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[LJ isn't liking my code for some reason. Doesn't like too much HTML in the entry, for whatever &*(#&^*(#@^ reason. All photos can be found here.}
The morning dawned a heck of a lot hazier than the days before, and the day showed it. It was a bloody humid day, for all of being 70-74 degrees Fahrenheit. I was also feeling generally out of sorts on this day, which was Sunday in HK. After breakfast, my brother and I split up to go do our own things, and I made my way down to the Kowloon waterfront, this time walking through Kowloon Park, where I witnessed a rather startling event: in HK, the Salvation Army really is an army! Or at the least, the ecumenical version of the Boy/Girl Scouts, although they took themselves far more seriously. A military-styled parade was underway up and down the promenades off K Park, complete with drill searjeants and drum tattoos. The uniforms apparently were varied by age of the participants, and the unit badges were quite colorful...
But I reached the waterfront without too much trouble, sweating up a storm, however. I was obviously a tourist, given that I was wearing shorts, and sunglasses, and still sweating—obviously not an ex-pat, of which there are many in HK, although I can’t say that I sighted any with any certainty. That’s alright, it seems that tourists were in plenty supply anyway. But, to continue… I decided that I’d do the touristy thing and take the Star Ferry across from Kowloon to Hong Kong. I did get on the wrong one, and so I wound up right next to the HK Convention Center, rather than Wang Cheung at the east end of downtown, but that’s quite alright. I walked, and walked, and occasionally just sat and watched the people walk past and the ships go by. Very relaxing, actually.
Eventually I reached HK park, which we’d visited the first day (the Museum of Teaware), but this time I decided to just wander around and see what people did. There was a fountain which attracted every under-10 kid on the island, I swear. It was mobbed. The colonnaded pavilion at the other end of the park was drawing wedding parties for photography in a steady stream (I would’ve hated to have been there on Friday), and the aviary, alas, was closed, just like the other one. However, the Conservatory was open, and that was very interesting, to go from their ‘cultivated display’ room, to the xeric room with the huge dehumidiers, right into the ‘tropics’ room. They were very efficient, I’ll say, the piping from the dehumidifiers went right into the tropical room where the steam humidifiers were constantly supplied. Got some lovely photos.
That night, all eight of us reassembled for one last group dinner, and then we trundled back up to the Temple Street night market for one last run through. I picked up a few little bits and pieces, but Harvey saw that I was paying full price, and stomped over to me, aghast at what I was doing. But when I had so little HK cash left over that it wasn’t worth the trouble to try and convert it back to US… it was amusing.
The next morning, my brother rose early and headed down to the bakery at the subway station in the basement, and bought a whole slew of buns, intending to share them with everyone in the group as we assembled for the trip to the airport and the interminable wait once there. It worked, since most of the group wasn’t up early enough to get some real breakfast. And then we boarded the plane, headed back to San Francisco. I would’ve actually managed to get some sleep, save that my brother and I had a six or eight- month old in the row in front of us, and he kept crying for attention about every 15 minutes. If I could’ve gotten away with murder… but once we got to Seattle and I picked up my rental, it wasn’t so bad. However, I was awake for all of an hour once I got to my parents’ place, and then I was asleep for 15 hours straight. Guess I needed it.
Staying at home was in and of itself uneventful, save that I was put to work with the chainsaw, clearing up much of the fallen deadwood from the winter’s storms. I did get to see folks on Saturday and Sunday, which was muchly enjoyable (however, I’ve kept your photos offline, not knowing if that was okay with you-who-were-pictured or not, since there’s a lot of you…) but I did get to see Jinasphinx and The Boy, Lirrin and Her Man, Byrdie and Kanedakhan, and lastly Jhitchin and His Hubby. Not for nearly long enough, but I did. And that’s that...
The morning dawned a heck of a lot hazier than the days before, and the day showed it. It was a bloody humid day, for all of being 70-74 degrees Fahrenheit. I was also feeling generally out of sorts on this day, which was Sunday in HK. After breakfast, my brother and I split up to go do our own things, and I made my way down to the Kowloon waterfront, this time walking through Kowloon Park, where I witnessed a rather startling event: in HK, the Salvation Army really is an army! Or at the least, the ecumenical version of the Boy/Girl Scouts, although they took themselves far more seriously. A military-styled parade was underway up and down the promenades off K Park, complete with drill searjeants and drum tattoos. The uniforms apparently were varied by age of the participants, and the unit badges were quite colorful...
But I reached the waterfront without too much trouble, sweating up a storm, however. I was obviously a tourist, given that I was wearing shorts, and sunglasses, and still sweating—obviously not an ex-pat, of which there are many in HK, although I can’t say that I sighted any with any certainty. That’s alright, it seems that tourists were in plenty supply anyway. But, to continue… I decided that I’d do the touristy thing and take the Star Ferry across from Kowloon to Hong Kong. I did get on the wrong one, and so I wound up right next to the HK Convention Center, rather than Wang Cheung at the east end of downtown, but that’s quite alright. I walked, and walked, and occasionally just sat and watched the people walk past and the ships go by. Very relaxing, actually.
Eventually I reached HK park, which we’d visited the first day (the Museum of Teaware), but this time I decided to just wander around and see what people did. There was a fountain which attracted every under-10 kid on the island, I swear. It was mobbed. The colonnaded pavilion at the other end of the park was drawing wedding parties for photography in a steady stream (I would’ve hated to have been there on Friday), and the aviary, alas, was closed, just like the other one. However, the Conservatory was open, and that was very interesting, to go from their ‘cultivated display’ room, to the xeric room with the huge dehumidiers, right into the ‘tropics’ room. They were very efficient, I’ll say, the piping from the dehumidifiers went right into the tropical room where the steam humidifiers were constantly supplied. Got some lovely photos.
That night, all eight of us reassembled for one last group dinner, and then we trundled back up to the Temple Street night market for one last run through. I picked up a few little bits and pieces, but Harvey saw that I was paying full price, and stomped over to me, aghast at what I was doing. But when I had so little HK cash left over that it wasn’t worth the trouble to try and convert it back to US… it was amusing.
The next morning, my brother rose early and headed down to the bakery at the subway station in the basement, and bought a whole slew of buns, intending to share them with everyone in the group as we assembled for the trip to the airport and the interminable wait once there. It worked, since most of the group wasn’t up early enough to get some real breakfast. And then we boarded the plane, headed back to San Francisco. I would’ve actually managed to get some sleep, save that my brother and I had a six or eight- month old in the row in front of us, and he kept crying for attention about every 15 minutes. If I could’ve gotten away with murder… but once we got to Seattle and I picked up my rental, it wasn’t so bad. However, I was awake for all of an hour once I got to my parents’ place, and then I was asleep for 15 hours straight. Guess I needed it.
Staying at home was in and of itself uneventful, save that I was put to work with the chainsaw, clearing up much of the fallen deadwood from the winter’s storms. I did get to see folks on Saturday and Sunday, which was muchly enjoyable (however, I’ve kept your photos offline, not knowing if that was okay with you-who-were-pictured or not, since there’s a lot of you…) but I did get to see Jinasphinx and The Boy, Lirrin and Her Man, Byrdie and Kanedakhan, and lastly Jhitchin and His Hubby. Not for nearly long enough, but I did. And that’s that...
