Street Markets and Light Show

The formal photographic trip was over. Julie and I had opted to stay on for two more days to explore for ourselves. A jolly good decision if I say so.

We took ourselves off to the Flower Market, the Bird Market and the Goldfish Market. The flowers were exquisite. Most are imported from The Netherlands and Japan. Julie bought a bonsai tree to take home. And she did get it home. The price was so much less than it would have been in UK.

For a change, the sun came out. The sudden warmth hit us, so we stayed on the shady side of the street enjoying the blasts of air conditioning blowing out of the shops. The Chinese believe in staying cool, unlike South Asians, in my experience.

The bird garden, pictured in the extra, is more like a park where men assemble to study and buy cage birds. They choose a bird in a cage and walk away with it for a bit to examine it. The park replaces a rather decrepit part of Kowloon which has now been redeveloped. It's a pleasant place to go with many trees.

The poor goldfish were confined to plastic bags of water. I hope they don't stay there too long. Further along the street, there were pet shops selling kittens, puppies and rabbits.

The sun didn't stay out for too long. Rain began to fall. Julie and I went inside an eatery and asked for something to drink. Drinks cost twice as much if taken on their own than if consumed with something to eat, but at least we could shelter from the rain. We were getting adept at hailing taxis and went back to the hotel afterwards for a nap, and in my case, a swim.

I'd realised that the bus standing outside the hotel offered free rides to the waterfront every half hour during the day and every hour at night. This seemed a wonderful opportunity to return to Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to take night photos.

As you can see from the main photo, we weren't disappointed. This was one of the two large junks that ply Victoria Harbour giving rides to tourists with a bar on board.

Apparently, the skills for making junks have been lost in Hong Kong, so this boat was made in China. It's called Dai Cheung Po in Chinese, Aqualuna II in English. We saw the end of the Victoria Harbour Symphony light show. As people dispersed, we were able to put up our tripods and get some night shots. All in all, a very successful outing.

And a free ride back to the hotel on the bus.

Extra photo is of a bird in a cage at the Bird Market. This is the link for the album for Street Markets. And here are more general shots of Kowloon.