day 30! hong kong (kowloon)

So, it being my one and only full day in Hong Kong, you'd THINK I'd be very motivated to go out and see/do things. Especially after all the cool stuff Andrew mentioned to me, I'd definitely accumulated a bucket list of things I wanted to do.

Unfortunately, when I woke up at around 10am, my nose would not stop dripping, and I was starting to cough. :( No appetite for anything, and just wanted to sleep some more.

I idled around for a while, realized that I forgot to pack a shirt and had to go outside in my pajamas shirt (oops!) but I did eventually make it out. Andrew had suggested that if I wanted to see "real" Hong Kong, to not take the metro down further south (where more touristy stuff was), but take it up north instead. I had no idea what I wanted to do but I do enjoy observing a-day-in-the-life-of. :) So off I went.

As cool as Andrew was, a good direction giver he is not. I'm also horrible with directions.
Couldn't find the metro station at all so ended up wandering around for a while. This is a random tea shop that looked pretty cool...

Random street view. There seemed to be an inordinate number of horizontal signs jutting out into the street, at least in the area I was in (which I think is a bit cheaper, messier, more asian-city-like than other areas of Hong Kong).

Yeeerp I'm a creeper that takes pics of school girls.

Pet store. T_T I want to save them all.

Poor little guys. For the love of all that is holy I hope that pet store is air conditioned.

Kind of a cute shirt (trying to take pics of clothes for you Janet).

Eureka! Finally found the station, after asking some store clerks where it was. Did you know that many many people in HK don't speak English? In retrospect it was probably a dumb assumption to make. I just figured cuz of the whole colonization thing...plus, my friends from HK were all really good at English. Again, in retrospect, it was probably cuz they were educated at an international school and are very privileged/smart. :p So my language of choice was Mandarin.

Anyway, right before entering the station, noticed a little ..."fashion mall", I think the sign said. Stepped inside for the AC and was surprised at how extensive the little mall was! They definitely packed a lot of stores in there, and the stuff was pretty cute. I'd only changed $100 (US dollars) to spend, and had very little backpack space, so didn't shop much, but it's still fun to look. :)

Taipei has a lot of these what I like to call "girly" stores, too. Everything is various shades of white, cream, and pink, and is trimmed with lace, frills, or ribbon. I dunno, I always entertain the thought of getting something from them, just to try out a new fashion but can never bring myself to buy anything. The girls that wear the stuff are pretty cute but..................... :S you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink! I am that un frilly horse.

Shoes~ Everything was pretty affordable, less than $30 maybe?

Pretty typical little boutique.

Prince Edward station! Phew.

Aha! Frilly horse. (frilly filly?) SHHH stop talking someone will hear your dumb jokes. -_-

Damnit girls in Asia have such nice legs. /depressed I need a Big Mac pronto.

So I got off at the next station, and was greeted by what looks like a big flea market? I guess that's just what it's like in this area, there are lots of stalls of cheap clothes, electronics, and I'm not sure what else. Didn't look around too much but it was a very lively area.

There were also a lot of grocery stores and -- butcher shops??!?! It might not sound so weird until you try to factor in that it feels like about 90 degrees outside, plus some amount of humidity. And all that meat just sitting around..../shudder. A strong argument in favor of vegetarianism.

These were live little fishies (or eels?) swimming around in a bin. I took a pic cuz they were all forlornly gasping for air and/or trying to escape. :( I'm sorry little fishes. But you will be eaten soon. Also you are pretty gross looking.

Just sayin' man.

Thought this was somewhat cute. At this fruit stand, they keep all their money in a bucket, and when the lady needs to fetch change for someone, she pulls the bucket down.....

and when she's done, the counterweight goes into the bucket (stopping the bucket from going too high), and just sits there. :D Easy to access, but also very easy to spot any potential thieves, since the bucket now sits at eye level out in the open air.

Took a pic of these dragon fruits for my sis. Guess they're in season in HK! Still haven't really seen em in Taipei...

It's REALLY hot outside so I stopped by a 7-11 (all the 7-11s I saw were a lot more ghetto, smaller, with less variety than the ones in Taipei -- which again could just have been the neighborhood I was in)...

and got two of these guys! :D Man, what a blast from the past.

Then I sat in this plaza area, sipping on my mango drink, watching people walk by. Most people in this neighborhood were all older aunties, a few children, but no one in between. This one girl did show up, waiting for a friend, and I took a Super Sneaky Stalker Shot.

After some more wandering around, looking at some shops and whatnot, I decided that I'd had enough. Walking in the sun for a few hours had made me pretty lightheaded and the irritated sinuses/start of a cough made me want to lie down and get some rest.

Went back to my station, and picked up a milk tea to bring home to drink. I actually didn't eat anything all day, which was kind of a waste. :( No dim sum, no snacks, no meals.....I dunno, the heat and the sick kinda beat the appetite right outta me I guess.

Anyway this milk tea place is a chain that we actually saw a few times in Taipei, so, kinda funny that I'm finally getting one here in HK.

A neighboring stand with Doraemon and pikachu pastries.

Btw the street I was located on, Fa Yuen street, had a ton of stands open all day, mostly selling clothes and knick knacks. It was kind of like living at a night market. :)

View of Fa Yuen street from the roof of the apartment building.

One of the things Andrew and I had discussed the previous night. I had heard that in a city as densely populated as HK, housing was of course bound to be an issue, and there were these new "slum cities" (?) being built illegally on top of buildings. They weren't properly built, just kind of slapped together and made liveable with very cheap rent. I asked Andrew if that was actually a real problem, or if it was just being sensationalized by the media. As an answer, he brought me around to this side of the building and showed me..........those little shacks. On top of the apartment building. The really beat up looking things? That's what the article was talking about. And when I asked why doesn't the government do something about it, since it's not like it's easy to hide whole floors of illegal residences, he said that the pink building in the background of the picture is ironically enough, the government's Housing Department (no idea what the official title is). And that....while they do frown upon it, the reality is that without these cheap housing options, homelessness would probably be the next step for some of these people. And so while this sort of housing isn't sanctioned by any means, the government turns sort of a blind eye because it helps them..........

Kind of convoluted. But reality and idealism have never played well together.

Anyway! The plan was to come back and rest for a bit, and then when the sun went down, take a ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, which is a very cheap trip, but yields beautiful views of the city skyline. :) I caught some glimpses as I rode into the city on the bus yesterday, and it really was kind of amazing. I mean people are obsessed with skylines everywhere, and yes the sparkling lights are fantastic, but really all of the ones I'd seen til now paled in comparison to Hong Kong's.


So I was really disappointed when I woke up from my nap and found that it was thunderstorming outside. T_T T_T T_T I mean, the rain I maybe could have braved (but probably wouldn't have), but it was actually thunder and lightening-ing all over the place. One of them I swear was right next to the building. So. So much for that. No more pics for you guys. :( :(


But as bummed out as I was, I was also a little glad for the forced respite. The cold kept progressing throughout the day and I went through reams and reams of toilet paper, tissue paper, paper towels, basically anything I could blow snot into was taken prisoner by my cold.


Aside from running downstairs and getting another drink, that was pretty much it for my night. :) Said my goodbyes to Andrew, who was planning to be out the next morning. And just slept and slept and slept..............