Hong Kong: Street Scenes

Tim and I joked that when we were in Hong Kong, we took just about every form of transportation known to man. An exaggeration, for sure, but damn, we took a lot of different vehicles during our 3 day stay! Plane, high speed train, taxi, funicular, subway, double decker bus... but in this post I shall show you Hong Kong's double-decker street car/tramways and its Central-Mid-Levels Escalator, as well as some other street scenes.

Hong Kong island has a cool system of electric trams that run through the major business district.  Double-decker trams, covered in advertising, run down the middle of the major road:

One night, Tim and I ate dinner at a place we read about, the American Restaurant. Rumor has it it was named thusly in order to lure in American sailors during the Vietnam War. But it's not an American restaurant- it serves Peking food in family-sized portions, including Peking duck:

It's kinda on a seedy street:

But it was pretty damn good... sizzling beef:

The surly waitstaff (ok, one guy was super nice), carving our Peking duck (yes, Tim and I ate an entire duck):

We basically rolled ourselves out of the restaurant to head to one of the bar/nightlife areas in the Mid-Levels.  To get there, we took the Central-Mid-Levels travelator, which is apparently the world's longest covered escalator systems.

Apparently people use this travelator to commute, as it goes up in the evening and down in the mornings. It's necessary because of Hong Kong's steep terrain: if you drove this route, it was be a circuitous route winding up the hills.

When we got to the mid-levels, there was a lovely mural.  I wanted to pose with it, but damn if I don't look pregnant with a Peking duck baby:

The next day we wandered around near our hotel a bit.  Turns out we were a couple blocks away from a wet market, my favorite!

Hong Kong Sunset

Just some pretty photos of the Hong Kong sunset... from the Hong Kong side, facing Kowloon:

Not sure why I look angry here in light of the pretty scenery and tasty beverages... sigh, resting bitch face:

If you peek through the buildings, you can see one of Hong Kong's beautiful red-sailed junks (he he, I said junk)... sailing ships formerly used pretty much everything, now used exclusively for cruising:

Tim got this cool street shot:

Hong Kong: Fabric Shopping in Sham Shui Po

In anticipation of our trip to Hong Kong, I did a little bit of research on fabric shopping, figuring it could be a jackpot for that type of thing.  Sure enough, it was!  

Thanks to bloggers here, here, here and here for leading me to this fabric Valhalla! 

Relative to the big, shiny skyscrapers elsewhere in Hong Kong, like Kowloon or Central, the Sham Shui Po area has a very throw-back feel to it... lots of old buildings and street markets. Check out all the crazy signage... looks like something out of a movie:

Apparently it was one of the first areas in Hong Kong that was settled back in the day and is now where many working class Hong Kong folks live.

Ok, back to the fabric shopping. There are a ton of fabric shops in the Sham Shui Po area.  Some are regular stores with bolts of fabric:

Many of them, though, only have fabric swatches. They seem more geared towards wholesale shoppers:

Lots of leather, button and findings stores, crammed to the gills with product:

Most of my shopping, though, was from carts and makeshift booths in the street out in front of the shops. There was fabric on rolls and pre-cut pieces, all being sold for crazy cheap prices. Mostly garment fabrics- nary a piece of quilting cotton to be seen!

What did I buy? A lot. 

I came home with a ton of lovely stretch wovens: 

- stretch denim in two colors

- cool grey stripey stuff

- weird, but awesome silver-on-black stuff

I also got some nice knits: 

- an enormous piece of super soft black ponte (some of which I already used to make my Tilly and the Buttons Coco tunic

-some light blue and grey heather jersey

All super cheap: nothing more than $3/yard!

In the pile on the right:

- two pieces of seersucker, one striped and one small checks

- a piece of bright coral gauze

- pretty mustard lawn

- gorgeous blue and green floral voile

- lightweight chambray

- some linen-y bottomweight stuff... maybe a blend?

What did Tim get out of this trip? Practice with the camera and dim sum.

I read about a great dim sum place, Tim Ho Wan, not far from the fabric district and used this as leverage to convince Tim to join me in fabric shopping. Plus, dim sum.  Mmm.

This place was no frills, but had the best BBQ pork bun I've ever had.  It was baked rather than steamed and had this amazing sweet, crispy crust on the outside... after we inhaled our first order, we got a second:

Also, "phoenix talons" might be the best euphemism for chicken feet I've seen: