Signage in Hong Kong

Just some random photos of funny signs, bad translations, humorous shop names.

 

Not a great place to shop then??

There are signs on every form of public transport that the carriage of livestock is prohibited. I guess they like to eat fresh.

This product is endorsed by Jacky Chan!

Also a lot of signs that prohibit spitting – funny icon.

Last Day - Shopping at the Jade Markets, random bits

In the morning of our last day we went to the Jade Markets – they were a cacophony of colour and shape. I always thought Jade was green, but apparently it's available in pretty much all the colours of the rainbow. The vendors were selling everything from necklaces to pendants, rings, bracelets, figurines, belt buckles, be-tasseled things, tea pots, and more.
I bought a lovely long (and very heavy) beaded necklace made of Old Jade – the colours vary a bit, dark greens and browns with swirls carved into each bead. Kind of like the necklace in the middle of the third pic, but different colours. I also bought a really pretty belt – a round carved dragon symbol with woven leather straps – I'll have to photography it when I'm back in Munich and post it.
There were so many pretty things to buy, I really had to hold back.

A collection of fans at the Jade Markets.

 Random bits and pieces at yet another market alleyway.

 I presume these to be shed snake skins – no idea what purpose they're being sold for.

And some turtle shells – sorry, CK.

This was so damn cute – the kitty sitting in the middle of all the apples. The vendor was very enarmoured with her pet; she even had a jade pendant on her collar:

Last lunch in HK – steamed pork buns and fried noodles. Yum.

For dinner we went to a little Japanese place that was called “Miso cool”. Lol

After dinner, off to the airport we went, Ton back home, and the rest of us onto Munich. More posts to come.

Kowloon Walled City (Park), Cemetery, Yum Cha

In the morning we took a bus to the Kowloon Walled City Park. This a park commemorating a development that used to be there. Said development can pretty much only be compared to the Brazilian favelas – tiny rooms-come-units that kept getting built on top of each other. Like the favelas, crime was rife, a city with laws unto itself. No running water, loads of tiny factories. Very interesting stuff, definitely worth a read on Wikipedia if you're interested. This development was finally torn down in 1992 - no idea what happened to the masses of people living there, this is never mentioned in any of the exhibits in the park. Before it was torn down the whole city was examined, measured, and so on, and at the entrance there is a cross-diagram, and a bronze sculpture of what the Kowloon Walled City looked like before it was torn down.

Top view of the sculpture, courtesy of mum

A close-up of the cross-diagram

 A photo of one of their exhibits, featuring a photo of the side of the City during the 80s.

Other than the sculptures and fixed exhibit (really well done, with digital touch screen photo albums), there is a really nice park. This old man took his bird there for a walk to 'talk' to the other birds in the park.

There's also a small enclave with bonsai trees. (I always thought bonsai was strictly Japanese, but apparently not.

 This old dude saw us standing around all tourist-like and came over to have a chat about one of the floor murals (Dad's photo below), which was made up of recycled beer and other bottles. Then he toddled off playing his flute. A bit odd, but a really nice guy.

On the way out I saw that someone had scribbled onto a bamboo leaf.

Nearby there is a cemetery that we checked out. Rows and rows and rows of graves up the hill.
I've never been to an Australian cemetery, but this is so very different to what I'm used to from German cemeteries (lots of greenery, massive trees, all on one level).

After all this walking around it was definitely time for lunch – yum cha at Maxim's City Hall. YUMmy indeed! :)

Then the boys took off for more gadget shopping (we had been thinking about getting the HTC Desire, but it wasn't really cheaper in HK than in Oz, unfortunately), whilst the girls went on a mission to find mum a pair of shoes for the wedding. Unbelievably we didn't find anything – shoe sizes in HK are (on the whole) not made for big European feet :(

Spotted from the Star Ferry on our way back to Kowloon.

Our last day of Hong Kong shenanigans to come.

