Day 8 in China

We slept in this morning and barely managed to get a table for brunch at the Harmony Restaurant...an "authentic" place that celebrates white bread with the crusts cut off!

   

Cheese & Egg sandwich and Egg & Ham bun

We decided to actually see some sights in Hong Kong and took the subway to Lantau Island, which also had a sweet outlet mall (I didn't get to check it out)...We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes but once we got onto our tram we cruised up the tramway to the Ngong Ping Village.  Apparently we could also have booked a tour to go see some White Dolphins and a nearby fishing village but because we got up at 11:30am we were already running short on time.

Older gentlemen with the longest eyebrows I have ever seen...

View of the Lantau Skyline from the tram

Ngong Ping Village 

Quite a few dogs wandering about and sleeping on the ground

Maintaining the property

View of the Tramway from the Big Buddha

Incense burner

Temple in the Po Ling Monastery

In this photo you can see that behind the temple there is a framework made of bamboo going up, apparently the monks are raising money for an even bigger temple!  I am guessing that is why they allowed photos in the temple (rare)...it is a fairly new area of development.

  

                             

Some locals making the trek downtown

After another 15 minute Metro ride we got off at the Mong Kok station and were immediately shocked at the number of tourists and locals mingling up and down the streets.

Mong kok Market

After about an hour of wandering a market full of fake handbags, sunglasses, shoes, and headphones, we were ravenous and thankfully stumbled onto Red Chili, a Thai restaurant with terrible service but delicious curry!   

After dinner I finally found some Ladies clothing and bought some great Engrish T-shirts (3 for $15 USD) and a Teapot for $30 USD.  Feeling delirious with shopping I agreed to explore the Red Light District, which actually looked like every other street except for a few PG-13 billboards.

Red Light District next to Mong Kok

Portland Street is next to the Red Light District                                                     

We then hopped back onto the Metro and arrived at the East Tsim Sha Tsui station to check out the Avenue of the Stars and take a night-time ferry back to Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong Museum of Art

View of the skyline from Avenue of the Stars

Action!

Hong Kong Clock Tower

Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Once our ferry landed we hopped it back to the hotel and wrote some postcards...so keep your eye on your mailbox!