Hong Kong has more than shopping

Believe it or not I did more than just shop in Hong Kong. During my nine day long trip to Hong Kong, with my dear friends Heather (pronounced heathA) and Shelly, I went to ocean park, visited the largest bronze sitting Buddha in the world, went to the peak, and saw PINK DOLPHINS!!!!

So the pink dolphins… I know you are all sitting at home thinking that I made them up and they do not exist, BUT THEY DO. In Hong Kong there are pink dolphins that jump out of the water. They have no idea why they are pink, but they are. We took a boat out near the airport and I saw at least 20 pink dolphins! I wish I had a picture to share of these infamous pink dolphins, but you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to take a picture of them. By the time my camera auto focused the dolphin was gone. I now have 40 pictures of just water with no dolphin in sight. I have posted a link to a Google image of a pink dolphin from a more skilled photographer than myself. http://lhessiando.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/pinkdolphin.jpg

We also visited Ocean Park, which is a zooish/ amusement park type place. The highlight was seeing the pandas and the red pandas. The first three pandas we visited barely did anything. We stood there for 40 minutes and all gasped with excitement when the panda’s ear flinched. That was the most movement we saw. We walked out of there so excited about the pandas and went to visit the other pandas. But before that we sat down for a quick lunch, when suddenly it started pouring; I have never seen rain like this before. We were sitting under this large picnic umbrella and decided to stick it out, but the rain changed directions and we seemed to be its main targets. After about ten minutes of holding on to the umbrella for dear life we decided to make a dash for the gift shop like the much smarter people before us. When we got there we were soaked. SOAKED.

The other pandas we visted were SO LIVELY. They were eating and walking around, in fact one even took the largest dump I have ever seen and then just passed out. As it happened, I just stood there covering my eyes and thinking, hmm, I guess pandas and humans have more in common than I thought. We then went to see the red pandas, which I didn’t even know existed. They were so cute! They look like a hybrid of a raccoon and fox.

Lastly we visited the largest bronze sitting Buddha in the world via cable car. Somehow I got this idea that I wanted to put my finger in the Buddha’s belly button, but when I got there I realized there was no way I would be able to reach it, it was that large. There is a monastery at the Buddha. We went to the restaurant that serves the food that the Monks eat. It was a great vegetarian meal filled with tofu, rice, and spring rolls! I loved it, except the soup. The soup was this tasteless broth with random bits of branches and bark in it. Heather told me the bark was a mushroom, so I tried to eat it. It definitely was not a mushroom.

Shopping in Hong Kong

I know this blog is called “living life in Australia” but I took a short trip to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is great and a shopper’s paradise! While here I have literally shopped till I dropped. At the end of the day my feet are sore; I even wore out my shoes from walking from shop to shop. Fortunately that gave me an excuse to buy a new pair! We visited the markets in Mong Kok. Mong Kok has a gold fish market, a bird market, a flower market, a jade market, a ladies market, and lastly 3 regular shopping markets! I LOVE Markets!!! I was in heaven, minus the pollution, hundreds of people, and smothering humidity. The bird market was our first visit. It was terrifying; I felt like I was in the movie “the birds” by Alfred Hitchcock, SO much squawking and chirping. We all just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. There were at least 20 birds in one cage. When you think that birds usually have the entire sky to fly around, it is so sad that they are stuck in those small cages. People often say they wish they have the ability to fly, yet we take away that ability from an animal that has it naturally by trapping it in small cages.
We then went to the flower market. There were thousands of orchids, my favorite flower. Beautiful Orchids were only $20 Hong Kong, which is about $3 USD. In America an orchid much worse looking can cost up to $40 USD. I wanted to buy them all but would never be able to leave Hong Kong with them so I settled for taking hundred of photos; however, I was getting dirty looks. There were signs around requesting no photography, but I don’t understand why. They are flowers….. The color doesn’t fade from the flash and it doesn’t steal their souls. It was really odd, so I just continued to take pictures and anyone who has a problem with it can suck it. We then ventured to the regular markets and the jade market
I bought so much. Seriously someone should hide my wallet from me. I am out of control. The only way I can justify my behavior is with these excuses: 8 HK dollars = 1 USD, I haven’t been shopping in 6 months, and I’m on vacation. So I bought: 2 pairs of sneakers, 6 sweaters, 5 shirts, 3 bags, a ring, 2 bracelets, pearls, a photo album, and jade. This list does not include gifts I bought for others…. So yes that means that all that stuff I listed if for myself. However, I did bargain down for a lot of these things items. I was on fire! One item I bargained down by $160 Hong Kong dollars. However, I think the joke is on me, seeing as I have no idea how I will take all this stuff back to the US. I will probably end up paying more money than all these things are worth in fees for overweight luggage. Sellers were quite eager to bargain. I went to one stand to look at a wallet and heard the seller speaking to this lady about a bag; she was charging $230HK for the bag. The lady started to walk away and the seller started running after her and screaming “OK $180, OK, OK, I MEAN $100, $100” with the bag in hand. It was so entertaining!