Kowloon

Having spent a day exploring Hong Kong island, we decided a trip to Kowloon was in order.

Kowloon is the home of the Hong Kong film industry, and is also the mecca for most backpackers coming to Hong Kong. The reason for this is that is where you can find cut price tailors, knock off DVDs, watches, etc. We took a commuter ferry across the water to get there on a Sunday and the place was heaving, even on the day of rest.

Having wandered through the markets, we headed towards Kowloon park as it was recommended by the Lonely Planet guide. Instead an oasis of green in the a concrete jungle, it was a flat concrete clearing in a concrete jungle. Not quite what we expected, to say the least. One benefit of going on a Sunday though is that there is a Kung Fu demonstration that runs for a couple of hours every Sunday afternoon. We watched it for about half an hour, before our interest waned. Although I have done a couple of forms of Kung Fu in my life (Lau Gar and Choy Lee Fut to be precise), I found the was an over emphasis on Tai Chi, which I don't find that interesting and most Westerners do it wrong anyway - this made what was being demonstrated a bit boring to be quite frank.

After this we were gagging for a coffee, so we thought we would head to a Starbucks (yes, I know its a monolithic corporation but these were desperate times). Unlike Hong Kong island, where you can find a Starbucks every 30 paces or so, it took as an hour to found anything (which turned out to be a local Hong Kong chain of coffee shops rather than Starbucks anyway). Rather than get takeaways, we decided to relax and read the local paper. Pity that the first article I saw was Wayne Rooney breaking his foot - that Royally stuffs England's chances...

Later on in the day, we did an hour long cruise around the harbour on the commuter ferry and watched the sun set on our fourth day in Hong Kong. Then it was back to Kowloon for a spot of dinner in a restaurant.