July 10 2006 - Daniel and Lynn Wander Around

Daniel and I did a couple of things today that were new for me too. After taking him up the famous escalator in SoHo (what fun it has been to watch my kids react with amazement to the same things that I reacted to just a few months ago!), we wandered down the Pottinger Steps and through the little wet market in SoHo. It doesn’t take NEARLY as long to “do” SoHo with a boy as it does to examine all the boutiques with a shopaholic girl! So, we decided that we needed to ride on one of the little old trams, called “ding-dings” by the Chinese. They are really what we used to call street-cars when I was growing up in St. Louis, with cables overhead. We decided we would ride it as far as the Western Market, because that wasn’t very far, it was hot out, and they aren’t air conditioned. It was fun! They are double-deckered so we clambered to the top and sat in the front. There was a breeze and it was fun trundling along slowly above the jam-packed streets. It only costs $2HK to ride it (about 25 cents US).

The Western Market is a lovely old building. It was supposed to have shops inside, but it turned out to be very strange. The first floor had trinkets and souvenirs. The second floor was all fabrics and tailors, and the THIRD floor was a tea room, including dancing. From what we could see, there appeared to be men available to dance with the ladies…really really strange! We got out of there as fast as we could!

We decided to take the MTR back to Pacific Place so that we could hang out somewhere cool (and have a Starbucks) before we headed back to the apartment. The street we chose to walk to the MTR station was lined with Chinese shops with dried “stuff”. It was all in characters so there was no way to tell what it all was. Some of it was probably Chinese medicine; some of it was certainly various herbs. I was SO curious. I’d love to drag some Chinese person back to that street with me and have them explain what we were seeing. It was just completely mysterious to us….and typical Hong Kong too, since at the end of the street was a 7-11 store!