Yet more Hong Kong

Days 4 and 5 in Hong Kong were a little different since my husband was involved in his business meetings and did not join us for touring. Instead, my son and I ventured more locally. We walked to the Hong Kong Art Museum and Space Museum which are on the water, near the Star Ferry and the Intercontinental Hotel. The Art Museum looks out on the harbor and their Walk of Fame with stars, like the one in Hollywood. It was a lovely, but hot walk after the comfort of the museum. The museum also had a beautiful book and gift shop where I found my son a lithograph of his Chinese zodiac sign - the rat, which had a very elongated body, with an interesting Asian flair to it, in keeping with the art contained in the Museum. The space museum reminded me of a lesser version of the Rose Planetarium in NYC at the Museum of Natural History. We walked through the exhibits, with many hands-on learning tools and videos, and purchased tickets (museum entry is Free on Wednesdays) for their version of IMAX in the planetarium which had very comfortable seats, wonderful helpful staff and arm rests that opened to individual headsets so one can choose the language in which you want to listen to the film narration. Since ours was English we had the pleasure of hearing Michael Douglas narrate the film "Dinosaurs Alive".

We then had a late lunch, walked the mall to purchase tea and shop at Uniqlo for a few more things including mens socks which come with and L and an R so you finally know which foot to put them on.

The following day, we ventured via taxi to the Jade Market and the Ladies Market. Unlike France where markets open early, 8 a.m., so they can close at 1 p.m. and everyone can eat a leisurely lunch, nap, etc. in Hong Kong stores and markets open late and stay open late. The Jade Market did not open until 10 a.m. We took a cab directly there from the hotel. When cabbing it in Hong Kong we learned, the red cabs are the ones to take, having a different license than the green cabs. The green ones can only take you to certain transit points, while the red ones (all aging toyotas) with a much more expensive license not unlike the medallions in NYC, can take you anywhere. The minimum fee is $18.00HK or about $2.25 USD.

The Jade market was two buildings with numerous stalls with very friendly, slightly aggressive vendors hawking their goods, tables and boards full of jade jewelry, pearls, carvings, and traditional Chinese tourist gifts and goods. We purchased a few small items for gifts, negotiating with every vendor as is the custom, with each seller pulling out their calculator punching in the price to begin the process, and holding it out for me to punch in my numbers, going back and forth until we had reached an agreement.

In contrast, the Ladies Market was wild and uncontrolled, comprising fours long, wide blocks of stalls, marked by striped material from which vendors hung their goods, and adding folding tables for additional products, including faux designer handbags, shirts, shoes, and hair clips, luggage, and traditional Chinese shirts and dresses. The Ladies Market did not open until 11:30 a.m. or so it was supposed to, but it did not really get moving until 12 noon. Again, we walked leisurely through the stalls, watching people negotiating the goods and the prices, purchasing a few items for gifts, and to take home as souvenirs of our exotic journey.

Again, we had a late lunch back at the mall and ice cream (Hagen Daz yet again), and relaxed until dinner.

That evening we ventured to the Peninsula Hotel to their restaurant Felix which had been well-reviewed in Frommer's, but we found it a gross disappointment. Although the decor is spectacular and original, the food was mediocre and over-priced and the service quite poor and unsophisticated. Earlier in the week, we had an very good dinner at Hut Sung, in the top of 1 Peking Road, an office building with a spectacular view of the Harbor overlooking Hong Kong, which was a perfect place to eat and see the laser light show which takes place every evening at 8 p.m.

After Felix we walked the streets toward the Hotel, people watching and contemplating the next day which was going to be another Grayline tour adventure which we wanted to rest for.