Day 28 – All that way to ….

No Sarah.. not all that way to a Westfield, but rather all that way to Stanley Market which is on the southern side of Hong Kong Island. We started the day with breakfast upstairs and then enquired what the best way was to get to Stanley Markets. We were advised that there was an Express bus that left from across the road. Sounded great so we even got the right change for the fare, because you have to have the right money in Hong Kong. Still wondering about the use of the express word… as the ride took well over an hour we would have hated to have travelled on a non express service. But finally at Stanley and we found the Markets.

The village of Stanley has changed quite a lot in the 17 years since Liz had last been there. It is a very pretty place, a village of contrasts. It has a mix of Chinese and English architecture and yet it looks like it belongs in the Mediterranean. We spent a bit of time mooching in the markets and made a few purchases. Chris got a new pair of joggers and was able to wear them out of the shop, disposing of the old ones that were smelling a bit after all the rain in Rothenburg, Oberammergau, Munich, Paris, Edinburgh and London (well heeled shoes?). It was fun, but the heat and humidity were quite oppressive and took their toll. So we lunched in the only place that was air-conditioned.. you guessed it.. the Scottish restaurant and then climbed many escalators to the street level again, stopping by the info booth to find out about a potentially quicker route back to the other side of the island. There was a different express bus that went back to Central and were making fantastic time til we hit the Aberdeen tunnel where we crawled and crawled, finally making it back to Central after about 75 minutes. Express!!! HA!

We needed to go to the Disney Office at Hong Kong station to redeem our tickets, but we didn’t have the voucher so we went to try to find the office so we knew where to come back to. It was not very easy to find and we must have looked very lost because a lovely New Zealand couple offered to show us the way. The sign at the office said that they were opened til 6pm but the woman told Chris that they were opened until 9. So we went back to the hotel by MTR to Tsim Tsa Chui, grabbed the voucher and headed back over to the island.

We walked past the Peninsula Hotel - here is Liz arriving in her Rolls Royce. We also strolled in to check out the afternoon tea in the lobby - a great tradition in Hong Kong. There was a three piece orchestra playing airs, and even at 5pm a queue to get a table. We wandered out via one of the arcades, looking into the Tiffany window - no prices on the precious jewelery items but then if you have to ask the price you can't afford it.


We walked along to the Star Ferry terminal. This is an institution in Hong Kong. It costs $3HK which is about 45c AUS to travel on the top deck across Victoria Harbour.
It is a bit of a scary trip as the harbour is the busiest in the world and the ferries are a little ordinary. But we have travelled on all the other waterways where we have travelled so Victoria Harbour was a must. Liz said we had to travel on the upper deck which is slightly more expensive because common wisdom says that you may be spat on if you are on the lower deck – yuck. There is more development going on along the waterfront – very little flat land on Hong Kong Island – a a bit of a walk along an elevated walkway to the Central railway station. Unfortunately when we got back to the ticket office it was closed!!! It will open again at 9am tomorrow. Grrrrrr! The language barrier gets us. So back to the hotel by MTR for some dim sum for dinner and then a trip to the Temple street night market.

Chaos, smells, sounds… Temple Street is a multi sensory experience. It is full of T shirts, bags and copy watches and pushy vendors encouraging purchase at all costs. We got some things and were in the process of getting a new camera to replace the camera with the serious problem following the great bus bag sprint of yesterday when we witnessed the chaos of a bag snatcher sprinting up Temple street hotly pursued by a posse of stall holders!!! It was quite scary really. We secured our purchases and then we headed back to the MTR past some ladies of the night for the one stop ride back to the hotel and of course the need to again run the gauntlet of the copy watch traders on Nathan Road. So Kowloon!

Had to get sorted because tomorrow we were checking out to head out to the Regal at the airport. Ah the joys of travel. Then off to sleep. Night!