Ivan is a Palindrome: 9/24/11. Peak 4.

Hong Kong definitely has a more relaxed, Westernized feel to it. We woke up and snacked on the leftover pastries from the bible study before heading out to the Goldfish, Flower, and Bird Markets in Mong Kok East.

In summary: the Goldfish Market was sad, the Flower Market was interesting, and the Bird Market was sad. Something about the way the animals were locked up in the Goldfish and Bird Markets wasn’t right…

Brought to mind this Calvin and Hobbes strip:

They had some interesting specimens at the Flower Market, though. My favorite: Mimosa pudica, aka the Ticklish plant. It has leaves like a fern, and the leaves collapse when the plant is touched or shaken. In more detail, the cells of the plant are able to rapidly lose turgor pressure in response to being disturbed, by modulating ion flow. The leaves also close and open with Circadian rhythm. Plant biology is pretty fascinating.

We picked up some coconut buns (Gae Mae Bao) and preserved plums for my mom, and then headed to Central to take the tram up to Victoria Peak. There were some nice views at the top, but again, the height + lack of tall railing at the top of the viewing deck made me a little antsy. It was a hazy day, too, which always makes things a little depressing.

We had lunch at Bubba Gump, of all places, which actually wasn’t that bad. I think being starving overrode our desire to wait for a more authentic HK food experience.

After lunch, we ran into a random Bruce Lee wax sculpture that people were lined up to take pictures with. Everyone was doing Kung Fu poses, so I decided to ham it up instead and made people behind me in line chuckle:

This is the boring part of the day. We headed down to Temple St for some last minute souvenier shopping. Boxes of Hi-Tec pens for the fam (they have a nib that’s 0.3mm thick for super thin handwriting), a few more oil paintings of places in HK, coin purses for my baby cousin Sophie and Ghyrn’s niece Marina, an Angry Birds sling shot game for my cousin Robbie, and a laser pointer for Ghyrn’s nephew Connor.

Dinner was at a noodle soup place that had chicken and beef skewers.

We headed back to Carrie’s to change, and then headed out to go to Ozone, the bar at the top of of the ICC. There’s a little bit of a funny story on how we got in. Carrie and Kenneth were at a wedding somewhere in the ICC, but she wanted to meet us for a quick drink before we had to take off in the morning. The bouncer at the door said that the rooftop was full and that we wouldn’t be able to get in tonight, but Carrie somehow worked some magic in Cantonese and soon enough, we were all in the elevator on the way to the top.

The bar was at the 118^th story, and I’d highly recommend the place for the open air balcony (which is key in humid HK) and views. The lighting in the lounge was cool too. In retrospect, it feels like one of our major goals in Asia was to get as high in elevation as we could, everywhere we went haha.