HK: Markets, Golden Mile, and Lightshow

Day three (anyone as tired of this as me...I just keep telling myself it's all for the blurb) in the afternoon we ventured out to experience some of the markets near where we were staying. This is just an old apartment building. Hong Kong is so much older than Singapore and this was made apparent with these types of buildings--there is not much that is run down in Singapore.

We first stopped at the "ladies' market", where you can buy all sorts of designer knock-off and cool chinese stuff. We picked up some Christmas presents for our parents. This is at the Jade Market, where they sold jewelry and jade trinkets.

They had some really beautiful stuff. We wanted to get Samara a little bracelet. They didn't have much in small sizes. When the first lady was showing us bracelets she showed us a pink one and a red one. They weren't quite small enough so she sent us to another stall. Well, Samara already had it in her mind that she was getting both colors (they happen to be her two favorite colors and the only two colors in her little mind) so when we bought only the pink one a meltdown ensued. Ben and I do occasionally hold our ground and we kept trying to explain how she should be glad to even get one as their are starving kids all over the world who don't even get one bracelet, etc. Anyway, when we tried to get Samara to wear it and told her to look how pretty the pink one is, her reply was, "the red one is pretty too." She refused then and still refuses to wear it until she has "two bracelets."

The little stinker sporting her disappointed look.

We grabbed a bite to eat and then went through the Temple Street night market. We just walked through, but there are apparently fortune tellers and impromptu Cantonese opera performances if you stick around.

Notice the lady and girl with masks on. I have never in my life seen so many people wearing masks. There is certainly nothing wrong with it, but in the states you don't see it outside the hospital on anyone but my parents. In Singapore, you see it more frequently than in the states, but in Hong Kong they were very common place. I'm sure it is just beause they were burned with SARS and are paranoid about H1N1. There were also signs in public restrooms and on elevator buttons telling how many times a day it was disinfected.

Like I said, we like walking so we walked the 'golden mile' down to the avenue of stars. The golden mile is a mile of high-end shopping. The neon signs were everywhere and I thought they were quite charming in their own way. They certainly made it feel exciting.

The avenue of stars is on the Kowloon side and they have a nightly light show at 8:00.

This is Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon peninsula. It was stunning!!

If we would have had another night there we would have gone again. Samara loved it too and is still talking about it and the second bracelet she didn't get.

A family picture for good measure.