Hong Kong Day 3

Monday....Shopping Day! We started the morning off with a trip to the Jade Market. We walked there and on every corner there was a Chinese Medicine store. Boy were they stinky but you could find all sorts of crazy things. Here's Ben thinking about dining on a lizard popsicle.

There were squid out drying all over the street.
Here's a wider view of the store. They all looked pretty much like this, and with my pregnant tummy I hurried right past each one so the smell wouldn't make me sick.
The Jade Market was really fun. We saw a lot of beautiful things and had a lot of people trying to rip us off. Ben was a pretty good negoitator though and I got a set of black pearls, earing and necklaces. We also bought Grace a few little bracelets which she has now lost of course. On the way back to the Hotel to drop our goods off we seriously saw a guy peeing in a garbage can. I didn't look all the way down, but Ben assured me that's what he was doing. It was a pretty dirty part of town, and I couldn't believe the difference when we went Downtown. It is beautiful in Downtown Hong Kong, and dirty pretty much everywhere else we went.

Here are Grace and Ben resting up for an afternoon of more shopping.

We caught lunch at McDonalds! (thanks goodness they're everywhere!) Then we headed to the south of Hong Kong Island to Stanley Market. That place was awesome! They had all this name brand clothing for kids that was a few US Dollars each. We spent a lot of Hong Kong mullah, but came out feeling like we got such a steal on all the cute clothes! Ben got a few shirts, and I just had fun buying for the kids since pregnancy and Asian sizes of clothing don't mix. This is a view out over Stanley Bay. It was a beautiful area.
Ben saw these tiny fruits at one of the stands and had to have a picture. They were pretty cute.

We took a bus there and back. Both Ben and I were surprised at all the hills! I guess we just expected Hong Kong to be one huge flat city, but it was beautiful and green and there were tons of Hills. We went up and down on these tiny roads in a big bus. I'm glad I wasn't driving! One of our favorite Briberies with Grace were Gummies. She loved them and while we were riding on the bus we asked her if she wanted some and she did this face and clenched her hands together out of pure excitement for a little gummy. It was hilarious.
After our trip to Stanley Market we were pretty exhausted, but I really wanted to go to the Star Boardwalk and see the Symphony of lights. The view of Hong Kong Harbour was incredible all lit up. This is the best picture I got of it, but there were lazer lights shooting from several of the rooftops and everything was lit up. With the breeze blowing it was a wonderful evening.
This picture is hard to see but there is a statue of Bruce Lee behind Ben and Grace. This was kind of like our Hollywood walk of fame. All these asian actors had a star and their handprints along here.
And this is the tribute to the Olympics. We just missed the torch relay by a few days, but I think Hong Kong is hosting the horse events for the Olympics. They have a pretty famous horse track that we didn't go to.
Anyway, it was a Very long day! But I was sick of roomservice so we found a little food court in a mall and had some pizza. Not quite American, but we weren't feeling very adventurous with our stomaches on this trip.