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Hong Kong Day 2

Posted by on August 12, 2013

We started our day with a little breakfast at Club L, then met our tour guide, Jamie at 10am.  Scott found him on Trip Advisor.  He is the number 2 rated attraction in all of Hong Kong.  He met us in the hotel lobby and took some time to chat for a bit so we could learn a little about one another and plan our day.  He has lived here for the last 40 years.  We started out by heading to the Metro where we would get an Octopus card, a prepaid card.  You can use this card to get in/out of the metro, at convenience stores, etc.  We got on board The Metro and headed to the Wong Tai Sin Temple…

Wong Tai Sin Temple

This temple is a well-known shrine and major tourist attraction to Hong Kong that is located on the southern side of Lion Rock in the north area of Kowloon.  The temple is famed for the many prayers answered: “What you request is what you get”.   We began the trek through the temple by first stopping to rub the Lion’s foot for good luck.  As we proceeded up the steps there were statues of the Chinese Zodiac.  Here we took our photos with our zodiac animal.

Rabbit is wise and methodical

I am rubbing the goat and Scott is rubbing me.

Compatibility

Then we proceeded into the main temple.  Here they light incense sticks, kneel before the main altar, make a wish, and shake a bamboo cylinder containing fortune sticks until a stick falls out. When a single stick falls out, the number will correspond to the 100 written oracles with an answer on it.  In this tradition, the number 8 means wealth.  Jamie pulled a 8, Ted pulled a 28, I pulled an 88 (double wealthy) and Scott pulled a 26, which added up to an 8 and also means an easy life.  We are all going to be wealthy.

Wealth

We then went to an area where young men and women pray for a rich husband or womanly shaped wife in front of three figures before tying a knotted piece of string to the rope by the god of choice.  Since Ted was the only unmarried, he spoke to the god and tied a piece of red string.

Ted's gonna get lucky

We left the temple and made our way through the meat and fruit/vegetable market.  This place was very interesting and VERY unsanitary.  Fresh fish flopping around and all kinds of vegetables and fruit.  We even saw packaged hot dogs that were made in Fresno.

Pork For Sale

Hot Dogs from Fresno in Hong Kong

We walked through the city and came upon one of the oldest housing complexes in Wan Chai, it is a historic monument that houses 8 families.  There is no plumbing whatsoever in the building and they use buckets to go to the bathroom.  A little guy comes by every morning and empties the buckets.

The Blue Complex

We then took a taxi to Victoria Peak, also known locally as “The Peak”.  It is the highest mountain on the island.  Most of the tourists do not know about the walking path to a deserted area with this view…

The Peak (Panorama)

The Peak

The Peak

Here is a monstrous spider called the Golden Orb.  They are the size of the average hand.

Golden Orb

We concluded our tour with Jamie after 7 hours of learning the culture and seeing the beautiful sites.

A nice massage on the massage chairs in the hotel lounge… we need one of these!

Massage

Later in the evening we went to the Temple Street Market to look for food. It is a giant swap meet set up in the street with every type of food, clothing, art and gadget for sale. Scott came upon a woman selling laser pointers.  The woman talked Scott into buying a laser pointer that had about a half mile range.  She even showed us how one of the more expensive ones would light a cigarette.

Chicken Chicken…. Goose!

Local Diner

These folks didn’t want their photo taken, Scott got yelled at!

Street Food

24 hour food.

Corner Restaurant

He sells T-Shirts but doesn’t wear one.

T Shirts

 

We called it a night as it was a long day on our feet.