Hong Kong (Part 2) - Copy Watch?

Our second day in Hong Kong, we made plans to go to Ocean Park with two nice Indonesian girls we met during the fireworks display. Ocean Park is Hong Kong's top-rated amusement park, more-so even than Disneyland - (which is the reason we missed out on Disney). As you can probably guess, it's a very aqua-centric place.

There were a lot of very good animal shows and exhibitions, including Jellyfish, Seals, Doplhins, and Pandas - and of course, a few rollercoasters. I hadn't ridden on one since going to Wonderland a couple of years ago, so I decided it was time to verify my theory of 'maybe this time it won't make my head spin'. It wasn't too bad. One of the teachers, Brandon, went on his first ride - ever - and was captured by the end-of-the-ride-cam looking like a man who was about to die. haha.. those pictures are usually overpriced, but I considered this one to be pretty priceless, so I bought myself a copy.

The park was a fun way to spend the day - even with the Asian-sized lineups, we all had a good time.

After we made it back into the heart of the City, we went looking for a place to eat/drink. We eventually ended up at a district named SoHo (for South Hollywood), which is hugely popular with foreigners. Let me just say first, though, that the ratio of foreigners in Hong Kong is already very, very high (with only 65-70% of the population actually being Chinese, by my entirely unscientific-estimate). When you head into a district that's popular with foreigners, those Chinese become a visible minority. It's strange.

When we headed back to our hostel, we heard someone say a word that we ended up hearing way, way too much on our trip: 'Hash?'. By that point, we were starting to get used to the people standing on each street corner saying 'Copy Watch? You want a copy watch? Rolex?' and 'Tailored suit? You need a tailored suit? Take my card'. The 'Hash' guys seem to operate with the same business plan, and after being offered Copy Watches/Suits/Hash for the umpteenth time, it was hard to resist not making fun of them by offering each-other (loudly), as we were walking by, 'Copy Watch?!'.

I even saw an elderly English gentleman say, after being offered a tailored suit, 'No, I just bought a big bag of Hash, but thank you', with all the loudness and sarcasm he could muster. haha.

The main excursion during our third day was to reach the top of 'The Peak', one of the highest points on Hong Kong Island. The easiest way to get there is to take the 'Peak Tram', which reaches the top in about 8 minutes (as opposed to the hour and a half walk). We were treated to one of the greatest views available in the region, upon reaching the top. There were a few restaurants, and some attractions that we skipped (not wanting to waste time on a Wax museum), but we did take some time to walk down a trail that led downhill quite a way. We didn't go too far.










After finding a place to have supper, we went to a notable market located on Temple Street. It's a very large market with tents pitched up, and people selling things from utter-crap to pretty cool souvenirs. Everything is negotiable, and haggling is expected. That aspect isn't all too different from Korea, but at least here, I can haggle in a language I understand, which was a lot of fun.

I'll wrap up my Hong Kong trip with another post in a little while - I missed Korean food while I was gone, and it's a-callin'.

Cheers.