April 2, Monday & April 3, Tuesday
Azaleas
Azaleas
Azaleas, who knew there were so many varieties and colours.
Now this one was the mysterious leafless flowering tree. It is the Hong Kong Orchid Tree !
These are Tibouchina.
And these are leafless flowering magnolia trees (Thanks to Renée, John & Yvette for this one)
Yellow ones
and pretty coral coloured ones
I made a phone call to Canada, to the TD Rewards Travel Centre, and redeemed some travel points for a $900 credit on my China Excursion. Just love this system !
It even makes the white hair look good.
I easily found the flower market off Prince Edward Street and even though Easter is just around the corner, I got the feeling that this area is always busy.
Bouquets, ready for Easter. I've never seen these yellow flowers before.
And orchids everywhere, in every colour.
There was so much selection available. The market covered a two block area.
More orchids. Paul & Perla, I thought of Remy the entire time I was browsing through these. She would have loved it.
Perfect roses, individually wrapped, in an amazing blueish pink colour.
No idea what these are. They looked like they belonged under sea water
Can you believe this shad of calla lilies ?
And this dark purple shade of orchids ?
No idea what these are. They could be from outer space !
And these ? The ones on the right look like bulbs, but they are the flowers.
At the end of the street I found the Bird Park.
A look at part of the Flower Market, from the Bird Park.
It was so cute, I had seen a few people carrying bird cages walking inthe same direction I was.Guess why?They bring their song birds so that they can sing along with all the other birds of the same species at the Bird Park. Isn’t that cute !And the local regular birds swoop in to get into the game, because they get as much bird seed as they want. As the birds in the cages feed themselves, some of their seeds fall on the ground; so it’s a win-win situation.
The Bird Park, the quiet corner where you can sit and reflect in peace.
Because only a few feet away, there are hundreds of bird cages. Most filled with song birds.
Like this little one. Beautiful bright colours
Or these. No idea what the third one is doing hanging from the top of the cage. Maybe it's the opposite of "I've fallen and I can't get up"
And you can buy live grass hoppers to feed to your bigger birds. They also had live worms for sale.
The gate to enter the Bird Park. And check the tree to the left; it's another leafless flowering Magnolia tree.
The Bird Park is really a Market where you can purchase absolutely everything you need to care for your song birds.
How cute are these? And just the right colour for Easter.
Or this big guy ?
Or this cuckatoo. {I thought of you Larry !}
Market area near Canton Road
I decided to get a taxi and go to the tallest building in Hong Kong, which is on the Kowloon side. Although it was not a sunny day, I figured that this might be my last chance to go up, and the Two IFC Building on the Hong Kong side only lets people go up to the 50thfloor for a free view. It cost me 150 HK$ ($19) to go up for a 360 degree observation deck on the 100thfloor of the ICC Building! At 490 meters high, it is the tallest building in Hong Kong, and the 4rth tallest in the world.
Not a very clear day, but you can an idea of how high up 100 floors is. That's the 2nd highest building in HK on the other side of the harbour.
They are still reclaiming land (in fill) and building on top of it on the Kowloon side.
A view of the other piers (the wrong pier # 3 is the little one above the white one.
Kowloon city is still growing; there are building sites everywhere.
You can see Kowloon Park in this shot; where I spent my first day wandering around. You can even see the public pools on the left.
One of Kowloon's Harbours and marinas 
The entrance to the tunnel, to cross to Hong Kong Island. See how tiny the cars are?
And you can see that some of the highrises have pools on their roofs.
This is how good the zoom is on my new camera. You can even see the people swimming in the pool. 
and the Kowloon Train Station on the lower floor.
I went outside intending to catch the metro to go back to the hotel, but found a beautiful outdoor terrace with gardens and restaurants. Breakfast was long gone, and so was the muffin I had purchased at the Flower Market. It was just past 4 pm and they weren’t serving dinner yet, but a light meal was all I needed. Personal size, thin crust pizza (so thin it was almost non-existent) and a glass of wine, for $52 Canadian, not HK$ !
I guess their rent must be really expensive.
The ICC Tower, 100 floors ! Tallest building in Hong Kong. 4rth tallest building in the world.
Other buildings in the complex are appartment buildings, but very interesting architecture.
Still, it was nice to sit outside and relax on the huge terrace.
"Linner" Lunch and Dinner. Quattro Stagioni with a glass of Pinot Grigio.
Monday
Today my plan was to go visit some museums, but my feet strongly objected and my back voted against it as well, so I stayed in and rested.I was able to do some research on the internet with regard to the flowers I have seen in Hong Kong and with the help of Renée, John, Yvette and the internet, I was able to identify all of the following.
Variety of Amaryllis
Azaleas
Azaleas, who knew there were so many varieties and colours.
Now this one was the mysterious leafless flowering tree. It is the Hong Kong Orchid Tree !
And these are leafless flowering magnolia trees (Thanks to Renée, John & Yvette for this one)
Yellow ones
I made a phone call to Canada, to the TD Rewards Travel Centre, and redeemed some travel points for a $900 credit on my China Excursion. Just love this system !
