hongkong, day 04
today, day 04, i went to "wan chai"/"causeway bay". they nice
old trams there[001-002], and the area is not plain. instead
all the skyscrapers are built all over the hills, and quite
often there's also unused green wood areas.
right next to the MTR (the metro) is the "tin hau" temple[008-
023]. there were no "no photography" signs, and since there was
another tourist in there taking pictures i thought that's a good
chance of finally getting picutres of the inside of a temple.
this one was quite typical and (for my eyes) looked exactly the
same as the other ones i have already visited. the only differ-
ence is size.
 
my guide book said there shuold be another temple near "tin hau"
temple, but actually i didn't find it. too bad. so i went on to
"victoria park"[027-035], a big park with loads of green areas,
a separate jogging lane, and other stuff like a model boat
area[043].
after taking the exit on "gloucester street"[044-051] and walk-
ing around some side streets i was searching for the "noon day
gun". the gun is located right on the seaside, but between me
and the gun there was "gloucester street" and no pedestrian
crossing. since my guide said there's a subway somewhere i was
searching for the usual subway signs. but this subway was very
different. the entrance was totally hidden (i had to ask twice
where it is, since i didn't find it, though i was standing only
a few meters away when i asked the second time). so first step
is to go partially through the underground car park[052], then
following long hallways with sea-water pipes[053-054] until you
finally reach the other side. quite strange, but i did it. the
gun[056] itself was a little disappointing then actually (for
all the effort i had to take).
 
next thing i wanted to see was the "HK convention and exhibition
centre" (aka "HKCEC"), the huge building i saw on day 02 ([067])
from the other side of the harbour. on my way there i came by
the "chinese ressource centre" that has some nice dragon things
like a fountain[070-072,078-080] and a wall[081-084] on the
ground floor. very impressive and totally nice.
 
and so finally i arrived at the "HKCEC"[086-107] that somehow
reminded me of the opera house in sidney. at the centre there
was still the jewellery and gems fair that is now ongoing for
days. i often see people running around with access passes and
jewellery related catalogues or shopping bags.
 
to get back to "tsim sha tsui" i took the ferry[108-110]. it
took me about eight minutes to get back there. quite fast, quite
cheap, and definitely nice.
so i went home, took a shower, changed cloths and was heading
for "mongkok" (been already there on day 03) to meet with
Monique and a friend of hers, Winnie. Monique is a pen friend of
jake's girlfriend Andrea. Andrea wrote her an email and asked if
i could get a guide for one day, and she agreed. later Monique's
husband Derrick joined us. we were strolling around went to a
soja restaurant. they had all kind of tofu stuff there. like a
sweet soja bean thing that reminded me of pudding somehow. then
some deep-fried tofu, and some other deep-fried tofu thing with
a fish paste layer on top of it. all very delicious and very
healthy i guess.
 
next thing they showed me was "temple street"[115-126]. though
i've already been there, this time all the shops were opened and
the market was full of life. they had all kind of stuff there.
from clothes to electronic things and hello kitty stuff for the
kids. strange, yet fascinating mixture. oh, and here i saw the
first cat on hongkong! actually i saw four all in all.
 
then we decided to go to the "HK jockey arts club"[127-128,138-
143], a place that houses studios of loads of artists. one of
them was specialised in glass production[129-137]. and we had
the chance to watch him doing his art.
it was time for dinner. so my very friendly asian guides asked
me where i want to go, and i decided (of course) for traditional
local restaurant. so they brought me to some area where there
was no other caucasian being besides me. at the restaurant[144-
145] Derrick ordered something for all of us. they brought goose
with sweet-sour sauce[147], rice mixed with dried shrimps[148],
vegetables with garlic sauce[149], chicken with onions[150], and
this pot[153] full of weird things. in there was pig liver, pig
hindgut, and frog-legs. though i knew how liver tastes the rest
was new to me. the hindgut was not my thing, but the frog-legs
were quite delicious.
 
after we finished eating and drinking we drove back to "nathan
street", once more passed by the "temple street market"[152-168]
and finally split up at "nathan road". this was a very nice and
enlightening evening with three inhabitants of hong kong. thanks
very much to them.
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