Tuesday, March 29, 2016

China/Korea 2009: day 12 (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong day 3: Friday 10/9/09
Map of my Hong Kong stops, this day in purple; here are the photos from today. Yellow highlights in the text correspond to flags on the map.


Because I had to buy a new camera, that took up the part of the morning that I was going to try to do something else. Even though I mapped out all 3 camera shops, I couldn't find any of them, and of course I ended up getting ripped off by the shop I did go into (Intelligent Camera on Nathan, don't shop there). Basically, it was a bait-and-switch. They had the camera I had found online, and it was significantly cheaper than in the US (like a $300 camera for $200). They used an old carbon-copy credit card machine to get my number, but then they said I had to wait while they got the camera from another of their stores. While waiting, they upsold me to a different camera which looked to me like it was better, but I had not researched it and knew nothing about the specs. I did like the new one better, so they ripped up my carbon receipt and sold me the other camera for $300. When I got back to my room and looked it up, I found the camera listed for about $175 in the US. I got upsold to a cheaper camera! Nothing I could do about it, though, except admit I got suckered. 

Did my Blue Bus tour on the Kowloon side, which took us to a number of places for walking around and shopping, including the Temple Street Night Market, and the shopping districts for electronics, sports wear, and ladies fashion. I got off at the Jade Market, a couple blocks from the Night Market, and I spent a couple of hours shopping and sightseeing. The Night Market, of course, wasn't really open much in the daytime, but I got to look at the daytime farmer's market and the Tin Hau Temple. The bus drove down the west side of Kowloon over to the southeastern coast near the Coliseum. Then with my new camera I retraced my steps a bit to get pictures of the things I had lost yesterday, including the Space Museum, and Tea at the Peninsula which I had accidentally taken with my old camera's internal memory instead of the flash card. (Note: they strongly prefer that you don't take movies inside the Peninsula.) 

Then for some relaxation (finally!) I took the sunset cruise of the Harbour on the Star Ferry. A really nice place to watch from, and you can catch it from either the Central or Kowloon stations. I went back to the terminal at Central to grab a bite to eat and wait for the special nighttime cruise, which is on the water in the middle of the Harbour at 8pm when the light show starts. You get to do a tour of the Harbour and watch the show, so it's like twice as long. Bring extra camera batteries and flash cards. Both tours are definitely worth it, but in retrospect I would have done them on different days instead of back to back. After the cruise, I went back to my hotel to pick up my bags (having checked out that morning) and head to the airport for my flight to Seoul after midnight.

The main things in Hong Kong I had marked off that I wanted to do but didn't get to were Stanley Market and Aberdeen, which I could have done with another half day. Oh well, next time!

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