Stanley Market
Today we took a bus tour throughout the Hong Kong Islands. Our first destination was Victoria Peak. Amazing view of Central Hong Kong Island and Kowloon peninsula. The breathtaking view took your mind away from the bone-chilling breeze. After a few pictures we were quickly on our way. The tour guide only gave us 20 minutes to gaze over the peak.
The next destination was a 25 minute ride to a small fishing town on the other side of Hong Kong Island called Aberdeen. There we took a tour on a small motorized fishing boat called a sampan, or better known to the natives as a “wha-ah”, named for the sound the engine makes. Our tour guide told us that the ride was optional and not part of the tour, and if you wanted to take it, then you would need to pay the fisherman at the end of the tour. No one asked what the price for the ride will be, so at the end, the fisherman asked for $50 HK (around $7 US) dollars for each person. A bit pricey, but what can we do, the fisherman wasn’t going to dock the boat until everyone paid. Lesson learned!!!
Next stop was a 40 minute tour of a jewelery factor. The name of the factory escapes me at this time. I was very disappointed in this tour stop. After only a 10-15 minute discussion and tour of how jewelery is made at the factory, the rest of the time was spent perusing through their jewelery showcase with their pesky salespeople always pestering you to make a purchase. I couldn’t take anymore, I went outside and waited by the bus.
Finally our last stop was Stanley Market. Stanley Market is a huge T-shaped market place with tiny stores side by side. The stores either sold clothing, trinkets, or Oriental arts and crafts. If you ever want to find a good bargain on just about anything, I recommend going here. I picked up a laptop/backpack case that would of cost around $60 US dollars for only $20 US dollars ($140 HK). Not only is it a good place to get a deal, it is also an interesting place to view a real traditional Chinese marketplace and practice your bargaining skills. On the other side of the marketplace was Hong Kong’s public beach called Repulse Bay. It was named after a British Ship HMS Repulse that was docked in the bay to ward off potential pirates. I look forward to going back to this marketplace to finish off all my souvenir shopping. I had my eye on this beautiful fish-bone chess set.
Apparently walking through the Stanley Market made us lose track of time, because when we finally looked at our watches, we were 5 minutes late from the time our tour guide told us to meet. So we ran back to the meeting place and found no one from our tour bus there. We missed the bus. I was a little upset because I left my brand new camera bag on the bus. My father calmed me down by telling me that the tour guide people will bring the bag back to our hotel. I guess I had the American mentality, I thought there is no way that anyone would return that bag. Lo and behold, when we finally got back to the hotel, my camera bag was sitting there waiting for me.
The best part of the tour was was the double-decker public transportation bus we were forced to take to get back to our hotel because we missed the tour bus. We weren’t exactly sure which bus we needed to take back so we took the one bus that took us to something that sounded some-what similar to the place we needed to go. Apparently we took the perfect bus. The bus’ route took us along the coastline of the South China Sea. With an amazing shoreline to the left of us and multi-million dollar houses to our right. We had plenty to gaze at. The view from the top of the bus was nothing short of splendid. After a 45 minute bus ride, we got off the bus at the first stop we recognized. Even though we were within a very long walk to the hotel, we still decided to take a taxi. Sheer exhaustion played a major role in making that decision.
All in all it was very interesting. I learned a lot and took a lot of spectacular footage with my camera. One lesson I learned was that there was no need to take a tour bus to any of those locations. Find out the exact bus that will go there and get on it. It will save you about $750 HK dollars. You might not have an annoying semi-English speaking tour guide telling you where to look and why, but then again, that might be a good thing. I look forward to what tomorrow will bring.