Last post from last weekend - taking the Star Ferry back Sunday night to Central. First of all, for all you New Yorkers, here's the local answer to Mister Softee, even close in name!





Once on board the ferry, I find myself fighting to shoot steady pictures against the roll of the waves, so I had to take as I could.



Here was the Hong Kong Island side.





I tried to get good pics of the Kowloon side as well, since I have no view of this normally. Here's the ICC (International Commerce Centre).



This is blurry, but it was the best I got of the KCR Clock Tower and the Cultural Centre.



Here's the ferry terminal on the HK side.



Here's looking back at Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon) with a red junk in front.



From here it was off to work the next day to see some of these buildings closer.





Finally, last week we had Beijing style dumplings which were delicious, and jellyfish!



I was also complimented on how well I use chopsticks, a ploy, I think to allow a picture to be taken of me. I have never been photogenic, so usually avoid this, but here you go.



This week I'll post this past weekend's photos, and then 12:30 am Saturday Oct. 30th, I lift off for NYC, ending this blog except for unposted photos from my trip.

I'm looking out over Hong Kong Island's skyline from my aunt's room in the Intercontinental, and I can definitely see why people choose to stay here! We went to Macau today and toured the old Portuguese section, which was great, but no pictures right now since my aunt & I are off to dinner soon and the hotel charges for internet access (!) unlike my hotel. However, final pictures from last weekend and pics from Macau and likely tea at the Peninsula tomorrow to be posted this coming week, my last week here, which is impossible to believe.

After dinner tonight at the Mido Cafe with my aunt in Yau Ma Tei, back to the weekend story.

Sham Shui Po was quite the experience! Everywhere else I've been, at least some people spoke English, but not here. Purchases were negotiated via iPhone, since numbers look the same even if they're spoken differently, so they punch in a number, than you take the phone & punch in a number. Quite interesting. This was Yu Chau St. where the bead and ribbon shops were. I was hunting thread, but was there too late in the day (and on Sunday). Still a definitely worthwhile trip.







As I was walking down the street, I saw a gathering of men, and particularly older men. Curious, I wandered by - it was the Sunday gambling club in front of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. I guess that's Off-Track Betting here!



I hadn't gotten what I'd come for, but hey, why not explore while I'm here? This was a typical apartment building in the area.



Walking around, I found a large building on Pei Ho St which turned out to be a large food market. Yes, folks, those are live chickens with price tags on the cages.



Dried fish? They've got that!



Oh, you wanted live fish? Shellfish? Squid? Got it.







Downstairs was the meat market. You'd better know your sirloin from your round because there are no instructions here.





On the top floor there was a food court. This picture was a little blurred since I was in a hurry. I was being stared at like I had 3 heads and the camera didn't help.



From here I scooted back out to the street, and as I was wandering, saw a sign for another jade market. Hey, why not? This was on Tang Chau St (sp?) and again I was forbidden to take pictures of individual stalls or pieces, so I had to settle for this.



It turned out that the market is next to a public park, so here's the entrance of Tang Chau park.



From here I headed back to the Sham Shui Po MTR station and took it down to Yau Ma Tei, which I've posted earlier in pieces here and there.

People here are completely nonchalant about the approaching typhoon and I've been assured by a friend who was in a relatively large typhoon in Japan that this will bear no strong resemblance to Katrina or any of the truly severe hurricanes that hit the US. Transportation may shut down, but mostly it's a lot of rain and moderate wind, or so I hear. Pictures will be captured if possible (but my camera's not waterproof!).

I'll probably be staying in my aunt's hotel room, so I may not be updating, depending how things go.

Today seems like a good day to do the temple pictures. This is Tin Hau Temple, right near the Jade Market.



Since I saw a sign saying that photography has to be cleared with the correct department only if it's tripod photography, I proceeded to snap a few shots of the incense spiral being laid, the big Buddhas, and a wall of mini Buddhas.









As I turned around after the last picture, I noticed someone giving me a very dirty look, so I just smiled, packed up the camera, and left, wondering what the deal was considering it specifically just mentioned tripod photography. Then I noticed a sign outside that was a camera with an do not sign. Oops. Too late now.

Outside, there were lovely decorations off the back and on the roof.







