IndoIan: Hong Kong: Kowloon

Hong Kong is a huge metropolitan area and is made up of more than 200 islands, but the main parts are Hong Kong city - the island, and across the bay Kowloon, which is on mainland China. Up until 1997, these territories belonged to Britain. While now part of China, Hong Kong does enjoy some special economic and political privileges due to its recent history as a British dominion and its unique status as an international trade and finance center. Its location, with a great harbor and proximity to the massive market and labor pool that is mainland China, explains why the city continues to boom. According to the guide book we used to get around, there exists a bit of rivalry between Hong Kong islanders and Kowlooners across the bay. The guide said something like ask a Hong Konger what there is to do in Kowloon and they will say turn around and look back across the bay to Hong Kong. The areas are certainly unique and give off rather different vibes. Hong Kong is sleek and aesthetically impressive as it sprawls horizontally along the harbor and rises majestically into its vertical setting with an impressive skyline and backdrop of verdant green hills. Kowloon has a grittier feel to it and an energy that I enjoyed while walking down its frenetic streets. It has a lot more contrasts than its glitzy twin across the harbor. We took the subway over to Kowloon in the morning, made our way up Nathan Road (the Golden Mile), one of the main thoroughfares jam packed with holiday shoppers, restaurant goers and people just out and about. I did lead us off on a random tangent that took us into Kings Park which was neat. The park was actually built up a lot like the city of Hong Kong - vertically up a steep hill. It had all sorts of cool walkways and recreational areas built into terraces here and there and was topped by a grassy field with various exercise options including a running track. The girls wanted to eat dim sum - actually just dumplings and we found a little hole in the wall eatery. I ordered several options but the waitress kept inclining that they were not available. She didn't speak English and my attempts at asking for certain items was not getting across. Eventually, she pointed to a few items and I agreed - bit of excitement when the dishes came out. Several dumpling dishes and two noodle dishes - neither of which I had tried before. One was a cold noodle dish with wide, rice noodles cooked quite al dente - they had an almost chewy texture to them - and a kind of peanut sauce with shredded chicken. The other was hot and a bit spicy with glass noodles and ground pork. We put some serious mileage on our feet after lunch as Alicia took us on a walking tour of various areas around Nathan Road, including the flower market, fish (as in aquarium) street, bird (as in parrots for sale) street and a shopping promenade that extended for several blocks. Our day ended in a German biergarten for a beer before boarding the ferry back to Hong Kong. We didn't time our departure for the sunset and the lit up skyline of HK . I thought there would be a wait for the ferry and alloted for this in the timing but there was no wait so we crossed the bay just before the sunset and thus no lit up skyline shots of HK.

Swinging in the King's Park.

Posing at the top of the park. Lots of owners walking their dogs. One guy had brought a bag of treats for the dogs and soon had all the dogs around him excitedly jockeying for position. Two of the dogs were beautiful malamutes - and of course reminded me of Puk. When he began dolling out the snacks I saw that they were rice balls of some sort! Funny to think of pets in other countries and how different their experiences must be - pet culture - theres a fun topic will have to delve into one of these days.