Monday, Monday....

Still playing catchup, though we are just about there.

I forgot to mention that, although everything seems grubby, it is all washed and sanitised where it counts - they employ people wipe elevator buttons, railings, door handles - everything with frequent touching, as well as sanitising carpets (not that there is a lot of carpet - too hot), mats, etc. They are very particular about all that sort of stuff.

Monday, we realised already that nothing gets going before 11-12, so there is no use really getting moving before then. Other 7-Eleven and the occasional breakfast place, everything is closed, which is irritating, because it feels like you waste half the day away, because the kids need to be in bed at a reasonable time. We seem to be getting a limited amount done each day, but I want to explore further and it isn't happening.

So we decided to head into Tsim Sha Tsui (think "ch" like Tsingdao) on the MTR. That basically means walking a few blocks (though stupidly, we noticed that there is one station closer, even though it is in the next suburb and didn't use it. It took a while to find a lift (we gave up), so we ended up closing the pram and carrying the kids down the platform. On the platform, you can use an Octopus card (like Brisbane's go-card), which we haven't purchased, simply because we haven't actually used public transport. We've either been too close, or taxi'd it, because it is too hard to take a family of five plus acutriments anywhere. The guides have been wrong about taxis being expensive (as guides often are), we pay very little.

Having said that, we paid the equivalent of $1.10 per adult for a one way trip a few suburbs down to Tsim Sha Tsui and came out on Nathan road.

They say that Tsim Sha Tsui is the baby brother of HK Island proper. I would venture to add that it is the richer older cousin of Sham Shui Po. But for all the chinese signs (they are even groovier at night - look on google maps at the pictures), you could be in the middle of Sydney or Melbourne. In a way, it is quite stale - just another westernised city, not a lot of character. It is nice, very elegant, but not very Chinese.

But the shops - my goodness, it is massive. And everything is the best designer labels. The authentic ones I mean, not the knock-offs (more on that later). We ventured (more default, than anything) to Harbour City - a 500 shop mall, only about 7 stories and it was nothing but designer stuff. Very expensive (same as Australian prices for the same brands), but very opulent. It was really a very beautiful, sophisticated complex. But as with everything HK, most of the stuff wasn't going until after 12 midday. So we stopped into authentic starbucks for coffee. I knew I wouldn't get a brilliant coffee in HK, and this was the best, which is a comment in itself. The fact that 2 coffees and a lemonade cost HK$2 more than our entire meal on sunday, is yet another pre-drawn conclusion.

We decided after window shopping for a fair bit, to go to "outback steakhouse", which is an Australian themed restaurant. I thought Jovia would like a break from Asian food (speaking of which, I've wanted to try Shanghainese food and Chinese BBQ, which I haven't yet, plus Dim Sum are still on the menu). It was nice, though without the boomerangs, it could have been an American steakhouse. Not much to say - though my hickory riblets were nice.

We decided to go along the Park Lane Shopper's boulevard and head back towards Jordan/Yau Ma Tei, so we could look at temple street night markets. There were some nice shops there, but we ended up having sore feet, so sat down for half an hour. This should have been a clue - we had done too much to actually make a decent market trip an option.

We got down to toward Temple street (night markets open at 4pm, but don't get going until sundown) - see the 1st picture and started having a look.

We'd made our first purchase (a genuine copy D&G leather handbag (the leather was real, the D&G obviously wasn't) which Jovia bargained down to about $10 AU), when the heavens opened up. Basically, just insert typical tropical sudden Brisbane pee-down of rain, and you have it. You know - the kind of rain that makes everything even steamier, so that you don't know if you are wet from the rain or from your own sweat.

That made things considerably harder. Plus we were had it, because we had bitten off more that we can chew (i.e. the markets should be a trip in its own right). Tempers started to fray a little, but we made a few purchases, though we didn't get through all the markets in detail. 1. Because the rain made it harder to and 2. We were just too had it.

So we stopped into Yakinoyza (or something) - a chain of Japanese style ramen/rice shops. There is one at golden dragon here as well. It was okay, but nothing to write home about - the Japanese food we had on Sunday was supremely better. Having said that, we all ate and drank pepsi/lemonade for the sum total of $88 HK (about $16-$17 AUD).

We caught a taxi home (cost around $9 AU), which made it a bit more bearable. 7-Eleven was over the road, so picked up some more water and Munchenal (second picture), before getting into the taxi. The third picture I saw when we waited (about 2 minutes) for a taxi, and thought it was funny).

We realised that we 1. Have to go back to those markets and 2. Can't do markets after a day of wandering - they have to be done in their own right.

Another lesson learned.

I got back and had the Munchenal pictured. It is easy to eat and drink, if you stick to local fare and chain stores - but it costs a lot more for restaurant quality (Australian restaurants, I mean - anything that you can sit down at & eat is called a restaurant here). There isn't a huge drinking culture here, which I think explains the ease of availablility for beer. I think that you wouldn't have it in Australia (7-eleven I mean, I'd still have it at supermarkets - maybe, unless they monopolised it, like they have with fuel) - our rules pretty well suit the issues we have. No-one drinks much here, so no need to over-regulate it.

Caught the blog up last night, and went to sleep.

Beds are very very firm. But we seem to sleep well and have no bed-induced back pain. However the walking is hard on feet and backs.