After the excitement of going to Ocean Park on Tuesday, I spent half of Wednesday sleeping it off. Zoe was a little bemused about me sleeping in till 11.30, but I enjoyed it lots!! When I finally surfaced (which was only because Zoe, being somewhat fed up as she woke up at 7am, began making noise!), we went into Yuen Long, which is Zoe’s town. A lot of shops were closed due to the Chinese New Year celebrations, but some were open.
We wandered around for a bit, had some yummy steak for lunch, looked in some groovy shops and generally mooched. When Zoe was exhausted by my inexhaustible ability to peruse, we went home. That evening, we decided to go bowling with a couple of the guys that live here. So we all got ready, jumped on the train and headed to a lovely place called Tuen Mun. Once we got there, we were sad to find the bowling alley shut. All were flummoxed by this, and stood there at a loss for what to do next. In the end we decided to go back to Zoe’s and play Cranium. I was great at the word rounds, but shocking at the action ones (having never played charades in my life!).
Yesterday we stayed at home in the morning and then headed into Kowloon, with the intention of visiting Kowloon Park. We got a little distracted on the way by some trees that were decorated for new year. Further distracted we went to Festival Walk, which is another huuuge shopping centre. More walking around randomly buying nothing, but I spent three hours being excited about stationery and kitchen utensils and jewellery. We also had some fab chinese food.
Yesterday evening we stood for two hours waiting for the chinese new year parade. We got there so early so we could have front row seats, and it was definitely worth it. The parade went on for two hours, there were coloured floats, lights, dancing and marching. It was a real spectacle and we took hundreds of photos. I had also never seen or been in a crowd like that.
Today we got up slowly and headed back to Tuen Mun. We wandered around a very confusing and disorientating shopping centre before abandoning it because it was too busy/cramped. We jumped onto a tram thing and headed to the Ferry Pier at Tuen Mun. You could get a ferry to Macau from there but we thought that maybe a bad plan. It was nice to be by the seaside, although the water was pretty polluted. Zoe tells me you could see the another Island from there and the airport, but it was too misty with pollution to see anything. We did see wild cats eating from tiny catfood tins though, which was cute, and I did get to walk on the sand which was great.
After Tuen Mun, we headed back to Kowloon and went to a chinese restaurant. I created chaos by requesting cutlery instead of chopsticks. It was a nice meal though. Then we fought our way through marauding crowds and went and stood by the harbour. For the second night running we had to stand there for 2 hours, and for the second night running I got to marvel as it grew darker and the twinkling lights of the famous Hong Kong skyline were slowly switched on. We experimented with our cameras, nattered about life, and smiled as people jostled and argued around us. At 8pm, the lights behind us dimmed and the fireworks began.
The fireworks were cool, not very long but quite good. The crowds were huge though, even larger than the previous evening. After the fireworks were done, Zoe and I walked along the harbour front, having heard rumours of craziness on the tube system. Then we headed back to the bus stop and rode back to Yuen Long.
Tomorrow is saturday, I can’t believe I’ve been here almost a week already. I’m having an excellent time and am loving seeing all the new places. It’s great to be the one being led too, Zoe is an excellent guide.
