Overstimulation

Up at the Peak with smoggy HK/Kowloon in the background
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After our first day of wandering around Central HK, we headed up to Victoria Peak because we had a nice sunny day.  It was the most touristy place we have found (not surprisingly) and we heard Aussie, European and American accents but still dominated by chinese - seems to be a lot of internal tourism.  Not sure if it is mainland chinese come to check it out, or just HKers from the 'burbs' come to see the downtown sights.  Anyways, the sights were obscured by what we are hearing is now a pretty much permanent smog layer that comes courtesy of aforementioned mainland China.  Apparently Hong Kong residents are quite upset about the pollution, but karma may not be on their side as they seem to own most of the coal-fired power plants and other assorted factories that are belching out the pollution!  Still a nice view though, but we could do without the brown haze (so could our lungs).

The Ladies Market
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We then had lunch at a lovely little spot we passed on the escalator the day before - a vegetarian place called 'Life'.  Very yummy food and Max almost behaved!  Then we took the Star Ferry (30 cents  or so) over to Kowloon to go see some of the famous markets.  We strolled around the ladies market for quite some time and Tonya overpaid for a couple nice things.  She swears she now has the hang of bargaining though and could do better!  Nothing is priced, so you have to name your price, and then the transaction proceeds from there.  It is the art of naming a low price, but not so low that you offend the seller - not our strength...

Where did all these people come from and where the hell are they all going!?!

D enjoying the veggie feast that we finally found
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Then on to the electronics 'market', which is really just a large collection of stores selling all the same stuff.  Not enough weird gadgety things to keep D happy.  The main push seems to be in fancy cellphones, but we aren't really in the 'market' for a Chinese cell.  D did try to buy a PSP, but after being quoted HK$1200, we went to shop around, realized that was a good price, but when we got back they told us HK$1350 and denied any recollection of the earlier offer.  Oh well, we gave them a nasty look (that'll show them!) and went on our way.  Finding a vegetarian place for dinner again proved to be a grand challenge.  We are almost ready to take back what we said about Lonely Planet being our saviour.  We have now found 4 of 5 veg restaurants closed!  LP, you are letting us down!  Picture Tonya in her grrrl power 'I ain't no damsel in distress' Ani Difranco shirt, standing out front of the non-descript apartment block that was supposed to be a Buddhist eatery, on the verge of tears and generally looking very distressed indeed (it was pas 7PM and tummies were rumbling). A nice local man who spoke very good english noticed the faltering grrrl, and saved our day - he gave us directions to a place that actually existed, a couple of MTR stops to the south.

Another tourist observation - there seems to be very few foreign tourists vs Chinese people in Hong Kong, even in places like the Mong Kok markets.  It seems the locals like the markets even more than the tourists, which is a good sign I guess, kind of like the theory that if you're the only white people in an Indian restaurant it must be a good place.  Funny how you react to being a visible minority though, we've started making eye contact with passing white people on the street and smiling.  How strange is that?

Oh, and Max is still overstimulated.  Possibly, so are we.

More later, T&D&m