THE PEAK & STANLEY MARKET, HONG KONG - Thursday Nov 1, 2012
This turned out to be a long, busy and successful day! We were all booked into Club Rooms at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis - so everyone ran into each other enjoying the wonderful breakfast in the 20th floor Club Room, and a wonderful breakfast it was. Cold cuts, salmon, cheeses, crackers, pastries, eggs cooked to order, sausage, baked beans, bacon, wonderful breads for toasting - more than anyone could eat! So although we had planned a 10am departure from the lobby we were all down in the lobby at 910am and caught the 920am shuttle to the Kowloon Hotel which is right next to the harbour front where the Star Ferries depart from.
We were soon all on the lower deck of the ferry after purchasing tickets for $? HK each at the machine - you receive change and a blue token as your ticket for the ferry which takes about 10 minutes to cross Victoria Harbour from the Kowloon mainland side to the Hong Kong island side. Then we walked about 10 blocks, slowly going uphill, until we reached the lower terminal for the PEAK TRAM which takes you to the top of the mountain. This opens at 10am each day and we were there shortly after 1030am and we thought there were quite a few folks in the lineup. However, when we came back down about 12:25pm we were horrified to see a very long line snaking around the side walk - it was very long so we felt very lucky to have had just maybe 30 or 40 folks in front of us!
We bought a ticket at $65HK $39 for seniors over age 64) each which allows you to to take the return trip on the tram as well as access to the Sky Deck on top. The ride up is quite steep, no I really mean VERY steep, and most everyone sits on the tram (125 year old furnicular) facing up hill not downhill - we decided it is less scary looking at where you are going versus how far down can be! The tram stops at a couple of stations on the way up but we all arrived safely at the top! The top was the final holdout for the British forces occupying Hong Kong against the Japanese invasion in 1941 (The Last Bastion was how the newspapers printed the story back in 1941). It is a few years since Terry and I rode up to the Peak and we were amazed at how much construction has gone on since then - the Sky Deck is about 10 stories high - and not enjoying heights, I hated the escalators going up in mid air with glass walls on the side looking straight down over 1300 meters to Victoria Harbour below! However - the views were amazing - what a huge harbour and massive number of buildings there are surrounding Victoria Harbour. The Sky Deck is outside and it was quite windy, but we had a beautiful sunny, blue sky day so amazing views - great for our photographs.
Each of the floors in the new building leading to the Sky Deck have stores on them - so this is a big marketing and shopping centre now. Several of us enjoyed a variety of gelato flavours at ? - we especially enjoyed the coconut and pandas palm flavour! But I also heard sighs of delight at the three different chocolate flavours, then there was the mango, pistachio....... I'm sure you get the picture! (55HK for 1 scoop, 68HK for 2 scoops, and 83HK for 3 scoops). We rode down back to the starting point for the tram and several of us were standing - when you stand you are leaning a long way back to stand perpendicular to the hill side because it is so steep. We had lots of chuckles as one of the group leant forward through the bars due to the slope and her boobs were displayed quite grandly!
This is when we saw the huge lineup to go UP to the Peak and we were so glad not to be in that line. We started to walk over to the moving escalator, which is an outside escalator, and goes a long way up the hill for those folks who live up the hill. We stopped to ask the policemen in a police wagon next to the USA Consulate if we were on the correct route, but eventually decided to skip the escalator and head straight to the Exchange (bus terminal)where the buses depart from. The next stop for us was Stanley Market - built on the shore of a bay on the opposite side of Hong Kong Island. You can catch bus number 6, 6A and 6X which all cross over the island, or the #260 Express which goes through the Aberdeen Tunnel, directly to the other side. To get there reasonably quickly we caught the 260 Express ($10.80HK each) that departed at 1224pm and were in Stanley Market by 1pm after some amazing drives along the far side of the island - narrow roads, hairpin turns. lots of traffic - and did I mention that these are double decker buses and we were all sitting upstairs at the front of the bus! Everyone breathed in every time another double decker came racing around the corner towards us and we swore that there was only a few inches between the two buses as they passed! The views were spectacular and seeing these incredible high rises and amazing designs was a wonderful sight seeing trip all on its' own!
At the terminus in Stanley Market - everyone went their separate ways and we arranged to meet back at the bus stop at 330pm for anyone wanting to return back to Kowloon and the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel with us. The first purchases that we saw made were small 5" by 7" colour paintings of names done in Chinese characters ($30HK each). Then there were the pashminas (2 for $100HK) and small pure silk square scarves ($10HK) - yes, everyone was going to have fun shopping in the Stanley Market as did we. In fact, that night we shopped at the Night Market in Kowloon, and the next day the Ladies' Market in Kowloon - and everyone agreed that shopping at the Stanley Market was the most enjoyable and the best prices.
After walking through the market we came out
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