, we headed back to our hotel at Causeway Bay and, en route, took this picture (below) of rush-hour traffic, much of which was double-deck public transport. I loved the old trams - shown in the middle. Also, notice the illuminated advertising adorning the buildings in the background.
This evening we explored the local restaurants and eventually homed in on an interesting ethnic establishment in a nearby back street. Bec and Emily certainly found the place agreeable judging by their expressions! Some of the food offerings were original! Has any reader ever eaten Durian Cheese?
Poor Max looked less than enthusiastic. But I had a good time!
I have no idea what the dish on the left tasted like, but I have to say the meal was very enjoyable.
Anyway, as we walked back to the hotel we were in awe of the evening street life and illuminations. On several occasions, the streets were teeming with people even at 10 pm.
It was an exciting and full day!! Comments, and corrections from our party members, welcome.
AS
Our trip began with a walk through crowded streets to the local railway station where we caught one of the unbelievably frequent and massively long subway trains.
We alighted at the first stop in the north shore near the Peninsula Hotel shown here. You can see below and interesting sculpture of a procession.
Down on the waterfront we could see the array of massive office and apartment blocks on the Hong Kong island.
On our side there was an impressive array of architecturally distinguished buildings.
Walking westwards, we came to the historic clock tower - amidst mostly modern buildings. But looking back to the harbour we saw a cruise ship coming westwards up the harbour to dock and release its passengers.
We also found the ferry terminal which I have used several times on the past. While Bec posed for this photograph.
And I took a selfie while admiring these local sculptures
The sign above says PETS Co. and betokens the start of a long line of stalls and shops selling pets and pet-foods and equipment. There are cats on sale below left, while below right we can see the sale of live fish in plastic bags and food for them
More food on the left and, on the right, we have rabbits for sale. Elsewhere there were dogs - smaller breeds preferred because of the high density of population and the prevalence of apartment living.Up the road we came to the flower section. Again, there was a high density of shops and stalls all selling flowers.
Many of the businesses seemed to be selling very similar produce, so I wondered how many of them managed to survive! However, I can guess that the huge population - over 7 million people - and massive density of population would deliver high demand for flowers, especially for residents of high-rise apartments. It's one way of communing with nature!
Nevertheless, this market was very attractive.
Our next destination, just up the road, was a bird market. It seems that HK residents love to keep caged birds in their apartments.It wasn't much different in my young days in England. Our family had a budgerigar called 'buddy' in a cage, where it stayed much of the time. However, once a day it gained the freedom to fly around our lounge room.
Well, the bird market had plenty of budgerigars along with various other Australian parrots. For example, we saw quite a few galahs - large pink-chested parrots like the fellow shown below.
The poor bird looked rather lonely, whereas in Australia they tend to cluster in large groups. We have such clusters in our garden regularly and they're here to consume the seed we place in our three feeders.
Then we saw these rosellas, similar to the species our garden also attracts. However, these birds are believed to pair for life and we see them arrive in twos. I'd guess that they're more likely to lead a solo life in HK apartments.And, in the two cages below, we saw some budgerigars.
It's a pity that some many tradition Australian birds are caged up for human enjoyment.
After rambling around these carious markets, we also visit the nearby Moko district shown below. This was a mixture of densely stacked apartments, shops, other businesses, and humongous traffic jams. Some of the architecture was boring, but others were exciting - below left.
As the afternoon wore on, we headed back to our hotel at Causeway Bay and, en route, took this picture (below) of rush-hour traffic, much of which was double-deck public transport. I loved the old trams - shown in the middle. Also, notice the illuminated advertising adorning the buildings in the background.
This evening we explored the local restaurants and eventually homed in on an interesting ethnic establishment in a nearby back street. Bec and Emily certainly found the place agreeable judging by their expressions! Some of the food offerings were original! Has any reader ever eaten Durian Cheese?
Poor Max looked less than enthusiastic. But I had a good time!
I have no idea what the dish on the left tasted like, but I have to say the meal was very enjoyable.
Anyway, as we walked back to the hotel we were in awe of the evening street life and illuminations. On several occasions, the streets were teeming with people even at 10 pm.
It was an exciting and full day!! Comments, and corrections from our party members, welcome.
AS
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