Hong Kong historical sites, the Peak and Hong Kong Park

Very strange day today, mainly because my body clock is all over the place, as a result I was completely wide awake at 05:00am.  I decided I would get my daypack prepared and go for an early morning walk so I could make it to the attractions earlier and wouldn't have to wait in the queues in this 30 degree celcius heat.

The streets weren't very busy this morning in Causewaybay, only a few taxis and the odd tram dotted the roads.  I was the only person out on some streets so in effect it was like being in a ghost town.

When I was walking towards Wan Chai harbour terminal and the Hong Kong exhibition centre I passed through a small mall complex and found groups of people throughout the complex practicing Tai Chi.  Some were in groups and some were alone, this elderly lady caught my eye with her amazing sword routine (still kept my distance though) It seemed a very strange situation though, doing tai chi in the middle of the shopping centre would never happen in the UK, but whatever floats their boat I suppose, It was quite interesting watching some of them, but I had to move on before the tourists were let loose!!

This is the "forever blooming Bauhinia" situated at the front of the Hong Kong exhibition and conventions centre on the harbour front.  The sculpture symbolises the returning of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.  

This pillar was built for the handing over ceremony (when the UK handed Hong Kong over to the People's republic of China in 1997)

After exploring the historical sites on the harbour front I walked around the financial district in central Hong Kong, it was 09:00am so it was compketely dead which meant I could get a decent look at the various buildings up close e.g. The Bank of China tower.

I then bought a return ticket for the Peak tram.  I never actually realised how steep the gradient of the tram track was, it was ridiculous!  Although the views of the city became more breathtaking as the tram

took me further and further up forested slopes of upper Hong akong island.

Although it was a tad foggy the views from the peak were amazing, I could practically see the whole of central Hong Kong, Wan Chai, Causewaybay and Kowloon.

After of couple of hours at the peak and having a long walk around some of the nature walks Imade my   way back down to Garden Road and started to feel the body clock going crazy, before I left for the hostel (to catch up on some sleep). I went into Hong Kong park and went to see the walk-in aviary.  I got some fairly decent snap shots of some of the different bird species, most of which were native to Hong Kong.

Now I'm not a bird watcher of any kind but I did enjoy the aviary, mainly because you could get so close to some of the different species + it did actually look like a dense asian forest and of course it was free too which was a bonus haha.

 I also went to the SARS memorial (below).  The Memorial commemorates the Doctors who combated the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong which spanned from 2002-2004.

I decided to walk back from central to Causewaybay to take in the atmosphere of these chaotic streets.  

It was 13:00pm at the time and everyone was pouring out of the office buildings and various shopping centres for their lunch so the streets were full and in some places I could hardly move!  The thick smell of spices and sesame seed oil was unfortunately paired with the overpowering stench of the car fumes and the harbour not a perfect combination as the harbour does smell a bit like Blackpool so I tried to concentrate on the smell of the food at all of the restaurants lining Hennessy road.

I've actually just woken up at 22:00pm and am about to go and have some tea and explore Causewaybay further.  Feeling very refreshed after a 5 hour sleep (which was needed as I fell asleep whilst reading a magazine in the common room, oops embarrassing!)