Hong Kong - City of Contrasts

This is the second stopover we've done in Hong Kong and we are enjoying it just as much as we did the first time. Part of what makes it so fascinating is the contrasts.

Bright shiny new buildings looking very futuristic, high-end fashion stores, expensive restaurants and hotels. Immersed into a landscape of dingy alleys, run down buildings, food stalls and people hawking cheap knock-off goods. Just around the corner, when you least expect it, is a small church nestled in the middle of it all.

At times there are so many people you can barely move and it's overwhelming. A couple minutes later you might find yourself in a small oasis of quiet.

The lakes in Hong Kong Park with wild looking high rises in the background.

Tai Chi Garden in Hong Kong Park. Photo taken from the observatory tower.

A church amongst the chaos.

We spent our first day walking, walking, walking. First stop was the aviary in Hong Kong Park. It's a very large space built into the hillside (you can see the side of it in the photo above of the Tai Chi Gardens). I'm using one of Andrew's cameras on this trip which has a very long zoom lens so I'm taking way more photos than I usually do. It's all set to automatic so photos are definitely not the quality that Andrew gets but still pretty good for me!

I loved the bright blue around this bird's eyes.

These two were hilarious! The one on the right was posing nicely for me, the other one was oblivious.
The right one kept bumping the other one as if to say "Hey, pay attention! She's taking our picture!"

Turtles in the lake in Hong Kong Park.

Colourful cacti in the Conservatory in Hong Kong Park.

After lunch we went to the zoo and botanical gardens. Amazingly, all this (including the aviary and conservatory in Hong Kong Park) are all free to access.

The ring-tailed lemurs are so cute!

The mid-level escalators make going uphill much easier!