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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