Day 2 - Hong Kong - Snoopy's World

W: After a bad night's sleep (adjusting, I guess) we go down to the dining room for a great breakfast. Had Asian style noodles and broccoli, a hash brown and other delights. The dining room has an amazing view overlooking the harbour towards HK island.

Kowloon Park is even better in the morning and a great place to wander. We see the children's garden with whimsical statues, and the Chinese garden. There are old people everywhere doing exercise and the most lovely sense of community - nobody seems at all self-conscious. In the maze garden a lady points out the baby turtles in the lake.

We make our way back to Nathan Road and more craziness after the slow and easy pace of the park. Stumble upon the Tin Hau temple at Yau Ma Tei which is beautiful, very atmospheric with incense and smoke. In the dull light an old lady appears to be reading someone's fortune. Unlike the glitzy skyscrapers near the harbour, Kowloon is mostly decrepit tenements with washing strung from balconies or across the narrow streets. Still, it has a nice feel.

Take the MTR to Kowloon Tong and head for the Festival Walk shopping centre. Obviously 11am is too early and nothing is open...

T: ..except for Pacific Coffee Co where we order coffee from a salesgirl named Yo Yo.

Look for the KCR station so we can take the train to Sha Tin for Snoopy's World, a Peanuts theme park located atop a shopping mall. We spot the Snoopy signs and sculptures as soon as we leave the train station. An American lady (who has somehow ended up out here) asks us how to get to Hong Kong, so we direct her back to the station while we follow the Snoopy sculptures.

Snoopy's World is fantastic. Huge statues of all the Peanuts characters in a variety of dioramas and scenes, and all overlooked by massive apartment blocks. It's all a bit surreal.

There's one ride that you can go on as long as you have a receipt from the shopping mall, so we go to Marks & Spencers to buy chips and biscuits. The ride is cheesy in the best possible way and we're the only people on it.

W: No luck finding any vegie food in the shopping mall, and we're fading now, so decide to put off the HK Heritage Museum and head back to Kowloon Tong. Deserted at 11am it's now insanely busy, we've arrived right in the lunch rush. Got green vegie curries from Patong Thai (HK$26=A$4.20) the best Thai curry we've ever eaten. Also bought a Totoro fridge magnet at a small shop.

Found a HK DVD shop and bought a cheap HK copy of "The Girls of Roquefort", praying it will play ok... Log-on is a great shop selling everything: stationery, kitchenware, pet goods, clothes and all manner of quirky stuff - even Barpapapa toe separators! There is a Page One bookstore there as well - supposedly the biggest in HK, but oddly it seems smaller than the one at Harbour City we saw last night. Marks & Spencers is also very disappointing.

T: I am overcome with a hayfever attack! Although Log-on is fantastic I feel miserable. At a Watsons pharmacy I get some allergy tablets from a sales assistant called Hottie. I imagine she chose the name herself. Back to the hotel for a rest.

From the recorded train announcements we realise we've been wildly mispronouncing Tsim Sha Tsui, the part of Kowloon where the Y is located, but now we can say it like locals (it is more like Chim Chow Choi).

W: While Tony takes a break at the Y, I went to HMV and bought two HK Shaw Brothers 1969-1971 era spy/musical DVDs (A$30 all up) - I'm trying to buy things I couldn't get at home. Tony is revived and we head off on the Star Ferry across the harbour to Central on Hong Kong island.

We pay something like 20c for a lower deck ticket, next time we'll splurge 30c for first class on the upper deck. Like Kowloon there are loads of people in Central, but unlike Kowloon it's very ritzy rather than scuzzy (that's not necessarily a bad thing...). Walk through the claustrophobic glamour of Harvey Nichols.

Wander aimlessly without a map and give up as unable to find anywhere to eat. Take the MTR to Causeway Bay to try our luck.

More people, more madness, the shopping areas are just full of people all the time. Up and down shopping malls and nowhere vegetarian to eat. Several restaurants had lines. Food here is tricky. Gave up and went back to Tsim Sha Tsui where we know the Indian place at Harbour City we went to last night. Exhausted, lower back aching, we have walked a marathon today. Back to hotel and fell asleep almost immediately.

T: Checked the map we had neglected to take with us and discovered that we were across the road from the place in Central we were looking for! Isn't it always the way...

Next > Day 3 - Hong Kong - Up to The Peak