Sim Sha Tsui – Mong Kog

Going to HK not only means that you will experience heat and humidity but also many AC’s that will give you a cold. It took me not even five days to get one and so I sadly skipped the last point of my Orientation Week (The Amazing Race through HK). But instead we took our time to explore Kowloon by ourselves. Though it was starting to rain, we kept walking. Therefore we started our tour at Hung Hom (MTR station), walked around the HK Coliseum and on Salisbury Rd.
Walking down Salisbury Rd you will have access to the Garden of Stars. Similar to The Walk of Fame you will find the handprints of famous Chinese acteurs or  singers (and you will find this pig. I have no idea why it is so important but – as you can see – I love it).

Right on top on the left you can see the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Center, that is open from 5 am until 10 pm. You can ask permission to enter it, but please remember to take of your shoes!

Right behind the Mosque lies Kowloon Park and a Chinese Garden. In just a few seconds you leave the busy streets and the buzz of too many cars and people and enter a quiet, peaceful area, where you can relax, meditate or simply go for a walk. As you can see it is not only the air that reminds one of a Dschungle but also the trees in Hong Kong.
The high building on the right side is a Four Seasons hotel. The pool does not belong to it, though. If I am not mistaken it is a public pool where nobody was swimming! It was so hot, we could not believe our eyes and just when we were talking about jumping from the bridge that leads visitors above the pool-area we saw the sign. Apparently we are not the only ones that wished to go for a quick swim on their way through the park.

The area I am describing is called Tsim Sha Tsui. Just leaving the bridge above the public pool we crossed a place where some students paraded. We hurried, so that no one would arrest us – I mean, who knows right? 😉

If you go back to Nathan Rd, you can just follow that street and will end up in the district around the MTR station ‘Jordan”. There you will find some little shops and many, many markets: Temple Street Market and then the Temple Street Nightmarket. There you can buy a lot of stuff that you actually do not need, but you will buy them anyway!

So, if you cannot decide, which purple shirt you are going to wear tomorrow, or what cute princess dress you should buy for your little niece: here you will find whatever you need – if you already know it or not. You will also find lots of bags, shoes, paintings and jewelry…

We ate dinner at the Street Market: I ordered some bitter melon. So, trust me, if it says bitter, it really means BITTER. It probably is great as side dish but not as your main meal for the day! But everything tasted really good and we could sit outside, stay as long as we wanted and ate for about 7 Euro including a drink.