Hong Kong Experiences-Saturday

The streets of Hong Kong remind me of the crowds between classes at my high school years ago. I grew up in the St Louis county suburbs with the baby boomers. Neighborhoods were going up faster than schools so they just packed us in. There would have been close to 4,000 kids in my high school by the time I graduated. A additional high school was built the next year to handle the booming populations. In the halls it was like swimming up stream or like flowing water.

The crowds are dense here too and people hold hands in front of us and walk slowly or stop to look or talk,just like in high school. There are always masses of people coming at us. The key is too look for little temporary openings and hurry through them. People will shift a few inches to let us through. It's a lot like playing some video games with all the weaving and maneuvering. I was surprised that I almost enjoyed it.

Yesterday the scenery was awesome! We went to Victoria Peak and rode the trolley up the hill, a very steep one. Peggy Coffman and I sat together and took pictures. The view on top of the peak was breathtaking. There were the mountains in the background,, the China Sea below and the huge skyscrapers in between. We walked around and took pictures. Judy bought something in one of the little shops and the man gave Judy, Vera and I a small tote bag with Christian tracts in it. It is a witnessing tool. We were thrilled to get it.

We shopped at a market, sort of like and American flea market, with rows of booth after booth full of items for sale. That was fun.

Before lunch we visited a floating fishing village where the fishermen and their families lives in their boats. We visited it by boat. Our guide took us around the boats but we did not see any of the people living there. They even have boat village police and boat village fireman in boats on the water. The boats just look like big, old house boats,kind of square and most not in good shape. That was in contrast to the beautiful and expensive boats a cruisers near the point we got on the tour boat.

We went to lunch at the Jumbo Restaurant and had Cantonese food. This restaurant claims to be the biggest floating restaurant in the world and it just might be. It had very ornate decorations including a large throne for people to sit on to take pictures and two large dragon statues guardng the door.

They took us to a jewelry factory and showed us a little bit about how they make their jewelry. Then we had the opportunity to buy. Several people did buy things. This group loves to shop.

Next we went to the Bird and Flower Markets. The Bird Market is set up like a flea market in the US and they sell pet birds of all kinds. There were three baby African Gray parrots huddled together on to of a cage, somewhat intimidated by the crowds coming through. African Grays are one of the most intelligent birds and can learn to say many words and even answer questions and make relevant comments.

The Flower Market was stall after stall of live plants and cut flowers extending blocks. They were beautiful.

In the evening, we came back to the hotel and had some free time. Many people went to the Night Markets. The one John and I went to did not open until 7:30 pm. Because it is hot here, people do more outdoor activities at night. Many stores do not open until 11am or noon.

There are many double decker buses taking people around. There are also red taxi cabs in Hong Kong. In China, taxi cabs are green.

A lot of work is being done on buildings but the scaffolding is different than in the US. Scaffolding is made of bamboo rods secured with bands. Bamboo s a very sturdy wood but it does not look that way to those of us not familiar with it.

Several people had gone to the Hard Rock Cafe Friday night but John and I did not go then. We went on our own on Saturday night. We had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe and apparently these restaurants have quite a following. It was interesting. They served American food, had lots of music memorabilia and played oldies. People can buy Hard Rock Cafe collectibles from each location, quite similar to the other fads such as the beenie babies a few years ago. The biggest thing appears to be collecting the t shirts. The shirt from Beijing says Hard Rock Cafe Beijing. The shirt from Hong Kong says Hard Rock Cafe Hong Kong and so on. We did not buy any, but many from our group did buy them to wear.

Our group loved buying things so Japan, China and Hong Kong loved seeing our group coming I'm guessing. It has been fun.