Day 4 Hong Kong

Well last day in HK today and we’ve decided to take it a little easy as we have a very early flight tomorrow and don’t want to be knackered by overdoing it. So first things first off to breakfast. We’re sitting there with just a coffee and chatting away when a guy sits down next to us. Well we’ve seen him before in the bar and he is one of the blackest people we’ve seen with a shock of white hair and beard. We strike up a conversation and it turns out he is from the Solomon Islands which are next door to PNG. So the conversation continues and it turns out he was in Lae just before we got there. He and his wife live in New Zealand and they are on their way to the UK. How small a world is it?

Well the first stop today is to an old market not far from the hotel in Chun Yeung Street. Its an older district and apparently on of the last Fujian markets in HK. One side is all wet market, butchers, fish, fruit and veg and the other side is clothes etc.

Despite the heat there appear to be no flys and all of the meat and fish smells really fresh.

Lots of pork

and lots of soft shell crabs yum yum.

Now here is a question, what do HK and Blackpool have in common? Well it turns out they are two of the only three places in the world that have double-decker trams on public routes ( in case you are wondering the third place is Alexandria). The tram line runs straight down through the market

After we’ve wandered around a bit we head off and jump on the first tram which fortunately is going in the direction we want to go (probably a good idea to look at the destination first I guess). We ride the tram to the Central district which is the polar opposite to Chun Yeung all glass high rises and very very expensive shopping malls. Its not far but it takes over half an hour as the tram stops about every 100m to pick up or drop off passengers. It really is public transport and not a tourist gimmick. It’s a fixed fare of about 90p however far you go. Bum just realised I can’t load a video here as I had taken one on the tram.

Wandering around the packed central district it time to get a cold drink. Manage to find a little coffee shop in an office building for a very small and very expensive iced coffee in a place surrounded by people typing away on keyboards. Just like home 😉

You can’t come to HK and not go on the Star Ferry can you, so a wander down to pier 7 and two old people tickets, a princely sum of 50p and away we go over to Kowloon.

Now the Star Ferries are old. In fact it would not surprise me if we didn’t travel on this very ferry the last time we were in HK and thats 50 years ago 😁

So we hit Kowloon terminal and it is rammed with mainland Chinese tourists groups and I mean rammed so we decide to get another cold drink as it is still pretty brutal out in the sun. Now you may all scorn that we head to a Starbucks but….. it has a couple of things going for it 1: Its air conditioned 2: they serve drinks in big glasses with lots of ice and trust me that becomes quite attractive when you are melting.

Chris has already shared this picture but yes just like Sungei Wang in KL. A wander towards the MTR station with a quick stop at a 711 to pick up a couple of bottles of water and some onomiyaki for lunch. It’s really good as you can pay with your Octopus transit card. Saves needing multiple cards.

Back to the hotel to sort ourselves out for tomorrow and yet another shower. If I’m not careful I might wash myself away 🤣

We’ve decided to eat in the hotel tonight as a treat and a treat indeed it was. Starters for me was oysters (possibly the best I’ve ever had) Chris had avocado guacamole.