The final day in Hong Kong was a trip to the north, near China. It involved 3 transfers from my hostel, eventually onto the regional rail line. Fortunately, everything is interconnected with the MTR, and it was no problem to get around. The regional rail is pretty interesting. They have a First Class Car (whatever that is), and a "Quiet Car", which was standing room only, chock full of old people reading newspapers. Also interesting was an announcement that the train stops at special station on horse racing days, about 500m from the normal station. "That's interesting.", I thought. "I guess horse racing is popular here." And apparently Sunday is a racing day, because it diverted to that station. And oh my god... the once quiet car suddenly came to life. Never have I seen old people move that fast. I felt like a plastic bag in a typhoon, as the entire train was going to go through that exit door. And they would beat my ass if I was in the way. After the mass exodus of old men off the train, it was pretty much empty. This other foreigner and I, pretty much the only people left, shared a look like, "wtf just happened?" Hong Kong dudes dig their horses.

The goal for today was to see a few sights and suck up some rural Hong Kong life. So despite it being about 1km from my destination, I hopped off at Tai Po Market Station to see, well, the market. At first I was a bit disappointed by the market. From the outside, it looks like a modern mall without anything of interest. Inside however, is a different story. More zoo and aquarium than market, if you want fresh food, I don't think you could top this. A fish literally jumped out of a tank, and there were prawns large enough to feed a family. Plus a whole pig, split it half, passed by me on a cart. Mmm!

Also up in this area was the Tai Po Railway Museum. More of a small park, it's a 1 or 2 room museum in an old station, with a few old trains scattered around. If you like trains, maybe worth it. Otherwise, it's nothing special. It was also next to Man Mo Temple. A very small, but very crammed temple, I think it had the most incense I have ever seen concentrated in one area. It was like Beijing on a clear day in there. (ba-dum tsst) Outside was a local market, with some really cheap fruit and veg. Perhaps it is possible to survive here on a budget.

Back to the train station, I started to head towards the city, but there was another village I wanted to see. Sha Tin was past the race course stop, so I got to see a second old man exodus. Something cool I've noticed is that there are a lot of sounds in Hong Kong. All the crosswalks and escalators make clicking sounds. Originally I thought they were just manufactured that way, but here I noticed a little machine attached on the outside that makes those noises. For the blind I suppose. Good on them.

At Sha Tin, I went to see the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. Because you know what's better than 1 Buddha? 9,999 more. It's actually sort of a creepy place, a series of small buildings on a mountainside full of cremated folks. Yet there are buses of Chinese tourists and souvenir shops, alongside the people who are lighting incense for presumably their dead relatives. It's an odd sort of experience. I wonder how the mourners feel? It was quite pretty up there, though.

The other stop in Sha Tin was The Hong Kong Heritage Museum. A massive place full of different exhibits, I never really got the rhyme or reason for their selection. Like, there was one on Cantonese Opera, and another on, of course, old pottery. Yet there was also one on... I'm not sure. Saying how great Hong Kong was? But it was like someone was presenting the city at some sort of corporate board meeting, as it was full of nonsense words like "synergy" and "integration". Also there were models of different types of chairs. It was weird. I didn't understand it. The one gallery of note was the Bruce Lee Exhibition. They had tons of original stuff, and I was pretty impressed. Like of this iconic outfit, before they scolded me for taking photos. Yeah well, screw you Hong Kong. I really wish Google Glass would become cheap just so I can take stealthy photos everywhere people tell me not to. What are you people, photo nazis? It's like the Streisand Effect, I originally only wanted a photo or two... but now I want to put hundreds on the Internet just to spite you.

Anyway that was a long rant about photos. Now back in the city proper, I hopped off the train at Mong Kok East. Supposedly, a stroll down Shanghai Street and Portland Street lets you see some cool stuff. Well, sort of. There are a lot of restaurants, some with very cheap food. So that's nice. I get the impression it's more of a shopping destination, as it's full of small shops selling cutesy things. That doesn't really appeal to me, for obvious reasons. Still, it was super crowded, practically a sea of people. There were plenty of university students out and about, so it has a draw for some people - just not me. It kind of reminded me of all of Kuala Lumpur - a city full of malls, restaurants and coffee shops geared towards women.

It was around 5 o'clock before I got back to the metro. I was debating going back to Indian Town, but after 4 days of walking I don't think I could handle it. Especially since tomorrow, I'm going to be on my feet for about 20 hours in Macau. That's because I decided just to sleep at the airport since my flight is so early. More details on that in the next entry. But I still had one more destination in Hong Kong before another well deserved shower and beer - The Hong Kong Racing Museum.

Not much larger than an apartment, it talks about all of the history of horse racing in the territory. And it's serious business, ya'll. They had a section devoted to the projects that racing revenue payed for, and it was extensive. Based on my experience that afternoon, I guess so. People really dig horse racing here. Who knew? By now it was pouring down rain, and I was in no mood to look for dinner. I did get that beer and a shower, along with a 711 microwave meal. Roast duck with onions, seriously 711? It was soso, but a microwave duck is definitely a way to end Hong Kong on a high note. It was followed up by a gathering on the roof of drinking and conversation, which just made the night even better.

Overall, I'm not really sure what to think of Hong Kong. It's kind of like Singapore, but more trafficy and dirty. I don't mind that on its own, but it surprised me how much more expensive Hong Kong is than Singapore. Singapore has a, I think undeserved reputation of being expensive. Singapore can be expensive. Hong Kong IS expensive. (minus beer - it really is cheaper than water). I think in general, Hong Kong folk are more hiso than pretty much anywhere else. While there's no shortage of restaurants, they're all a little upscale to what I'm used to. The small, mom and pop noodle shops exist, but they're not nearly as ubiquitous as pretty much anywhere else in Asia. On the flip side though, Hong Kong has a lot to do. While Singapore has some countryside, Hong Kong is like 75% countryside - not to mention all the mountains, islands, and numerous close Chinese cities. So who knows, one day I may end up here. I only had 4 days to explore, and I feel that I hit all the main attractions. But if Ella and are at least 10% as good at finding stuff as we have been, we could probably occupy ourselves here for a long time.