David is sent off to buy train tickets for the start of our China train journey and also to the Post Office to send another big parcel of bits and bobs home to try and get rid of a bit of our excess baggage! The girls embark on a walking tour around Mong Kok and encounter an array of sights, sounds and smells along the way!
Everywhere you turn in Hong Kong, on every street and down every alleyway, there are snack stalls, preparing, cooking and selling a dazzling selection of food. To our untrained eyes - most is unrecognisable -apart from the unmistakable smell of tripe! We probably ought to have been braver - but content ourselves with just looking! The tour is supposed to take us to the "goldfish market" but it becomes obvious very quickly that this is the pet shop area. Unlike the UK there is no limit on what can be sold and we see sad little faces of every conceivable "pet" staring back at us. Initially the girls ooh and aah but rapidly this changes to distress at the conditions and the realisation of what they were looking at.
There were also fish and aquatic species of every shape and colour - but again the rows and rows of tanks and suspended bags on every doorway become just too much for us and we quickly move on to the next stage of our trip.
Our next stop is to one of Hong Kong's most colourful street markets, the Flower Market is a jungle of exotic blossoms, luck-bringing houseplants and sweet scents to be found in more than 50 shops. and the displays of every conceivable plant and flower on offer are beautiful.
Our last stop is the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden.This charming Chinese-style garden is the favoured gathering place of Hong Kong's songbird owners, who carry their beloved pets around in intricately carved cages. All manner of beautiful birds can be seen here, as well as a selection of traditional bird-keeping paraphernalia. Located on Yuen Po Street in Mong Kok, the garden contains some 70 songbird stalls
The girls loved looking at the birds and especially the bags of various insects ready to be fed by chopstick to waiting beaks!
The tour ends with a well deserved, slightly extravagant, chocolate milkshake! but ssssh.... dont tell Daddy!
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