Hong Kong: Peak Tram, Soho and Ocean Park Theme Park.

So I am well and truly into my stay of Hong Kong :) I've seen a fair bit now, both in Kowloon and the main Hong Kong Island... Yesterday morning I visited Causeway bay and Victoria Park. The latter of these was a very lovely green area, right in the middle of the city's shopping area. Whilst walking through the park I saw loads of people practising tai-chi! Even women in there 60/70's! Certainly different to King George... A bit later on I made my way to the famous peak tram on the bus. The tram here was a very old form of transport that was used in Hong Kong from the 1920's. It has obviously been re-built and refurbished since then making it accessible to the thousands of tourists it serves everyday. It takes you up to the high points of Hong Kong Island giving you spectacular views of the city and small surrounding islands. Here are some pictures including a couple of Hong Kong Park which I stumbled across:

Yesterday evening after walking streets and streets of markets I noticed some really odd things... Down one narrow street was the food stalls with tanks of live fish everywhere. Cooked rats and snakes hanging from metal poles. One man was slicing up some kind of mammal with the biggest knife I've ever seen... I also saw a man spraying his dead pig with soy sauce, letting it drip onto the floor. What baffles me is that it doesn't look safe or hygienic; yet Hong Kong has the second highest life expectancy in the world. That is partly down to choice of diet. It's strange that something that looks so unhealthy and unclean is infact the polar opposite, and helps maintain a good lifestyle.

Next stop was Soho. Like London/New York this is a district of Hong Kong. It's high up on the main island with an escalator you can catch to save your legs. It took a good 20 minutes! When I got there I went into 'Yorkshire Pudding', a British bar playing British music and having a London Underground design to it. It was really cool. It was mostly British in there which was refreshing! I sat and had a few beers before heading back home.

Today was something I've bee looking forward to. Ocean Park! This is the best theme park in the area and boasts some pretty decent rides. I'm a huge thrill seeker so Disneyland Hong Kong and Universal Singapore wouldn't have cut it for me! The best rides were 'Hair Raiser' and 'Flash'! Still got nothing on Alton Towers...

Hong Kong has some beautiful parts and is a very intriguing and different place to anywhere I have been. There isn't as much to see here as my two previous places and some of it is quite similar i.e markets, busy streets, family fun shops. In a way, once you've seen one, you have almost seen them all... Compared to Dubai/Singapore, this is very much a busy, traditional city of everyday working people. It's not as pristine and pretty as Singapore and not as 'Wow' as Dubai... Having said that, the way of life fascinates me, and the feel and vibe of the streets is something I will never forget...