Day 3 Hong Kong

We needed plenty of rest after our day at Disneyland so we took our time on the morning of the third day. We decided to take a walking tour of the Central district of Hong Kong Island. We wandered through the antique store road and picked up some fragrant jasmine tea and a tea set.

We stopped at the Man Mo temple which was fascinating. Incense plumed out and permeated the entire street. Inside there were prayer cards hanging from huge coils burning from the ceilings. People were lighting incense and placing it in front of the statues of the gods. We quickly learned that lighting incense was a daily ritual for shop owners. Many of the shops had little temples built in the sides of their stores for burning incense. Restaurants set out food for the gods. It was amazing.

We walked a portion of Ladder street (street completely made of stairs). The pregnant lady and the baby made it difficult to enjoy this street! The further we walked west the more hip and trendy the area became. Lots of little art galleries, eateries, coffee shops, and expensive cars lined the roads. We had found SoHo. We found the huge escalator that ran all the way from the lower part of the island at the pier up the hills to the higher portions where the wealthy lived in towering condos. Along the way were side street after side street of international restaurants. Everything from Italian, Mediterranean, Thai, and even Mexican. We were in heaven and truly enjoyed the tacos, burritos, and guacamole we had for lunch that day. Justin and I decided that if we were to live in Hong Kong we'd set up shop in SoHo like all the other gringos in this city. It was so vibrant and hip. All the people were dressed so trendy. It was just plain cool.

Later that day we navigated ourselves through some of the antique markets and picked up a few souvenirs. Addie had a meltdown at dinner time which resulted in two frustrated parents packing boring pizza back to the hotel to eat in a dark room watching the Travel Channel while our daughter passed out in the bed next to us. We lamented plenty about how unfortunate it was that we had found such a cool area to dine in and if only we were able to enjoy it like the other numerous twenty somethings sitting at the bars sipping their wine and munching on tapas. Then we glanced over at the little sleeping beauty in striped pjs who was sucking her finger and most likely dreaming about Disneyland and our anger dissipated quickly. You can't blame an 18 month old for having a few meltdowns here and there. All in all it was an extremely awesome day in a very cool city.