Wednesday 18 October – Stepping out to Stanley.

We set off after breakfast by MRT and bus to the famous Stanley Markets, passing the Happy Valley horse-racing track and sparkling Repulse Bay.  We wandered through the markets, a little disappointed that they have been “sanitised”; all the stalls are now in permanent shops, undercover, and without the haphazard mayhem that was so exciting when we first visited here almost thirty years ago.  We weren’t harassed by the stallholders, in fact they seemed almost indifferent to our presence.  Even the toilets have seats that you can sit on!  We lunched overlooking the bay and then caught the bus back to Central (on Hong Kong Island) and walked to the pier, where we boarded the Star Ferry for the trip across the harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui, then strolled up Nathan Road, occasionally darting down some side-alley to explore a market stall or two and stopping for refreshments at a little café that served up whatever you wanted, provided it included mango.  We then succumbed to our aching legs and hopped the MRT for the ride to Mong Kok, which brought us out just near the Ladies Market for a little bit more shopping and gazing before wandering back to our hotel for a refreshing shower and Happy Hour, on this the penultimate day of our holiday (sob).

One thing we have noticed is that despite the changes and modernisation that we have observed in Hong Kong, bamboo is still the scaffolding of choice.  It is everywhere!  No doubt steel scaffolding is used, but it still surprised us the amount of bamboo that could be seen wrapped around new buildings and renovations, both low-rise and high-rise.  We even speculated that this could give rise to a new George Miller movie: Mad Max XVII: Pandemonium – the Rise of the Pandas and the Eating of Hong Kong!