27th May 2010
We started our morning sat in the very front seats on the top deck of a tram, whizzing along Hong Kong Island with the wind in our hair (well mine at least!). It really is a fabulous way to see the city and it’s just a shame there’s only really one line. Although the underground is efficient, you spend so much time underground that you miss life going on above ground.
After a quick walk around the exhibition centre, we headed for Hong Kong Park. Deliberately designed to look anything but natural, this park in the centre of Hong Kong Island is one of the most unusual parks in the world. Rather than try and look natural, it emphasises its artificial creations, such as the fountains and artificial waterfall at fountain plaza as you enter the park and its artificial lake.
We headed up the thirty metre concrete viewing tower near the t’ai chi garden where people come in the morning to practice this flowing art. From here we had some great views of the city with its skyscrapers and were able to get a good perspective on the 8 hectare park nestled between these skyscrapers and mountains.
One of the main reasons I had wanted to visit Hong Kong Park was the Edward Youde Aviary. Home to hundreds of birds representing some 150 different species, this aviary is a huge and convincing re-creation of a tropical forest habitat (with the mossies to boot!). We walked along the wooden walkway, which is suspended about 10m above the ground giving us the opportunity to see the birds at their level, in the tree canopy. We saw loads of birds from the very tiny, to large pelicans.
It was a great place for us to try out the new camera and have a play around because the birds are obviously used to people pointing great big lenses at them and pretty much just ignore cameras and continue with what they are doing. This meant we had ample opportunity to photograph various exotic birds without them flying off. We were even lucky enough to see two different birds taking a refreshing bath.
Next up was a trip back to the Ladies and Temple Street markets for some more shopping. After all we have some cases to fill!