We woke up later again today and just barely caught breakfast before they closed the restaurant. The weather is a little warmer today but there is a 40% chance of rain. Hopefully it will hold off though as I don't really want to get all wet today. We have decided that today we will explore Central Hong Kong by simply walking the streets and following where ever we feel led. Last time we hit Hong Kong Park and a couple big tourist places like IFC Mall and HSBC building but we want to get to know the real Hong Kong so we are going to take a walk.
We left our room about 11:00 and headed out.
I wanted to go to one of the temples I read about in our Lonely Planet Guidebook so we headed towards Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan. Peter figured out the route and we stopped to get some coffee and hot chocolate at Starbucks and took a few pictures along the way but found the temple in no time.
We finished our drinks and then went in to explore. We remembered a lot about the practices we saw from our tour in Tai O last trip. There were a few things that were new to us so we will have to look them up at some point. We took a bunch of pictures and some video just as a large group of people came in from a
tour. When we left we had no destination in mind so we just started walking down Hollywood St. We walked for bit and looked in all the store windows then I remembered a pedestrian street that I had read about so I looked it up.
We had to go back the way we came but we hadn't gotten too far so we backtracked and found the street right near the temple. Cat Street
had a bunch of little stands along the sides that were selling jewelry, trinkets, jade, and more. We looked at just about everything but we didn't buy anything at all. From there we wandered some more until we found a restaurant
that looked safe to eat at. In Hong Kong, because things are so small and space is so tight, the seating area in the restaurants is really small. When we went in we were seated at a table with two other guys who had already ordered. This is completely normal. We looked over the menu and Peter ordered a Vietnamese fried noodles dish with beef. I ordered a vegetable and shrimp rice paper wrap. Our food was pretty good so we ate it all up and while we were working on it I took a look
at our book to see what else was interesting. I found a street, Man Wa Lane, of vendors that make Chinese Stamps using stone blocks, called name chops. They carve whatever you want it to say into the stone on the bottom and then you pat the stone on a sort of red ink pad, then stamp it onto paper. It is pretty cool and I told Peter about it, I thought it would be cool to have something for his business. He agreed so after we were through we headed that way to see what we could find. There were several little booths set up in an alley way. They all pretty much did the same thing but they had different stones to choose from. No two are the same. Peter looked over each booth and finally decided on a piece he liked. We talked to the guy there for a long time. He didn't speak much English but understood what we wanted. Peter
put Chellee Guitars into Google translate and the guy pronounced it just right so we knew the symbols were accurate. The man told us it would be an hour so we paid and then headed down to see the Western Market. When we got to the road the market is on we heard the sound of banging on cymbals and a drum. We looked around the corner and saw a pink dragon coming our way. We made way to take some photos and video and watched as the pink dragon
did a little dance and then went to the entrance of one of the shops and stood up tall to eat food that was hanging above the door. When he was through with that store he went to the next and did the same thing. After that he was done so Peter and I went into the Western Market. The first floor has some random nicknacks and toys and such, nothing really interesting but the second floor is entirely filled with bolts of cloth. With just enough room to walk to get through. It was really neat to see it all. Just piles and piles and rows and rows of
different textiles and patterns. There was a third floor to the building as well but it was closed for a wedding venue. We left there and just walked down the street some more. There were some little booths starting to open up that sold similar items to what you would find at the Ladies Market. We went up a street or two but then had to return to pick up Peter's name chop.
When we got back to the right booth the man showed us the finished product and how to use it. It is really cool, I'm glad Peter was able to get that. It was just after 4 at this point and we didn't really have much planned until this evening when we wanted to get to Happy Valley to watch the Horse races so we just wandered around some more. We went up and down some of the streets that had more little booths of usual and just looked around. There was one store that was pretty large and had a big selection of ladies Chinese style shirts and dresses. We looked around and talked with the lady in the store a bit. I was hesitant to buy anything without having been to the Ladies Market first to compare prices the but that lady lowered her price a good bit after I found a dress that I liked so we bought it. Down another street I saw another dress I liked, not a Chinese style one but cute and different from anything I currently have. I showed it to Peter and he really liked it too but I said they would probably have the same one at Ladies Market and I moved on to the next booth. Peter followed me and looked at a few things then said, "I want to buy you that dress back there."
So he went back and talked the guy down on the price and picked it up for me. I love him. Peter took us to Shanghai Tang, a clothing store we discovered last trip through an ad but we were never able to find the store though we did try several times. We actually found the Shanghai Tang Mansion this time so we went in and explored a bit. We quickly discovered that we couldn't afford a thing in there. I found a super cute jacket that was only $3,000 US, Peter told me not to touch it anymore. Haha. We probably spent less time in the store than we did looking for it last trip. We continued to look at booths and walk in the general direction of Happy Valley until about 6 when we got a little more serious about it. We were getting to the busy portion of Central and with rush hour in full swing we had to pay a little more attention to what we were doing and where we were going. We took a few raised pedestrian walkways as far as we could then went back down to the street level. We were also keeping an eye out for food options because we didn't know what we would have available if we waited. We walked and walked, I have no idea how far it was but it seemed like forever. Finally we saw the stadium and then had to walk to the complete other side to get in. Admittance was only $10 HK so just over a dollar US. Vandita and Anupam had suggested we go to the races. We were reluctant but they really recommended it and said we would enjoy it. Peter and I are definitely not into placing bets and watching horses race but it was something we had never done
before and more than likely never do again so we decided to make it happen. As soon as we got through the gate we were happy we did. The place was amazing and huge! The skyline in the background was brilliant! We got there a bit before the first race was going to start and we were happy to see that there were a couple booths for food. We accessed our options and decided on skewers with chicken and vegetables and then some potato wedges. As we were finishing up it started to sprinkle a little bit. Just barely but enough for everyone to get the higher covered
seats and since we were still down on the ground level there weren't anymore that weren't wet. We found some standing room up high in the area that had the English speakers which was nice except that my feet were very tired. I was also freezing. From the top we watched the first race start and finish. We didn't really understand what was going on but we figured most of it out as we went. After the first race we went back down to get me a cup of hot chocolate because I was freezing. Peter found a heater right near the fence so I went and stood under it to warm up and we waited and watched the second race. We decided to call it a day at this point. The races were fun but we really had gotten everything we were going to get out of it. We left the stadium and
headed to the MTR which turned out to be farther than we had thought but we evenutally made it an rode it all the way back to Sheung Wan where we walked back to our hotel. I soaked my feet in some really hot water and then got comfy. Peter and I really liked our day of just walking around. We got to see and experience so much more than we did on last trip when we just saw things out of the bus windows or not at all from underground on the MTR. If we have another day or two with nothing planned we will probably do it again in another area.
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