Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Day 11--Bird Street and Flower Market


Feeling rested and adventurous again with Octopus Cards in hand we rode buses and trains all the way to Mong Kok which is on the Kowloon side of things across the harbor.  Of course no outing is without adventure!  First, we cannot read Chinese and so it is very difficult to figure out where we are going with street signs, although there are a fair amount of English signs you have to ferret them out from all the Chinese characters slung everywhere.  Secondly, my sense of direction is sadly lacking.  We have to walk a block or two before I can triangulate where we are on the map.  Thirdly, I was told there are pick pockets who prey on tourists and a dead giveaway is a person with a map.  So, silly me was trying to memorize how to get there but I had to keep pulling out my map book and "sneaking a peak."  Finally, after thinking about it, I started laughing so hard!  Here we are trying to not look like tourists but umm, we don't exactly fit in! (It might have been the lady that took JP and Emma's photo that clued me in!)  So, with that process and map book in hand we finally made it to Bird Street and Flower Street!  It was such a treat.  So many different tropical plants, herbs and flowers.  The kids wanted to buy everything they saw.  Then we went to the next street and there were hundreds of birds and the kids wanted to buy every bird they saw!  Anyway, we settled for the open street market and got Emma a new purse so she can carry her own Octopus Card.  Alexis--owner of the shredded bathing suit--bought two new swim suits!  I got 4 umbrellas, 3 for us to share and one for Tim (Happy Birthday by the way!)  Then we headed back but starving children had to have food.  So of all the cool places we stopped . . .yep you guessed it . . .McDonalds!  At least here they have sea weed to sprinkle on your fries so they are healthy, right?  And Fried Chicken is okay if it is not processed and has bones, right?  Also, don't bother ordering lemonade--you will always get sweet lemon tea. We rode the MTR train back and caught a bus to our apartment.  Sooo, tired!  The kids were dying to watch TV but the only thing on was about a freaky homeschool family--The Duggers.  Okay, we really enjoyed that!  I wish my kids would be as kind to each other as those kids are!  So, then we cleaned up and put together a birthday party for Tim.  I found a cake!  (It was violet with a pink candle but it was soo great!)  I found some thin cut beef from Canada in the freezer of our grocery store and some scallops so we had surf and turf!  I made some pasta with veggies and white sauce as a side, steamed carrots and green veggies with sesame oil and soy sauce(no clue what they are but they are yummy!  The kids cut up fruit for us too.  JP greeted Tim with "We got you a surprise! An umbrella!" Good thing he did not know about the cake.  Tim was so surprised. You should have seen the look on his face!  Tomorrow--Hong Kong identity cards!

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