Tuesday
Late start this morning, but I decided to walk over to see the Flower Market and the Bird Park which are only a few blocks away from my hotel, about a 10 minute walk to get there.I was breaking in my new Nike Training running shoes, sockless as directed. On the way to the market I decided to use a different street instead of Nathan Road, Fa Yuen Street. Lucky I did since I hadn’t gone far when I found a hair dressing salon. Yes ! Finally I can get a haircut; the one in Mumbai is in bad need of a trim. Got my hair washed, conditioned and got a great scalp massage before being put in the hands of the stylist. He did such a great job not just styling my hair, but styling it to the shape of my head and face. I haven’t had such a great styling job in years. It cost 100 HK$, that’s $13 Canadian. I kid you not; and this was a really nice salon with some really expensive equipment on hand. He got a really nice tip.
It even makes the white hair look good.
I easily found the flower market off Prince Edward Street and even though Easter is just around the corner, I got the feeling that this area is always busy.
Bouquets, ready for Easter. I've never seen these yellow flowers before.
And orchids everywhere, in every colour.
There was so much selection available. The market covered a two block area.
More orchids. Paul & Perla, I thought of Remy the entire time I was browsing through these. She would have loved it.
Perfect roses, individually wrapped, in an amazing blueish pink colour.
No idea what these are. They looked like they belonged under sea water
Can you believe this shad of calla lilies ?
And this dark purple shade of orchids ?
No idea what these are. They could be from outer space !
And these ? The ones on the right look like bulbs, but they are the flowers.
At the end of the street I found the Bird Park.
A look at part of the Flower Market, from the Bird Park.
It was so cute, I had seen a few people carrying bird cages walking inthe same direction I was.Guess why?They bring their song birds so that they can sing along with all the other birds of the same species at the Bird Park. Isn’t that cute !And the local regular birds swoop in to get into the game, because they get as much bird seed as they want. As the birds in the cages feed themselves, some of their seeds fall on the ground; so it’s a win-win situation.
The Bird Park, the quiet corner where you can sit and reflect in peace.
Because only a few feet away, there are hundreds of bird cages. Most filled with song birds.
Like this little one. Beautiful bright colours
Or these. No idea what the third one is doing hanging from the top of the cage. Maybe it's the opposite of "I've fallen and I can't get up"
And you can buy live grass hoppers to feed to your bigger birds. They also had live worms for sale.
The gate to enter the Bird Park. And check the tree to the left; it's another leafless flowering Magnolia tree.
The Bird Park is really a Market where you can purchase absolutely everything you need to care for your song birds.
How cute are these? And just the right colour for Easter.
Or this big guy ?
From here I wanted to go to the Jade Market, which was too far to walk, so I doubled back to Nathan Road to find either bus # 1, 1A, 2 or 6. I had to walk at least 10 minutes to Mong Kok Road before I finally found the right bus stop. Got off at Kansu Street and made my way to the Jade Market. Well that was a real disappointment; for once I was ready to buy something and found absolutely nothing along Canton Road (Jade Street).
Market area near Canton Road
I decided to get a taxi and go to the tallest building in Hong Kong, which is on the Kowloon side. Although it was not a sunny day, I figured that this might be my last chance to go up, and the Two IFC Building on the Hong Kong side only lets people go up to the 50thfloor for a free view. It cost me 150 HK$ ($19) to go up for a 360 degree observation deck on the 100thfloor of the ICC Building! At 490 meters high, it is the tallest building in Hong Kong, and the 4rth tallest in the world.
Not a very clear day, but you can an idea of how high up 100 floors is. That's the 2nd highest building in HK on the other side of the harbour.
They are still reclaiming land (in fill) and building on top of it on the Kowloon side.
A view of the other piers (the wrong pier # 3 is the little one above the white one.
Kowloon city is still growing; there are building sites everywhere.
You can see Kowloon Park in this shot; where I spent my first day wandering around. You can even see the public pools on the left.
And you can see that some of the highrises have pools on their roofs.
After about 20 minutes I took the elevator back down to the mall of the ICC Building.
Really expensive shops on the higher level: Louis Vuiton, De Beers, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Bulgari, Piaget, Damiani, etc.
I went outside intending to catch the metro to go back to the hotel, but found a beautiful outdoor terrace with gardens and restaurants. Breakfast was long gone, and so was the muffin I had purchased at the Flower Market. It was just past 4 pm and they weren’t serving dinner yet, but a light meal was all I needed. Personal size, thin crust pizza (so thin it was almost non-existent) and a glass of wine, for $52 Canadian, not HK$ !
I guess their rent must be really expensive.
The ICC Tower, 100 floors ! Tallest building in Hong Kong. 4rth tallest building in the world.
Other buildings in the complex are appartment buildings, but very interesting architecture.
Still, it was nice to sit outside and relax on the huge terrace.
"Linner" Lunch and Dinner. Quattro Stagioni with a glass of Pinot Grigio.
After that, I didn’t want to bother with the metro anymore, since it would have required a change of lines at some point and I was just too tired. A waved down a taxi and headed back to the Stanford. Short stop at the fresh fruit & vegetable market at the end of the street to buy a pear and an apple and that was that.
Great day !
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