Day 7 (29/6) - Hong Kong: Lantau - Tai-O fishing village (Part 2)
Interestingly, even in Hong Kong I didn't see anyone getting MRT-ed - it was only in Shanghai that this happened.
HWMNBN's apartment block had no 4th, 13th and 14th floors. Gah.
There were chairs everywhere in Hong Kong.
Fashionable mannikins in the Tai-O museum
Stilt houses
Market
Kwan Tai Temple
1.5 centuries of British colonisation seemed to have left their mark. Not only did I witness fog this day, there was also intermittent light rain for much of the afternoon, stopping as soon as it started. Or maybe I got the chain of causation mixed up - the British colonised Hong Kong because its weather reminded them of home. Later HWMNBN said the weather that day was unusually light - so much for my theory.
"Anti-rodent Campaign
Prevent Disease. Eliminate Rodent Nuisance"
But a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy! We cannot exterminate rats even if it results in the plague being spread!
Mud flats
Crab fishing (?)
Grafitti: "Tai O is the only paradise in fucking Hong Kong"
I didn't get it.
I had walked all the way to this abandoned jetty because I had been conned - there was supposed to be some place called General's Rock there. Yet I'd followed the path to its end, but it was not marked on the map at the end of the path where the old police station was. I could've followed the path into the forest, but was unsure of the distance and didn't know if I would be led on a wild goose chase, so I desisted.
Police station
Altar at foot level
Slopes in Tai O had registration numbers. Wth.
Rosie is as big as these three together.
Live seafood for sale
There was a cruise to "trace the Chinese white dolphin" but I was almost certain the catch was that a sighting wasn't guaranteed, so I didn't bother.
Former salt flats
I'd been conned into believing that McDonalds in Hong Kong had pork, when this was not the case (I was very disappointed on walking into a one outlet). The only pork, I was told, was in the breakfast sausages.
I had some time, so I decided to go to Temple Street, where the so-called Men's Market was, with stalls in the street free-riding air-conditioning from shops in the buildings beside them. Since one pasar malam was pretty much the same as another, I decided not to go to others. The merchandise didn't seem particularly male-oriented (there was some porn but I doubt it was much more than in other places even if the one shop I walked into totally randomly was a VCD shop where 2/3 of the goods were porn) so the name was likely a gimmick; then again women lubricate the economy, so it was no surprise that there was a lot of female-oriented merchandise there.
Men's market
One stall was playing an awful 'ballroom dance' karaoke VCD. The dancing was alright (even if the guy had a big head) but the male half of the singing duet performing "The End of the World" had a strong Hong Kong accent. Gah.
Woosung Street
Johnny Malkavian and I were taken to what was purportedly the longest escalator in the world. The dirty little secret was that it was actually several shorter escalators. Gah.
Quotes:
[Me: I should write a book on the Misery of the Human Condition] It's already been written. It's called the Bible.