Day 60, trams and feries, kowloon, computer stores snd night markets

Thurs 1 March
Breakfast was in the lounge downstairs. People ( mostly men dressed in business wear) were having muted conversations over the quiet chink of china. The choice was excellent, everything from bread/toast, cereals, croissants , pastries, fruit salad and yoghurts to sausages, eggs, beans or salad, cheeses,cold meats, smoked salmon. It was all very civilised.

We met Matt near his hotel and decided to have an explore day. We just walked to the tram stop in the middle of the road and got on the first one that came along. The trams are double decker and are boarded at the back but you get off at the front, tapping the octopus card on the reader as you do. We went upstairs and sat right at the front so we had a good view. The tram was bound for North Point Road terminus running along the Hennessey Road.

brothers in law in blue

We saw bamboo scaffolding going up and then the tram ran through a market before reaching the terminus.

Bamboo scaffolding is used everywhere

We strolled through the market watching the meat being chopped up andall the fruit and veg on display. The fish part was up nearvwhere the ferry leaves. Live fish and crabs in shallow tanks waiting to be chosen and killed. Jono suggested we move on " before Karen stops eating fish". I think its a lot harder to eat something when you've watched it alive first.

Since we were at a ferry terminal, we took the first ferry out,which went to Kowloon. Octopus cards are very versatile! We took the top deck, which we had to ourselves apart from one man, so we felt free to wander around to different sides and peer out all of the windows.

Boats in harbour 

At Kowloon City Ferry Pier we were in non tourist country, we walked past massive apartment buildings with washing hung out to dry, and people going about everyday lives.

There is a small park near by ( Hoi Sham Park) where older people were exercising in the gym area, a small group of muscicians were practising in another part and two women were taking part in tai chi.  There is a big rock which is meant to look like a carp and is a sacred spot here. Its very peaceful.

Musicians  playing

Rock that looks like a carp

We were slowly heading back towards Tsim Sha Tsui but not quite quick enough to get Matt back to his hotel in time for his flight so we picked up the MTR at Whampoa.

Rare footage of empty MTR train,no separation down the length of the train

Tsim Sha Tsui has a number of very lovely and opulent looking buildings. Its the place to go for dressed up afternoon tea.

We wanted lunch though and just passed the MTR station was the Mall Cafe. Its part of the YMCA and has a salad bar as well as European and Asian dishes. Matt and I plumped for the salad bar which also came with soup, a roll and a drink all for $93 -about £9. Jono had the chicken and pineapple burger which came with fries. We couldn't have eaten a dessert we were so full after the salad and soup but in a virtuous, look how many veggies I've  eaten, sort of way!

We caught the star ferry back acoss the harbour to Wai Chai. Its been operating since the 1880s and has reversible seats. Just push the back of the seat the other way and hey presto you can sit facing whichever way you want.

On the star ferry

We said a final farewell to Matt on the other side and walked to 298 Hennessey Road. This is a big computer store set over 4 floors, all tiny little shops within the building and  not much space between them. It's like a rabbit warren with stuff everywhere. Jono didn't  find what he specifically wanted and was very good about not being sidetracked into the hundreds of goods on offer. It was difficult to work put whether we had seen everything on each floor sometimes, and even harder to find the next set of escalators.
Despite the amount of walking we had already done we walked all the way back to Lanson Place. It's basically a straight line but it's a good 30 minutes, admittedly not at a particularly fast pace. That's impossible due the hordes of people on the pavements, waiting to catch buses, delivering goods in trollies, walking while looking at their phones, or standing and talking. Most of walking involves dodging fellow pedestrians. The pavements aren't very wide either!
We relaxed for a while at our hotel and then set out to find dinner. We didn't  want to walk far but we did need to know what we were eating. Not all restaurants have English menus and when they do either it's not clear what the food contains or its obvious that everything has meat in it. Equally the places where we could solve both those problems would have been the more expensive places and were hidden away on floors we didn't  know about. We were both quite hungry and the first place that we could see would work for us happened  to be an Indian on the first floor of a block. It was ok but a bit pricey for what it was. We won't  be going back but we were at least full and it wasn't  too far from where we were staying.
However our evening wasn't over Jono wanted to visit the night markets over on Kowloon. The one he wanted to look at specialised in electronics. He also wanted to visit Sim City, another store meant to be more phone orientated. We used the MTR to get across the harbour this time, it's quicker!
The night market  at Sham Shui Po was full of led lights, phone cases, selfie sticks, batteries, USB cables, light fittings,rear view mirrors with android devices built in to act like a phone, magnets and goodness knows what else. Jono looked at lots of mobile phones and got some ideas of ones to check out but didn't buy anything.Next stop Sim City, two stops down at Mong Kok. This was like 298, 3 floors of nooks and crannies. Jono picked up an SD card here and I spotted a gear fit pro which seemed to be going for a good price ( mine had died in Sydney and I was getting tired of looking at my wrist and NOT seeing the time). The seller wanted cash though and we didn't have that much on us. I might go back and get it before we go.
Jono browsed through a few other phone stores, Fortress and Broadway are both reputable here before we finally left Kowloon and called it a day. Hong Kong is open until 10pm or later and it's  just as busy and packed late in the evening as in the morning. Don't  expect to get a tube seat easily, but the ends of the trains are more likely to have one than the middle.

Sugar cane being juiced