Hong Kong Island

Chase and I went around Hong Kong Island today. We were there at around 8:30 and I was surprised to find HK so empty. Come to find out just about everyone (mostly Expats, I mean) leave during July and August. So we enjoyed the extra elbow room and walked everywhere. I mean Central to Sheung Wan to Kennedy Town to the Mid-Levels... everywhere. We went into all of the major buildings of architectural interest. My favorite was the Mandarin Oriental, and the Bank of China building which is according to all those interested in feng shui, very not feng shui. We also toured around the great parks of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong park we visited a great aviary and saw many birds found mostly in Southeast Asia. We went to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical garden and saw many of the great banyan trees that surround the city. There are many primates there and we saw baby marmosets (pictured below). In one cage, we watched two tortoises spar against each other. Then the smaller of the two went and got on top of what we assume is a female. And just as he was mounting her, he fell over! To our amazement the female and another larger tortoise came over and did their best by putting their shells up against him to bring him back upright. We watched this for nearly 20 minutes until they finally gave up and both walked away. I mean what if this was in the wild!? What would this poor tortoise have done? He was wriggling and kicking and using all his might and nothing was happening. Finally a keeper came in to do her duties and just fixed him upright. That was the end of that. We went to the reptile house which Chase is always fond of and saw a Yangtze River alligator and a Burmese python. Chase was such a good tour guide. All those summers of Trek America were put into action. He was organized, had a plan, and kept things interested. I had a great time. We are so tired though. I wore Birkenstocks for this 10km walk and now everything hurts in my feet. Some good rest tonight should do the trick as I have stretched out my feet as much as I can. Here are some pictures from today.

A Pygmy Marmoset with a baby on it's back.














Chase in front of the famous lions that are in front guarding the HSBC Bank building (formerly Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank). In bronze by British sculptor WW Wagstaff. During WWII the lions were used as target practice by the Japanese.















Me and some beautiful orchids in the Hong Kong Park conservatory.














Chase is starting to realize that he's going to have to watch his head where ever he walks in China....