Markets

All of the "suggested tourist activities" in the little Hong Kong booklet we got at our first hotel looked boring, frankly. Watching a horse race? Yawn. Science museum? Next. Ok, there were a couple suggestions that were interesting (Dimsum, the peak...) but Hilary and I are far more interested in the organic and down-to-earth, less tourist oriented aspects of places we go. My favorite "tourist activity" in Hong Kong was to browse the markets, which resembled pet-stores more than anything else. Here are some photos from three different trips to markets that we made during our time in Hong Kong.

We found our first market because Crystal, one of the people we came to visit in Hong Kong, guided us through it to get to her house. She and Hilary became close friends last school semester, because she was a housemate, and came to our church in Pullman. Here she is guiding Hilary and I through the maze of streets:



Vendors at the markets were loudly hawking their wares, hosts of fish,




fruit, (anybody know what these are?)


meat, (including many parts of animals that you might not imagine people eat)




and... lots of other things. Hong Kongians really like the color red. All the lamps were red. I guess it's a pretty popular color.











I have to admit I enjoy walking through these markets more than a zoo. Everyone has seen photos of monkeys and seals, but who the hack knows what this thing is?

(a fruit?)

I think think I saw these things in a national geographic once, only they were swimming happily amongst coral reefs:



Hong Kongians seem to be similar to the Japanese - they like their food to look exotic and beautiful. These crabs look like something you would see in a tropical aquarium, and here they are being sold for something like 6 bucks a pop. I can't imagine that there's much meat on them though.



more seafood:






(The above photo shows two halves of an eel or amphibian creature thrashing wildly in a pan. They like their seafood fresh and wiggling in Hong Kong, too.)

Reptiles were fair game too. I wanted to grab this turtle and keep it as a pet, it would have only cost about 10 bucks. I probably wouldn't get past customs though.



The turtles in the net underneath were some sort of flat, soft critters with long noses. Not normal turtles.

Frogs were also everywhere to be seen. Cages of frogs would be scattered around the markets, next to guys chopping and hacking them to pieces with expert skill. Guts and blood flying everywhere, it's a real show. (Oops I forgot to upload photos of the frog cages. Well, here's they are getting chopped up)






And finally... vegetables





I thought this was the world's larget cucumber but Hilary told me it's not a cucumber:



I'll be posting photos from time we spent with our friends next, but I wanted to get those shots out of the way because they are relatively quick to post, and (hopefully) enjoyable to look at. If you can't stand the sight of spurting blood and frog guts popping like fireworks, Hong Kong's markets might not be for you, but if you don't mind things getting a little organic they are quite a colorful and interesting experience!