The next temple I tried to check out was Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan on my way home Saturday. I didn't expect it to be open since it was past 6, but it too was under construction just like the Jamia Mosque.



The next day as I had arrived in Sham Shui Po, I happened upon this temple on Yu Chau St. You can see the difference in size and in the large construction vehicle parked in front of it, although the inside was still serene.





I haven't ran into any other temples since this one, although there's a main Catholic cathedral near here, a synagogue somewhere, and St. John's Cathedral, the oldest surviving Catholic house of worship on the island.



So there's my religion tour of Hong Kong!

Apparently there's a very large typhoon bearing down on Hong Kong that already killed people in the Phillipines. How did I not hear about this until now? It wasn't on the morning radio news; Hong Kongians seem to take these mostly in stride, but so much for visiting Macau this weekend since the ferries won't be running. And my aunt and I were planning on it :(.

Back to the story, in markets in Hong Kong bargaining is the order of the day, which is foreign to most Americans. The last time I bargained was in Ciudad Juarez when I was 11, for a marionette. But I decided it was past time I tried again, so on Saturday after Nathan Rd and Tin Hau Temple, I headed to the Jade Market in Yau Ma Tei. Over 400 booths sell all sorts of jade accessories and trinkets, but I knew what I wanted. Presents.



My mother and sister have never gotten their ears pierced, and trying to find clip or screwback earrings in the US is almost impossible except at flea markets, and even then not often. So I began asking about, and found a stall with quite a few lovely options.

Ok, so it's going to spoil the surprise, but happy birthday Mom! Jade earrings & a pendant, and tiger eye earrings.



The other jade trinket was given to me for free, probably because I got suckered, but all 3 sets of earrings turned out to be a little over $100 US, and this pendant and the one next was about $16 each.



Sister, these are for you although I know you're not a jewelry person!



I went on Sunday to the Temple Night Market, which sets up around 5 pm, unlike the street fairs in NY which are breaking down just about then.



About an hour & a half later, things were getting busier.



I decided to pick up a couple of trinkets, tortoise for long life and Buddha for luck. I'm ashamed to say I know I got majorly ripped off, but in my defense, I was tired at the end of the day and wasn't doing math particularly well. And they were cute!



Ok, I paid about $16 USD for them *ashamed*. Still to come, temples, Sham Shui Po, and ferry ride.

Back to Friday night as promised. Here was the first place that we all went to have drinks with colleagues from work. I think this is the first time in forever that I saw a pool table I didn't play on :).



From there it was a trip to a local club in Lan Kwai Fong, I decided to head home around 1 am. As I'm walking down Hollywood Rd, I see this.



Being the Good Samaritan I was, I stopped by his friend who was watching over him, and offered to wake him up with a gentle sternal rub. Now that he was awake, I chatted with the vertical Aussie while his friend insisted he couldn't get up. I stayed to help harass him vertical again while his friend filmed him on his iPhone planning for a YouTube debut, and after 45 minutes we got him up.





I also took a pic of the LKF clubbing scene - the end of this street is PACKED and the two girls in black dresses are about the level of dress.



From here it was on to Drop, another club they knew about, while the passed-out one rallied like a true Aussie. Around 2:30 I headed on home. Oh, and the Escalator stops running at midnight, so it was a long, painful walk home, though it was worth it to have a night out here.

Anyway, on to Kowloon Park, which I visited after the HK Museum of Art on Saturday. This was larger than HK Park, and had a lake near the entrance.



There were banyan trees all around.



In one pavilion, there was a team of girls practicing synchronized drumming, but with ribbons too.



The drinks vending machine was quite different as well. Notice the Pocari Sweat in the lower right corner, previously featured in pictures.



On a related topic, here's CC Lemon (very good!) and Watsons Water, the popular one here.



There's a giant swimming pool in Kowloon Park. Note the fake waterfalls!



The Chinese Garden was beautiful, and this was the central pavilion.



There was some sort of sketchy photo shoot going on in the pavilion with two girls (one in a green wig & one in a pink wig), and one guy with the camera. Whatever, I suppose, everyone's got to have a hobby.



After this it was back out ot Nathan Rd. and pictures I posted yesterday.