KKxx

Calligraphy made to measure

Ever since we saw a little exhibit inside the Big Buddha with beautiful calligraphy paintings I had become a little obsessed with trying to find a nice piece of calligraphy to take home with me. I looked around quite a bit, but surprisingly (to me) I couldn't find anything in shops. The night we went to the Temple Street Markets I thought, surely I will find something here. I saw some prints, but nothing too exciting, until this one stall with a few big scrolls at the back of the stand. I found some calligraphy I quite liked (the image of the script), but I didn't like the paper itself - too motley for my liking. Anyway, the guy there turned out to not only be a vendor, but a calligraphy artist himself, so he offered to write me a fresh copy on a background of my choosing (off-white).
He was such a nice man, and so very thoughtful and precise. The saying translates to (apparently, Andrew, maybe a little help here if you can): A thousand mile journey begins with the first step.
I cannot wait to find a spot to hang this.
Here are the photos of the process. Enjoy:

And the finished piece.

KKxx

What we did on my birthday... the Peak, more markets, bird poo and Temple Street Markets

This post has now been udpated

My travel companions

In the morning we caught the Star Ferry across to Central (HK Island) and starting trekking up the very very long series of escelators that would eventually take us half-way up to The Peak. On the way we stopped of for more markets, natch.

View from above

Cute cat looking to pick up some scraps of food at the markets

These prawns are ALIVE! I know this because one of them jumped ON MY FOOT
before attempting to scurry down the street!

These fish are also alive, which is a bit disconcerting, as they're flopping around on dry land.

Very sad, but a common sight.

Also somewhat disconcerting, this cow tail with all the hair and tail bits still on it in the middle of the meat. I wonder if the buyers will find hairs on their steak?!

The escalators took us past people's homes, giving insights into their lifestyles, and laundry.

Once we scaled the escalators we took a tram-type thing up the rest of the hill (photos of how steep it is later, I took some goodies on our descent)
There is a little viewing platform there, unfortunately the view wasn't great on that day, a big smog-y.

This is also the venue of the unfortunate bird poo incident... Walking to this viewing platform we heard the bird in the trees above, singing and flying around. Everyone was else was looking up trying to figure out what kind of birds they were. I said "don't look up, they will shit on your faces". About 5 minutes later I felt a big drop on my head!!! Bloody bird must have heard me and decided to get revenge for bad-mouthing him!! YUCK. Mum reckons it's good luck, but I'm not so sure... After applying a ton of hand sanitiser to my head (thanks to Sarah for inspiring me to always carry some) we continued on our merry way.

We went back to the main building which has a viewing platform on top of it, and somehow we got a little better view up there. Annie, here is photographic proof that Horst came up there with us. (My uncle is not a fan of heights, for those not in the know)

The view from up there is pretty unbelievable. It's hard to fathom how many people live down there (~7 million in HK) in all those appartments.

The previously mentioned viewing platform (of bird poo infamy) as seen from our new vantage point.

 Going back down from The Peak, backwards. The tracks are probably on a 30 degree angle!

Once we were back down we caught a tram back to the Star Ferry terminal. I got into papparazzi mode with my 200mm lens:

A bored commuter on the tram behind us.

Cyclists abound.

Not quite sure why, but there is a set of steps with every date and venue for the Modern Olympic Games so far. This was there even before the Beijing Games were announced.

After the Star Ferry trip back to Kowloon we made our way to the Intercontinental Hotel to celebrate my birthday with a high tea. The Interconti is right on the Harbour which is a beautiful view. 

Unfortunately we were so hungry that I forgot to photograph the high tea set until after we finished the savouries (very yummy), as you can see from this pic.

Hmm... yummy sweet things...

That night we went to the Temple Street Markets, boy, did I do a lot of shopping! I found some really nice leather clutches, which, after some haggling from dad (he's the best, a tough negotiater) I got 2 for under 20 bucks! Bargain.

I also bought a lovely calligraphy scroll, photos in the next post.

Also thanks to everyone's nice comments. Am glad to hear that it's entertaining people, I will try to get some more posts done whilst away.

KKxx