A grand adventure!

Today all my friends went to Ocean Park or Disneyland; I misunderstood the instructions when signing up for optional tours, so instead I went on a grand quest. And succeeded!

I also succeeded in acquiring extremely sore legs, numerous bug bites, and hundreds of photos to sort through. But that doesn't matter! So prepare yourself for a long post.

I left at 9 a.m. for the Siu Hong station where I took the West Rail Line to Mei Foo. While following the signs for the Tsuen Wan Line I spotted these statues:

and glimpses of a park. So I left the station to investigate.

Amazing! The most beautiful park! Here's a map:

It's totally useless for you, and I didn't use it either, but it's a good thing I read it anyway because I'd been planning on gambling while skateboarding on the grass with my bicycling dog and feeding lots of wildlife and then littering and when I got tired of that I was going to try setting up a little stand and selling people the flowers I'd picked. So good thing I found this map.

Well. The first part I walked through contained lots of little statues and pavilions and twisty paths.
I also found a pond filled with koi! Tons of them! Take a look!



And I saw a man taking his birds out for a walk and a some caged birds in trees. Twittering cheerfully.

And performing acrobatics.



I reached the end of that section fairly quickly, so I turned around and walked farther in the other way. Since I hadn't read the map I sort of stumbled into the most gorgeous garden ever.



I also decided to start a collection of informational signs.

When I'd sufficiently relaxed (although it's not like I was ever unrelaxed, having hardly begun my quest) I returned to the station and boarded the Tsuen Wan Line to connect later with the Kwun Tong Line. (http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/train/system_map.html)

What a crazy interchange at Prince Edward! A swarm of people left the train as one unit (like the people during "Rhapsody in Blue" in Fantasia 2000) and rushed over to a train on the opposite side of the platform. I didn't know what was happening, because usually everyone moves towards the exit. I glanced up at the sign above that part of the platform and noticed the green letters so I figured it must be the Kwun Tong Line. The temporal coordination of the trains momentarily stunned me, but I became unstunned in time to board the train to Kowloon Tong.

At Kowloon Tong I go above ground again (in my brief time below I'd started imagining a society that never sees the sun) to find the East Rail Line and ride to Sha Tin. The Sha Tin station connects directly to a huge shopping center. Although it's not as huge as I thought when I stepped into the lift and saw buttons for at least the 8th floor because when I got off at the fourth floor it looked like offices or classrooms or waiting rooms--anyway, not stores. So I went back to using the escalators.



After I'd skimmed through the stores and reoriented myself I headed outside. I needed to turn left and walk along that road, but that was assuming I'd exited at the exit I needed to. I just decided to walk along the nicest looking path. And lo and behold! I soon spied a promising blue and yellow splotch poking through the trees.

hee hee. Yes, IKEA was my quest. The other day I saw an IKEA truck and felt divinely inspired to seek its source.

Of course all the furniture and stuff was the same, but the display rooms were much smaller (naturally) and overall the place exuded an average-ordinary-furniture-store vibe. If I weren't so in love with IKEA this could have dampened my spirits. As it is, I embrace any incarnation of Swedish furniture goodness.



Other differences: Popcorn instead of cinnamon buns and ice cream instead of frozen yogurt. And oh! What delicious ice cream! (really really, it wasn't just because I was hungry! I'm not a vanilla ice cream expert, but I'd rank it in the top 3%).

I did have a part 2 to my quest, but I thought I heard a garbled announcement about a storm. The OMIP had said something about transportation shutting down at a certain storm level, and since I hadn't heard the complete message I decided to leave as quickly as possible.




See, I told you it stretches on forever and ever and ever...

No smoking. No spitting.

Since it was only 1 or 2 by the time I arrived at Siu Hong, I decided to continue my adventure by exploring the station. I'd already done that a few days earlier, but this time I had a camera!

Some highlights of the expedition:

The beautiful cakes I keep finding everywhere.


My favorite of the children's drawings on display.


A tactile map that sings Fur Elise.
This fact particularly amuses me because only a few days ago a friend and I had been complaining about the super-simple, super-repetitive, super-easy-to-become-stuck-in-one's-head tune that the tactile map on campus rings out. We'd agreed classical music would have been better.

When I left the station it was still raining. Observe:



But I wasn't ready to give up my adventure yet, so after dropping off my bag of brochures I went to Fu Tai. I've walked through the grocery store there a bazillion times...I still love it! It's too bad I would feel totally awkward snapping photos of the inside of a supermarket.

And since I felt adventurous I also visited the market. And look what I saw!


That's right! A cage full of toads! In the meat, fish, and other edibles section.

When I left the market the weather had cleared, so I decided to forget my sore legs and carry on. I wanted to find Ching Chung Koon, a Taoist temple in Tuen Mun that's actually mentioned in a genuine Hong Kong attractions brochure. The directions weren't very helpful, but I figured if I walked towards the hospital I would be able to see it.

I'll warn you now that this quest failed.

And yet it did not fail, because I found cool stuff along the way:

A tree where I could see bauhinia flowers (like the one on the Hong Kong flag) if they were in bloom.

Another warning about feeding birds.


Pretty flowers.

Compare this dog to the those in above pictures (from the park). Amazing, right? There's no standard "NO Dogs Allowed" dog!


The largest land snail I've ever seen. According to the Internet, it might be a common garden snail. Too bad. I'd been hoping for a more unpronounceable name.

Watch it in action!



What a happy tree! And to think: if I hadn't been walking in the wrong direction and become temporarily lost, I never would have met him!


I don't understand the purpose of this van. Probably because I don't understand Chinese and its purpose seems to involve blaring stuff in Chinese through the speakers.


And I captured a photo of the "walk" light! Normally I'm too busy walking for this to happen! Actually, I thought I was photographing the "don't walk" man, but the light changed.

Eventually I returned to Lingnan. I'd found the hospital, but no temple. I'd kept walking past the hospital until I reached a shopping center. I became mixed up after leaving, but then I met the smiling tree. There was no way I'd walked past that tree earlier and not noticed it. However, when an entire place is unfamiliar, it's actually quite easy to find the one street you've been down before. And then I followed the signs for the hospital.

Anyway, when I returned some of the cats were out and about so I thought: why not take even more photos?

I wish I weren't afraid of fleas.

Above is Little Tiger. He's famous for being old and fat, and for taking the lift to visit classrooms.
Rumor has it he walked to Tuen Mun from Lingnan's old location in Guangzhou.

And finally, my dinner that night, from the store in Fu Tai that only sells frozen dinners and refrigerated desserts.