3 Golden Fish, 2 Mini Turtles, 1 Bonsai Tree

Another somewhat lazy day here in Hong Kong, but at least today I did a little exploring. Last night Haley and I had a quiet night in the common room. We cooked dumplings for ourselves, shared a bottle of Moscato, and taste tested an Asian dessert "Mochi Ice" (a rice based covering on ice cream). The wine was a great sleep aid but caused a little bit of a late start this morning.

After some quick trip planning I texted the Norwegians to see if they wanted to come on my adventure as well. Most of the Hoosiers were busy with class today. We decided to have a market day and explore the bird, flower, and goldfish markets of Mong Kok/Prince Edward area.

First stop on the tour was the bird market. It's quite odd but all over Hong Kong are various markets that sell specific items. I haven't seen it yet, but apparently there is even a cat market.

The bird market sold every type of bird you could imagine, cages, water bowls, food (including live crickets), and bird toys. Most of the birds were legal but a few were definitely not supposed to be sold. Who would have guessed that I would see a toucan in the middle of Hong Kong!

Hundreds of  birds in cages

 

Dinner...

Bird man 

Next stop was the flower market which was just a quick five minute walk. We actually stumbled upon it accidentally. Just as the name implies there were a lot of flowers to see. In addition to the hundred or flowers odd plants (some lemon tree things), lucky bamboo, and radishes were sold.

                                          

 

Kumquat tree for the New Year

My favorite stop of the day was the goldfish market (I guess the Asian culture doesn't believe in Petco). Shops are filled with aquarium Knick-Knacks, tanks, reptiles, and hundreds of bagged fish! It is definitely not very humane but it was still very interesting to see. On the animal rights note- I saved two turtles today! They had flipped on to their backs and I made the store owners flip them over.