Day 19 Saturday 21 April – Hong Kong Island

A set half day tour of Hong Kong Island had been planned for us today by Oriental Travel, and this was our first experience on this trip of a group event. We met the coach from our hotel lobby at 8.20am, but this actually turned out to be a transfer vehicle that stopped and started at several locations whilst other unsuspecting tourists were picked up. Well, the island tour was off to a good start if you count visits to different hotels!

Eventually, we met our designated coach for the day at the harbour and set off just after 9.30am. There was a variety of nationalities on the bus, and we looked set to share interesting tales of our various travelling experiences.

However, we were rudely interrupted when a microphone bearing small Chinese lady introduced herself as our guide for the morning, and seemed determined to prevent any chatter amongst the delegates with her speedy and incessant commentary. She was quite amusing to watch as her mouth, which was her biggest feature, seemed to stretch as wide as the Hong Kong harbour tunnel. When she spoke, a deluge of sentences just poured out of this mouth like water would if the tunnel ever collapsed.

Guess what the first stop was? Yes, you're right of course. Another *#*% Pagoda style building housing yet another Buddhist temple. This time the "Man Mo" temple.

You can kind of get the feeling that we're a bit tired of this type of "spectacular" tourist attraction by now! So, Alec and I decided to duck out of this one when we spotted some conveniently close antique shops. Alec was on the hunt for the Tang Dynasty Horse that I had previously managed to dissuade him from purchasing when he had the chance to whilst in a museum in Chongqing. I suspect I'm never going to hear the last of it, as he has been looking for one ever since. Ho hum!

Once safely back on the coach we were taken to déjà vu feeling number 1. Yes, we were back at the Victoria Peak Tram. This time in day light however and it was good to get the chance to experience the 45 degree ascension up the mountain again. It's quite a weird sensation as the high rise hotels appear to be built on their sides at this angle! Once at the top we took a few more photos then spotted a Hagen Däaz ice cream shop. You can guess the rest!

We descended the mountain by coach this time as we headed directly for déjà vu number 2. The Jumbo restaurant had been accessed from this exact point at Aberdeen harbour! However, this time we joined a party to cruise around the harbour fishing boats in a Sanpan, which was crewed by a really old and wrinkly local woman. She intermittently shouted out various land marks in Chinese which none of us could understand, so we just smiled and nodded as we ducked the spit and various contents of her mouth which splattered out uncontrollably, probably due to the fact that she didn't have any teeth! Her only good English was to ask for $55 dollar as the boat was safely returned.

We were the forced browse an unscheduled and unannounced Jewellery outlet. Some of the party complained vehemently as we spent over an hour of the “island tour” being persuaded to buy trinkets etc so that the rout guide could get her commission. It’s not on.

We finally extricated ourselves form the jewellery store and headed to the south side of the island and the Stanley market. This was a bust bustle affair selling top quality crap, for next to nothing, much of which we bought for gifts for our best friends back at home.

We abandoned the tour which was nearing its end and decided to take lunch on the sea front.

After a brief rest back at the hotel, we were out again and off to the Temple night market via the MTR underground system. We had been recommended the market as, at night, it had good atmosphere. There certainly was an atmosphere. At 9pm it was still like a sauna with the portable fans simply blowing hot air at us as we passed through the intense, bristling rows of stalls selling every conceivable kind of crap from Rolex masterpieces to 3000 year old jade, all for $2 HK a go! There was something else about the atmosphere, the pungent whiff of aromatic crispy sewer system made it impossible to understand how people could be sitting around eating amidst the feverish sales pitches. Interesting to see, definite a one-visit place and an hour was quite enough.