Australia 2007

Wednesday, November 28th – Hong Kong – day 2

This morning was a bit lazy. We didn’t get up and get going until we went down for breakfast around 9am. After breakfast, I got on the internet and got caught up on our blogs and downloaded pictures etc. I finally got finished around 1pm and we headed out to see some of Hong Kong. We walked over and jumped on the Star Ferry that goes from Hung Hom in Kowloon to Central on Hong Kong Island. This cost us $10.60HK for the 2 of us. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the ferry. While we were waiting I took a few pictures from the ferry terminal. One of them was our hotel from the terminal.

"Our hotel - Harbor Plaza Hong Kong - from Star Ferry terminal"

The ferry was a large closed in vessel that held 426 passengers just on our deck and more on top. As soon as we got to Central, we jumped on another Star Ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui at Kowloon, but right downtown. The second Ferry cost us $4HK for the 2 of us. It should have been $3.4, but we didn’t have the right change, so put in $4. This one was much smaller and was open air, and held 211 passengers on the main deck. Neither ferry was very crowded and I managed to get a good picture of the convention centre, the cruise ships at the terminal at Harbor City, and the Hong Kong Clock Tower.

"Hong Kong Convention Centre from Star Ferry"

"Clock Tower near Harbor City in Kowloon"

When we arrived at Tsim Sha Tsui, we walked over to the Harbor City Shopping Mall. This was a very high end mall and we think it was because this is also the Star Cruise Line terminal, where their cruise ships were getting ready to disembark from. After walking through the mall for about 30 minutes, we wandered out onto Canton Road and walked a few blocks to the Hard Rock Café. We both bought t-shirts there and then walked a bit more on Canton Road. We decided then to walk across to Nathan Road. As we crossed over on Haiphong Road, we came to a small market and went in and bought a few gifts and things for Ina. When we came out, we went across the street to Kowloon Park to see what it was like. It is a very large park that covers many blocks square. We walked through to the north end of the park and stopped and took a few pictures on the way. One was of the flamingos and swans swimming in the pools, and the other was of the official countdown clock for the 2008, Beijing and Hong Kong Olympics.

"Flamingos at Kowloon Park"

"2008 Beijing Olympics Countdown clock in Kowloon Park"

After leaving the park, we walked up Temple Street to the market there. We walked about 5 blocks north where they were just setting up their wares as, although the market is supposed to start at 4 pm, it is called a night market and goes till after 10pm. When we reached the north end of the market, we turned around and walked back to a stall that Ina had seen a nice purse in. While she looked at the purses, I bought a leather fanny pack, as my cheap nylon one fell apart on this trip. We ended up getting a good deal by buying both items. They were originally asking $290HK but we got them both for $250HK.

When we left Temple Road, we walked over to Nathan Road and headed toward the harbor. There were people trying to sell you something every few feet we walked; mostly custom made suites and clothing, but also knock off watches and many other things. Our feet were starting to get a little tired after we had been walking for 4 hours, so we stopped at a MacDonald’s for a burger and drink. Once we finished, we started walking down Nathan Road again until we reached Salsbury Road at the harbor. They are doing construction around this intersection, so we had to go through the subway to get across Salsbury Road so we could get to the Avenue of Stars. This is a walkway along the Quay in front of the Inter Continental Hotel. It was dark out by now and all the buildings along the waterfront on Hong Kong Island were all lit up, and people were taking pictures. It was hard to get a good picture on a handheld digital camera, but there were all kinds of vendors who would take your picture with tripods and good cameras, starting at $10HK. We decided to get our picture taken and paid $50HK for a 5x7 photo.

"Night lights on Hong Kong Island waterfront just before Symphony of Light show"

After getting the photo, we sat and watched people for awhile, and then wandered down to the viewing platform for the Symphony of Lights show. It is the same show we saw last night, but they changed the music and the light show. The viewing platform has speakers built in and has the best view of the show, other than on the water itself. It was fantastic and apparently is in the Guiness Book of records as the largest permanent laser light show. We talked to a young couple, him from Ireland and her from Germany, who had just arrived in Hong Kong yesterday, but have been traveling around the world for the past year, and are heading into China later this week, for another 10 months of travel, before heading home to Europe.

After the show, we walked back to Salsbury Road and the Peninsula Hotel to catch a cab back to our hotel. We got back around 9:00 and just relaxed for the rest of the night.