We slept pretty well considering we are trying to adjust to a 13 hour time change. Rick slept from 7:30 until 3 and I slept from 8 until 4, was up for awhile and then went back to sleep from 5:30 until 8.
We met Ann in the lobby at walked across the street to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, a beautiful and serene park in the middle of the city. We wandered around, looking at the plants, birds, and animals. Here are a few pictures.
We stopped at the grocery store to get water on the way back to hotel. After safely storing our water we took a taxi up to the peak. We had a coffee and admired the view. It was a perfect day to be up there. Not a cloud in the sky and in the upper 60’s. The view was magnificent! We hadn’t realized how big Hong Kong is. Walking along some of the paths we were able to see the other side of the island. Here are some pictures.
We had lunch at Wildfire, a excellent pizza place at the peak. From there we took a taxi back to the hotel where we regrouped.
Next stop the Star Ferry which travels between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It’s been running since 1888. Here’s a picture of the ferry.
The Kowloon side felt much more chaotic and had lots of very high end shopping. We planned to go to the flower market and the bird market. We started walking but weren’t completely sure where we were going so we asked a hotel doorman. He told us it was a pretty long walk and suggested that we take a cab or the subway. We tried to get a cab but no one wanted to take us, so we decided to try to subway. A gentleman at the subway’s customer service desk sold us the tickets and told us how to get to the markets. Ann and I got on the train and the doors started to close. Rick almost didn’t get on the train, but being the New Yorker that he is, he held the doors open and made it through. Yikes that was close!
We got off the train and walked to the flower market. It was store after store of beautiful flowers.
We walked a little further to the bird market.
We didn’t buy any flowers or birds, just took the subway back to the pier area. We ended up going into a hotel to have a glass of wine and some appetizers. We wanted to stay on the Kowloon side to see the light show. After dinner we walked to the harbor and found a good spot to watch it. The light show was cool.
After the light show we took a taxi to the hotel. We stayed up until 9:30. We’re making progress!