Central Hong Kong

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Mist is burying the skyscrapers but still some great Hong Kong views. Yesterday we visited the Monastery and *huge* Buddah on Lantau Island. Headed over to the sleepy fishing village of Tai-O which seemed to have nothing much going on at all so we hopped on a tiny ferry thinking maybe it was headed to the ´real´ village, but it was going to some other places. Soon we were lost in Lantau. The bus drivers here are not fond of English so it is very hard to know how to get from point A to point B, but we stumbled back to Kowloon and then metro to Hong Kong for another adventurous day in one of the world´s largest cities.

The overall feeling here is sort of a dingy bustle. I have lots of good shop pix but yesterday I was about to snap one of some dried sea cucumbers and the old keeper shouted ´no!´ I learned later from internet that HK is a major distribution point for illegal sea cucumbers (I´m not clear if there is a legal fishery, but guessing he´s got something questionable going on).

I only recognize about 1/5 items in the shops – very interesting smells and scenes.