On Sunday, on the recommendation of friends, we took a bus to the South side of Hong Kong island to the town of Stanley. We made a point of taking the slow bus which went over the top of the hill and gave us some great sights.
It turned out that Stanley was a little bit of Europe, quite a bit French Riviera, but also a bit of a Chinese Mall and market thrown in.
We marched (took the escalators down) through the mall then explored the market. I splashed out on a couple of belts as my waist is down a bit. The vendor was happy to punch and extra hole in the belts I bought as well as the belt I was wearing.
After Stanley we took another bus to Aberdeen. This region has some strong connections to the James Clavell books and is the home of the Jumbo floating restaurant. Shortly after alighting the bus I found a vendor selling what I fondly remember from Chinatown, New York, and that is essentially waffle bits in a paper bag. I’ve always enjoyed them and was happy to share a bag with Helen.
Down by the river we were ‘accosted’ by a little old lady who ran a Panga around the bay. For what was essentially a private tour around the bay we agreed. The bay was really the end of the river behind a break water but we had a good show of everything. We eventually decided to be dropped off at the Jumbo floating restaurant where we had coffee on the the top deck.
From there we made our way to the Express bus stop to catch a bus more or less straight back to our hotel in Kowloon. By going through a couple of tunnels we were back in no time and settled in for a well earned rest.
I didn’t stay too long as I’d been looking forward to a local foot and body massage. We decided to split up for the evening. My massage took nearly two hours and was amazing. I went to a place recommended by the hotel as there are so many listed in side streets it would be a bit of a gamble picking one at random.
The foot massage was first. I was taken to a room with low light and even lower music and placed in a comfy chair with my feet in a jacuzzi. The chair needed the muscles in my back while the water soothed my feet. After a while my attendant applied some exfoliant to my feet and ankles before washing it back off and then drying me off.
Then came a delightful, and not short, massage of each foot and lower leg. All very nice. I was taken to a separate room for the full body massage which turned out to be mainly my back and neck. Rather than bore you with the detail I’ll only say that was great too.
Afterwards, being in the Mong Kok area I wandered the street markets again. At night they we very different, very busy and with many street performers. I then wandered down to the Temple Street night market near the hotel. Helen had been there earlier in the evening. It was pretty good but I thought Mong Kok was better.