Another gentle start as we walked through Tamar park,enjoying the sculptures,taking a morning coffee overlooking the harbour towards Kowloon our destination for the day using the wonderful
50 year old star ferry service for a little over 20p . A lovely old brick clock tower greets you as you alight and you avoid the various touts congregating at the exit by walking smartly through them along the Avenue of Stars,a homage to Hong kong's film industry over the last 100 years. We even recognised some of them and others it was hard not to snigger at their names. Another coffee stop with a snack overlooking Hong Kong this time fortified us for the walk up Nathan road,an iconic shopping street. We stopped to look at Chunking mansions,a Kowloon institution,3 tower blocks with innumerable curry houses somewhere inside.The restaurants touts stand outside and lead you to them.Very good and cheap apparently.At the top of the road we turned into Kowloon park,an oasis of calm, and admired the birds in the aviary and flamingoes in their lakeside enclosure. There was also a Chinese garden for a shady sit down. As dusk fell we found a terrace bar in the old royal marine headquarters,now restored and turned into a deluxe hotel and shopping compiles.On site is the old naval semaphore tower and also Hong kong's oldest building,an old fire station built in 1881!
It was a short walk onto the viewing platform for the evening's light and laser show where all the skyscrapers on Hong Kong are turned into a giant disco ball. Tomorrow we intend to watch the Kowloon lights from Hong Kong Island. For dinner we ventured into the Kowloon hotel where their specialist Chinese restaurant serves up excellent dim sum and as an added bonus a view of Nathan street. A quick 5 min ferry ride and a short walk and we were back at our hotel.