After Mom left for work, I got up and headed out to Hong Kong again (just to wander around for the day). I took the metro all by myself (I’m a big kid now J haha) to immigration and exited China to get back into Hong Kong. Then it was another hour train ride back into the city. As soon as I got out of the metro in Central (back in Hong Kong) I went for my camera and it was out of battery. NOOOOOOOO :/. So the rest of this entry is photoless, but I will do my best to entertain you with my veracious vocabulary and exquisite descriptive details of my day. Maybe I’ll throw in some rhymes or riddles just to keep it fresh.
(I’ve included links to other photos, but they’re not mine! Just to give you an idea of what I saw).
My Hong Kong exploration extravaganza began with another stop to the “Chop shop” where I got some more chops made (Dee and Doug I have a gift for you!—Surprise!!! J Text me your address Dee if you want it shipped to your house). Ng Kam was pleased to see me again—if anyone is going to Hong Kong please let me know and I’ll give you his business card—he is the absolutely nicest person I met in Hong Kong and makes excellent “chops.” Then I wandered around this part of the city in search of this dried fruit store (admist all the dried seafood stores) that sold dried kiwi. No luck… so I settled for some honey pearl milk tea J yum! I <3 boba.
Then I passed 13 Hillier Street—home of this snake shop! Crazy snakes in there. They use them in wines, drink the blood as a kind of medicine and dry skins for use in eastern medicine as well. It’s a family business and has been around for years. I didn’t get to close to this store though… I’m with Indy on snakes.
I continued to wander around this area (Sheung Wan) and found a sign pointing to the Man Mo temple! A temple! YES!! I was so excited. I ran up the steps and voila there it was. This particular one was in honor of the God of Literature and the God of BLANK. I went in and got some incense (mmmm.. smelled so good) and lit it and followed other people who knew what they were doing around the temple and then placed my incense in sand (like I had seen other people do). It was really cool to be in an actual temple and it smelled so nice with all the incense burning. Although the temple experience was awesome, my favorite part of this particular visit were the signs on the outside of the temple (warning: this is my immature side). It read: “Be ware of Naked Flame.” Hehehehehe.
And dreams do come true because as I exited the temple I saw another sign for the Museum of Medical Sciences in Hong Kong (another thing I wanted to go) so I ran up those steps (haha… I wish, my not having worked out in a week was catching up to me and I was slowly making my way up the seemingly endless sets of stairs). This museum was not exactly what I anticipated—I was hoping for more of an explanation/exploration of eastern medicine. It turned out to be a museum documenting the history of medicine in Hong Kong including topics such as the SARS epidemic, the introduction of midwives and did dabble a bit in the difference between Eastern and Western Medicines. Still cool, but just didn’t quelch my thirst for more knowledge about all those dried fish I see around town. So I headed over to this “pharmacy”/Eastern medicine center in the heart of town where they have a cool little shop selling everything from dried crocodile (almost bought some… but I didn’t think it would fly with U.S. customs), to deer’s tail, to dried rose. On the wall they had a little exhibit explaining the different benefits of animals parts (yup... let’s just say there were some dried reproductive organs), different rocks and marine animals. I’m intrigued. Although I don’t think eating antelope horn is for me. Neither is dried shark fin. Maybe this part of eastern medicine just isn’t my thing.
I headed over to Mak’s noodles—a place I almost stopped in to eat with my Mom, but decided for dumplings instead. I did a little research and found out this was one of the best eateries in town!!!!! How could I pass that up? It definitely was amazing and I was the only non-local in the small little restaurant (which is impressive considering the multitude of guidebooks that highly recommend it). I watched them make the noodles as I waited for my beef brisket and shrimp dumpling noodle soup and the bok choy in oyster sauce (my fave). I made a fool of myself with my chop sticks (my inability to use chopsticks is super embarrassing. I try. I really do. gAH!). —I spilled one of my bok choy—the one covered in oyster sauce—all over myself like a kindergartener. That may have attracted more attention than my blond hair and green eyes (and maybe even more attention than my hips! Haha).
I quickly paid for my noodles and made a bee-line for the exit and strutted my oyster sauce stained scarf down Wellington street :/. I’m still embarrassed. I continued to wander around the city until I found the Tea shop I had researched online. Inside I sampled a couple different teas with the nice lady that worked there, bought a couple things and preceeded to go to the next tea shop. The second one was WAY cool! They were scooping the dried flowers into bags and packaging them right there. They were measuring out different amounts of the flowers/leaves and combining them. It smelled soooooo good. I bought a bunch of different little teas and cannot wait to have them at home! My tea shopping desire has been fulfilled. I felt complete.
Then I made my way over to the piers to take the Ferry back across to Kowloon so I could actually see the Hong Kong skyline! It was still cloudy, but clear enough that I could see the tops of the skyscrapers and even Victoria Peak. I strolled along the “Avenue of the Stars” again and enjoyed a latte while looking across Victoria harbour. It was really fulfilling to be able to see the (almost) whole city! Then it was time for me to take the train (it’s like a 2 hour ride) all the way back to Shenzhen.
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