Day 27 - Hong Kong

This morning I set out for a walk towards the water with Mike, Gill, and James. The city was already in full motion, people moving with that steady Hong Kong pace that never really slows down. As I crossed one of the roads, I got shoulder checked by an older woman who didn’t even glance back. I'm sure it wasn’t meant to be aggressive, but man I kind of felt like she was thinking to herself "Get out of my way you damn tourist".

We wandered along the shore, it was around 10am and already about 32 degrees, it was nice to just stroll along without rushing anywhere. We decided to take the ferry across the harbor to Kowloon, a short trip that gave a pretty good view of the city.

Arriving on the other side, we stopped at the old Time Ball Tower. It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it, but it’s a small and interesting part of Hong Kong’s maritime history. The Time Ball used to drop exactly at 1 p.m. each day so ships anchored in the harbor could set their chronometers accurately. Before radio signals existed, this was one of the few reliable ways sailors could keep precise time, which was essential for navigation. It’s long retired now, but it’s nice that it’s still standing as a reminder of how the harbor once worked.

From there, we wandered into Kowloon Park. We checked out the bird Avery, it was split into 3 or 4 different sections with a range of different birds in each section, with still a rather space for them to fly around. We then headed off to find a cooler spot to cool down and came across a display of fossils as well as a spot next to that which gave soe info about Rh forbidden city and had some old artifacts as well.

When we had finished there we popped down to a mall to get some food, it was an Asian food court, plenty of options to choose from, I think we all chose good meals. After finishing up with lunch we caught the Metro to the night markets. When we arrived, most of the stalls weren’t ready yet as it was still pretty early, so we decided to find something else to do, we strolled the streets for a little which then lead us stopping for coffee at a place called Adrenaline before heading back to the Night markets which by this stage were almost fully up and running. I brought a couple of items, but nothing special.

We then headed down Nathan Road toward the ferry terminal for the Symphony of Lights show. The light show involves about 44 buildings around Hong Kong overlooking the harbour, the skyline lights up in time with the music, beams of color lighting up the night while their reflections shimmered across the water, in reality, the show wasn't really what I expected, I was expecting a lot more really. I had booked the cruise for the 4 of us, the catch being thst it came with unlimited drinks for the boat cruise. I had more whiskey and cokes than I probably should have, while Mike chatted with another couple who were also on the cruise. Somehow the conversation turned to crossing the road in Vietnam compared to Hong Kong. In Vietnam, you just walk and the traffic moves around you. In Hong Kong, people wait patiently even when there are no cars. We found out there’s actually a HKD 2,000 fine for jaywalking, which made that patience suddenly make a lot more sense.

By the time we got back to land, most places had already closed, and the few still open had stupid ordering systems that didn't seem to want to work for us. That’s how Mike and Gill ended up having McDonald’s for the first time in 25 years. It wasn’t the ending we’d planned for the day, but it had been a long day and we just needed food. We then wandered back to our hotel, it's amazing how much we crammed into a memorable day in Hong Kong.