Our first romp in Asia, Part III

Ok, so last time I left you at 1881 Heritage.  From there we walked from the harbour area to the Mong Kok area, in search of several of Hong Kong's famous markets.  Here are some of the shops we passed in Kowloon.

Our first goal was the Flower Market.  And we found a great Christmas shop on the way.

Real live noble fir Christmas trees!!!! How awesome is that?!?  Pretty expensive,

though.  The conversion rate here is about 8 HKD to $1, so that tree on the left

is about $165.  But the price list on the right shows it pays to pre-order!



And then we found the Flower Market, which was really cool.  And so cheap!  Wish they had this at home.







They had almost everything you could think of - from roses and lilies to poinsettias and Christmas trees.  Orchids, small cacti, tomato plants, cotton bulbs!  And a whole lot of flowers that we didn't have a clue what they were.



And right smack in the middle of all the flower shops, there was this shop...

Too bad Ryan and Anna Colleen weren't with us.

After the Flower Market, we made our way to the Bird Market, which was also really interesting.  Some shops were a little sad, with so many little birds crammed into a cage, so I tried to keep the really sad pictures to a minimum.





There were so many kinds of birds here!

And bird supplies...

 And bird feed...   LIVE bird feed. 



When we left the Bird Market, we were headed for the Goldfish Market, but we actually found the Ladies Market along the way, which was also on our list of places to see.  The Ladies Market sells all kinds of clothes, bags, jewelry, scarves, etc.  It reminded me of the market stalls in Florence, though without all the leather goods.  But it was difficult to peruse all of the stalls because of the sheer mass of people!  And they don't have the personal space bubbles that we Westerners are used to.





We actually did buy a booksack in this market.  My booksack had broken on a work trip to Seoul a couple weeks prior, and the booksacks in Korea were all so expensive - around $100 or more!  I think we paid equivalently less than $14 for the one we got in Hong Kong, thanks to Blake's persistent haggling.

We left the Ladies Market, heading again for the Goldfish Market, although we decided that it should really be called the Turtle Market because there were much more turtles than goldfish.

And I think that this was our favorite market because it was also semi-connected with an entire area of pet shops.  And I love pet shops!  They had so many adorable animals.  Of course, I wanted to take most of them home with us.  But Blake wouldn't let me.  Stupid customs laws...

I mean, how could you not want to take these guys home?

There were some cute cute animals, though.

Those puppies on the left look just like Izzy!  (not your fish, Mom and Dad, but the dog we used to have)

And then, you know, some with faces only a mother cat could love...

But I think this guy was our favorite!  He had such a fun personality.  While all his boring display buddies slept, he was pouncing, stalking, and playing.  We stood and watched him for quite a while.



So then we realized it was almost time for the Jade Market to close, so we hoofed it across Mong Kok to the metro to make it to the market before it closed.



 We found a bakery with some interesting cakes, like this Mahjong one below.

And then we stumbled on this neat little park with little old men actually playing Mahjong.

Then we finally made it to the Jade Market, just in time.  Some vendors were closing down their stalls already.  But we managed to haggle for a couple of jade bracelets, some gifts for people, and a set of orange jade bracelet, ring, and necklace.  Blake really is getting good at this.  Josh Bozeman, you would love it!

 Unfortunately, we didn't have enough cash on us to get the set, but the woman who worked the stall said there was an ATM nearby.  So she handed us the bag of jade and then proceeded to lead us to the ATM, which by the way, was not nearby at all and we never would have found it without her.  But we got our jade and she got her money, and actually the ATM was near the Night Market, which was our next stop anyway.  The Night Market is also called the Men's Market because it has more guy-things like electronics.  Here we got some really neat things, like a really awesome silk hanging with Chinese characters embroidered on it and a couple small hand-painted prints.

Ok, well, that's enough for today.  Although, believe it or not, we actually still did several more things that night in Hong Kong!  I'll cover those in the next post...

Our first romp in Asia, Part II

Work has been crazy lately, so I haven't had much free time.  But we got a few days off this week (well, I only got a couple days because work is so busy, but that's ok) for the Lunar New Year, which is an important holiday in Korea, so I thought I'd try to catch up on the blog.
So believe it or not, my last post about our Hong Kong trip only covered the first day.  And we didn't get there till evening.  So I've got plenty left to show you.

When we got up on Saturday, we found a nice McDonald's for breakfast.  I think our goal is to eat McDonald's in as many countries as possible.  Hey, don't knock it till you try it.  Or till you try kimchi, at least.

Then we walked to the Star Ferry to get a ride to the other side of Victoria Harbour, to Kowloon.  The ferry service began in the late 1800's and is a very affordable means of transportation across the harbour.  The cost of a one-way adult fare is about 38 cents.  And while those prone to seasickness can also inexpensively use the metro system to get to Kowloon from Hong Kong island now, it was really quite fun to ride the ferry.  And a very cheap attraction!



 Here are some shots of our walk to the Star Ferry.

 The Christmas decorations were a very welcomed sight!

This view is right as you're walking up to the harbour.

The tallest building on
the Hong Kong side

  



a Star Ferry Pier










A wedding party we stumbled across while exploring the pier.



This is quite a backdrop for a reception, wouldn't you say?  And the weather was perfect!



Crossing the harbour...

Once we reached Kowloon, we saw some more, er, interesting Christmas decorations...





Then we headed across Kowloon in search of several famous markets, and on the way we stumbled across an area known as 1881 Heritage.  In researching sights to see in Hong Kong, I had seen this particular sight mentioned several times.  It was on our list, but it was down towards the end, you know, sort of "if we have time we'll try to see this."  But we happened to pass right by it, so we stopped.  And I'm so glad we did.  It was such a fun spot.

What drew our attention in the first place was this huge tree that appeared to be growing out of a building.  Or else, the building was growing out of the tree.  You couldn't tell for sure at first glance.



Then we realized where we were, so we stopped to explore.  The site now called 1881 Heritage was formerly the Marine Police Headquarters, and it was declared a historical monument in '94 becauese it is one of the four oldest, still-standing government buildings in the city.  The main building was originally built in 1884, so personally I think the name is a little misleading, even if it is a palindrome.  The marine police used the building as their headquarters from its construction until 1996, except for a brief period in the early 1940's when it was used as a base by the Japanese navy during their occupation of Hong Kong.  The Japanese built an elaborate system of underground tunnels during their use of the site, but they have since been filled.

The site, including the adjacent Old Kowloon Fire Station, was redeveloped within the last decade into a hotel with restaurant and retail center.  It opened in 2009 as 1881 Heritage. 

 






 And they had a great Christmas display!

They had at least a dozen of these giant snow globe-looking displays, but fortunately for you, I've already had to update my online storage for this blog, so I'm not going to put them all up here.

But tell me these aren't the largest Tiffany's boxes you've ever seen!

And if you look really closely, you can see Blake and me in front

of 1881 Heritage in the refleciton on the Christmas ornament.

We liked the place so much, we made a point to come back after it was dark, when the whole area was lit up.  And it was quite a sight!



Ok, well, that's enough for now.  Looks like Hong Kong is going to be a 15-part post.  Check back later for pictures of the markets.