TOURIST TUESDAY: HONG KONG DAY THREE

Day three, Justin's goal was a 'good coffee and breakfast', so we set off in search of a cafe in Central on Cleverly Street. The route to the train station and the trains were becoming familiar so it seemed an easy trip there. Especially for Jarvis, who got piggy backed by either Justin, or I the whole time.

One of Jarvis's coping mechanisms when we travel, is to be higher for the first few days. I understand, I felt shoved and pushed at the whole time in Hong Kong, so I get that he wants to be higher. However, in the heat and humidity of Hong Kong carrying around an extra 20kgs on top of a heavy bag filled to the brim with drinks, snacks, wipes, cameras and so on. I felt very old and unfit. Lucky for me Justin is super fit and young, and would take Jarvis a good 70% of the time.

Cafe breakfast was very ordinary as far as Brisbane standards. But, as we found out through the rest of our stay, excellent for Hong Kong breakfast.

We then walked, and explored our way through the alleys until we got to the main road. We thought since we had done, planes, trains, and taxis, why not do a tram. Jarvis loved it. For us, it was a break from carting him around, and a chance to see things from a different perspective.

Jarvis then asked for a boat ride, and a helicopter ride. We obliged with the boat, and caught the Star Ferry from central back to Hong Kong Island. 

Once again we found a cheap, and amazing noodle place and I stuffed myself silly. So the only thing to do was go back to the hotel, have a shower, and a much needed catch up nap.

I ended up waking both the boys in the afternoon, think they could have slept all afternoon! Since we were having dinner with Justin's family in Diamond Hill, which is to the east of Koowloon, we thought a visit to Nan Lian Gardens was a good idea since it is so close to their apartment.

The Nan Lian Garden is a Chinese Classical Garden in Diamond Hill, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The garden has an area of 3.5 hectares. It is designed in the Tang Dynasty-style with hills, water features, trees, rocks and wooden structures.(This is taken from the Hong Kong travel Guide)

Yes, I took lots of photos of my hot husband in Hong Kong.  

The only thing to do after being immersed in all of that nature, well according to Jarvis and Justin, was a hour or more in a Kids Entertainment Center. Arghhh, torture for me! I really really really dislike games arcades, the noise the lights. Just yuck! But I really, really, really, love Jarvis so I sat there for an hour and half, and sucked it up.

It was a relief to go outside, and get once again sucked up in the heat and humidity. I wish I had taken more photos, than just one, of where Justin's family live. I find attempting to describe, to someone who has never seen inside Hong Kong apartments, is really hard.

After eating waaay too much food, we left to catch the trains home, and got to the hotel super late, and once again after showers all fell into bed exhausted. 

TOURIST TUESDAY: HONG KONG DAY TWO

What do you do the day after travelling on a plane all day with a toddler and then get to sleep super late? Definitely not what we did on our second day in Hong Kong!!!

Justin's family had organised a HUGE day. Not even allowing any nap time for Jarvis. Add to that the culture shock and the extreme humidity. The whole day was a bit of an exhausting struggle. For me, and for Jarvis.

The only down time we had all day was first thing in the morning, so after waking way too early we grabbed some noodles for breakfast. Getting breakfast in Hong Kong is very hard, most places do not open until 11am, or even 12. So choices every day were very limited, or they were near our hotel. As you can see by our tired faces, Jarvis and I were both just thinking "just feed us!"

After breakfast we thought it would be good to let Jarvis have a play in a park. I gotta give Hong Kong this, they have beautiful parks. So we wandered up to Koowloon Park. 

But even that early in the morning, after about a half hour of play the heat got to all of us, so it was a quick dash back to the hotel for showers.

Then is was on to the trains. I have to admit, when I travel with Justin, I just leave it to him to figure out the trains. 

We met Justin's family, for a huge buffet lunch, where of course Jarvis's and my favourite part was the desert side of the buffet.  How many serves of icecream is too many?

After lunch one of Justin's cousins took us to the fabric market : Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong. This is also one of the oldest districts on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. According to Wiki " Sham Shui Po District is one of 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is the poorest district in Hong Kong, with a predominantly working-class population of 365,540 and the lowest median household income of all districts".

Sham Shui Po is wholesale buying, but most vendors will sell to you for a 3-5 yard minimum. Clothes sewists need at least three yards (yes, they use inches and yards for measuring), not meters like I am use to.

At first I wandered around just looking at the difference in how they display, and show their fabrics. All hanging so neatly on fabric cards. I began to imagine how neat work 'could' be. But strangely, I bought no fabric. Nothing! The cards did not do it for me. I figured out I like to touch the bolts of fabric, and then imagine what the fabric could be.  

We then wandered up to the markets, were Jarvis had no problem spending some cash. And Justin found so interesting vendors to get an afternoon snack from.

Heat and headaches forced us back to the hotel for another shower. Because it was so late already we opted to have diner near our hotel at Victoria Habour. Dinner was crap. The view was great. I was jealous of Jarvis getting a piggyback from Justin, and could hardly keep my eyes open. After yet another shower, we all crashed out in bed so exhausted we barely noted that three bodies were sleeping in a small double bed.