back to Hong Kong
[9-11/2/06] Andy and I flew back to Hong Kong and I stayed for a few days, while Andy carried straight on to China. I caught up with Cynthia again, and my cousin Aaron. See these earlier posts for more detail.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Thursday, March 9, 2006
meeting Aaron
With Aaron at Hong Kong’s subway.
I stopped off in Hong Kong again for a few days in February. As well as seeing Cynthia again, I caught up with my cousin Aaron who was visiting some friends before touring around Vietnam. He had arrived in Hong Kong the day before me, and left about the same time as me. More perfect timing.
Aaron knew Hong Kong a little better than me, so he took me north of Kowloon to see the fish/pet market area. This was basically a long street with pet shops running along either side. And there were some pretty strange pets on sale:
How exactly do you keep a sea turtle as a pet??
We also had dinner in the pet neigbourhood. We stopped in at a restaurant that didn’t have a word of English in sight. But we were undaunted as I have studied Chinese for one year at university and lived in China for a year, and Aaron has studied Chinese for two years at University. So, combining our masterful knowledge of the Chinese language, we were able to order fried rice and fried noodles….
meeting Cynthia
The lovely Cynthia. The bowl on the left is my order - a fruit platter (strawberries, mango, kiwifruit, peach, etc.). The bowl on the right is Cynthia’s - a seafood platter (squid tentacles, fish balls, and goodness knows what else…).
On 18 January Andy had to go investigate various universities, so I went to meet Cynthia, a friend from Wellington. Cynthia’s family moved from Hong Kong to Wellington when she was ten years old, and Cynthia moved back to Hong Kong on 16 January (2006). Perfect timing. We walked around a bunch of really flash department stores, with fancy lights (I have far too many photos, so I’m just going to link some of them, and you can click on the link to see them if you’re interested). And, of course, we ate lots of Hong Kong food.
After eating far too much, Cynthia and I headed outside and walked around the markets:
Later on we met up with Andy, had dinner, and walked around a bit more.
Andy & Cynth.
fast cars
Hong Kong, especially Hong Kong Island, is obscenely wealthy. I was amazed that every third or fourth car (excluding all the taxis) was a Mercedes Benz (or a similar luxury car). I was so amazed that I started photographing them…
…and so on….
can’t see the trees for the forest…
Hong Kong is very crowded. I think it’s one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Which makes it somewhat awkward to stop in the middle of a pedestrian crossing to take photographs of the crowd (and I think Cynthia found it a little bit embarassing being seen with me at such moments):
Here’s another example of how limited space is in Hong Kong - this is a photo of the hotel room that Andy & I stayed in our first night in the city:
to Hong Kong
On 17 January Andy and I set off for Hong Kong. We were in Hong Kong from the evening of 17 January until the morning of 20 January, and then I came back to Hong Kong on the 9 February and stayed until 11 February. So the posts and photos are a mixture of my two visits.
Hong Kong had absolutely amazing architecture. I spent most of my time gazing upward. When I was there in January there was heavy fog, so many of the taller skyscrapers disappeared from sight. In February the weather was clearer, but the downside of that was that it made the smog far more obvious.
Hong Kong Island at night - looking across from Kowloon.
Hong Kong Island during the day (the pollution in Hong Kong is pretty bad).
