Hong Kong 15

A short trip in November

When we didn't have kids, November was a great month to Visit Hong Kong. Helen could generally get the time off in November and the warm tropics was a nice break from the cold rainy days in Vancouver. As the kids got older, we changed to going during spring break because we had the time off. This year we were invited to a wedding for a close family member and we took the kids out of a week of school to make it happen. Helen and I could have stayed for longer, but high schools aren't very flexible about kids missing weeks of school. We wanted to make the most of our 6 days in Hong Kong.

Wholesale Fruit Market

The wholesale fruit market is only a few blocks from our hotel and it's mostly an overnight operation (peak time is probably something like midnight). We last visited the Wholesale market in 2019 (Hong Kong 13) but also 2017 (Hong Kong 11) and 2013 (Hong Kong 8) and 2011 (Hong Kong 7) and 2008 (Hong Kong 3), The most fun is when you bring young, very awake kids but it's still nice to see all of the activity. This morning the kids were awake, but they wanted to stay on their iPads rather than go out for a walk.

We pulled ourselves together and started a day of pretending we were native to this time zone. We went to the stationary store and visited other shopping places to avoid the rain. Aunt Jennie is trying to pull a wedding together so every day she has errands to run. We went to a store to get glasses and Aunt Jennie had one of the bride gifts with her - a traditional wedding pig pendant. It's quite startling to see in real life, and touching it you can see how they have conserved material to make it affordable.

We arrived in Hong Kong at roughly the same time a typhoon a few hundred km away from Hong Kong made it's closest approach so we were in for a few days of rain. We had hoped to go on a snorkeling tour or maybe a walk in a park, but because of the bad weather, all of the trips for a week were canceled. We did use the wet weather a bit to see the lights at night.

Goldfish (Pet) Market

Like most markets, some days are better than other. Weekend days are best as the crowds are the thickest and the more fish are put out. On Saturday night, we were at a wedding so we went mid week and still had a good time. We have previously visited the Goldfish market in Hong Kong 14 (March 2023), Hong Kong 11 (March 2017), Hong Kong 10 (March 2016) , Hong Kong 9 (November 2014), Hong Kong 3 (2008), Hong Kong (2006). There are a lot of other pets on this street as well - lots of dogs, cats, lizards, turtles, but I still have a soft spot for the fish.

The gold fish market has a mix of things - lots of cheap fish for kids to have a pet, but also very expensive fish for people who are really into maintaining an art level fish tank. Some of the most amazing fish tanks I have ever seen are on this street and they all have no-photo signs.

The other end of the market is plastic bag fish that are optimized for quick sales. We have seen these fish arrive from China in huge numbers and I'm sure their lives are often short and brutal. I really worry about these fish becoming the start of an invasive plague.

Daytime Markets

I have been to the flower market many times such as Hong Kong 14 (March 2023) and Hong Kong for New Years (January 2009). This time we went to "One Dim Sum" for breakfast and we had plans to meet family after at Moko after. Turns out the flower market is on the way so we stopped in look at the flowers. The kids have been here before, but it's far enough back that it was new for them again.

The Flower Market is busier on weekends and holidays. There are still lots of people picking up flowers and arrangements but stopping on the sidewalk wasn't a problem.

Wet Market on Canton Road

We visited these markets in Hong Kong 14 Trip (March 2023). We had 20 minutes before we needed to get an Uber to a wedding activity so we walked over the market next to the hotel. This is a really nice market (they have higher end produce and seafood) so the kids wandering around with their nice outfits didn't actually seem that far out of place.

Hong Kong Disneyland

This is probably the kids sixth day at a Disneyland park. We visited Hong Kong Disneyland on our last trip to Hong Kong 14 Trip (March 2023) and earlier trips Hong Kong 13 Trip (March 2019), Hong Kong 12 Trip (March 2018), Hong Kong 11 (March 2017). It really is an ideal park for us - it's small enough that you can see everything in a day and mid week in November the line ups were so short we could repeat rides as much as wanted.

While park isn't profitable most years (it's the least visited park of all of the Disney Parks and is majority owned by Hong Kong), it is a full Disney park with all of the stores and entertainment you would expect. It does have a growth plan for the next 10 years so hopefully it's still around well into the future. This is the first time we have visited the World of Frozen so we made that our first destination. There is a fast roller coaster and a slower boat ride to take in.

We visited other rides around the park. The kids like the RC Car in the Toy Story area and the Mystic Point ride is quite nice.

The kids wanted to ride the roller coaster in Grizzly Gulch and we were luck enough to run into Mickey just as he was setting up so it was a short wait to get photos taken with the mouse.

We have a few "Do you remember" rides - we did the Jungle Cruise (there were so few people in the line up that they didn't do language specific trips, they guides amazingly alternate between English, Cantonese and Mandarin. We also did the "It's a small world" ride. For those of you who have had to complete the Disney Intelectual Property training, this ride triggers.

We did skip a few classic rides. We didn't do the flying saucers, flying Dumbo ride, the tea cups or the Winnie the Pooh ride. The kids did do Hyperspace mountain four times and we did the Ant Man and Wasp: Nano Battle 4 times because the kids figured out the score in your pod were real and they wanted to see who could get top score.

Also new this trip - the kids (and Helen) really got into the shopping. Really into the shopping. Claira bought a scarf with a Duffy character and Nara bought a nice t-shirt. Overall, the very light crowds made for a great day!

Wedding

Alan and Kay rented a room at the Peninsula hotel as part of their wedding package. In a western wedding, you thing of the wedding as happening in a church or a garden with an officiant and an aisle and lots of people watching. Many Asian weddings are framed around a tea ceremony where the couple serves tea to their family and ask for their blessing.

The night before the tea ceremony we stopped by the hotel and help decorate the room which was a nice way to meet some of the family. There was a brief "hair combing" event where Alan got ready for his big day the next day.

The next day is a big day. The hotel includes a brief drive in their signature green Rolls Royces. The Bridge and Groom arrived in their traditional outfits.

In a western wedding, the bride and groom generally don't see each other from the night before until the ceremony. In a Chinese wedding, the bridge and groom are together for most of the day.

Different cultures have different models for a bride price, dowry or hope chests. In Hong Kong culture there is a lot of display gold - bangles, gold chains and pig themed pendants. These items may be heritage pieces from older relatives or bought for this wedding. While it's possible to rent the jewelry for the event, these pieces are given. Western weddings often have gifts (and being registered at a store) - Asian weddings usually have "red packets" where money is given. In Hong Kong weddings, you may give red packets or just gold.

Chinese weddings really are centered on the banquet. The meal is generally a dozen courses starting with roast pork, followed closely by fancy seafood and ending with a nice rice or noodle dish. The Peninsula started with a suckling pig and actually brought them out for photos before the first course was served.

The last dish is a dessert. Surprisingly, most of the guests leave shortly after the last dish.

After the dinner, we went out to the photo area. The photographers had setup the lighting from the base that would be back fill from the stronger overhead strobes. The strobes were driven by the photographers cameras so people with their iPhones would only get the back fill.