A microcosm of that is how you choose to spend your free time, weekends and holidays, and I guess this goes a long way towards how the 'world' sees you.
I've written plenty of times in this blog about how travelling to Asia with another person would have made this journey different, and I don't think it takes a genius to work out that the circumstances you find yourself dictates how you choose to spend your time.
I have a couple of friends who have spent a significant time in Asia, and I look forward to speaking them and comparing notes when I return home about the things we did and saw when we were on our journeys. I think that both of their stories will be very different to mine, partly because they were with other people (one for the entire duration and one for just some of it), but also because aside form having each other as a common thread, our interests are dramatically different.
I feel like I have always been someone confident and content to spend time, and enjoy my own company, but I have a sense that other solo travellers in this part of the world might not feel the same, and I imagine that if I'd wanted to then I could definitely have sought the company of other groups or individuals in a variety of different ways.
One reason I decided to remain by myself, aside from not minding enjoying my own company, is that I wanted to make sure that my journey was personal. With a large list of things to do I wanted to make sure that I was able to accomplish as many of them as possible, and with another person, particularly a stranger I don't feel like I would have been able to do that. With another person comes different ideas, different interests and different requirements.
I wouldn't say that I have 'overdone it' during any day of my journey, but there has been a fair amount of times when I have selected to walk out of pure enjoyment rather than taking public transport, even if walking would take me 45 minutes and a taxi or metro ride would take ten - that's just the kind of person I am.
Major sights such as the Great Wall of China or Angkor Wat are compatible with anyone's interests, but I'm not sure if I'd have made it to other more niche interest places if I'd have had company.
Obviously there are levels of compromise, but as I have thought all along, who knows if I will ever come back to these parts of Asia again and there are certain things that I wanted to see which may not be anyone else's idea of fun.
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Some of this is what 'scares' people off about the continent as they see these things which are 'unfamiliar' as 'odd', 'scary' or in some cases 'dangerous' but to me, I find the things which you wouldn't see anywhere else as endearing - I guess that is part of what makes me love Asia so much, but also what makes me consider myself to be something of an explorer.
In my time on this continent I think I have seen my fair share of things that you wouldn't see anywhere else. How many of these different occurrences I am able to remember will be a true test of my memory when I return!
Spending yesterday walking around the Zoo, the nunnery and it's gardens and then seeing the Symphony of Lights had been a wonderful way to spend the day, and for me the most rewarding ones are when I accomplish several things and I feel like I can get into bed and consider myself to have had a very busy day. I've done my best on this journey to keep myself interested by making sure my days are varied, and since Sarah arrived in Hong Kong I'd like to think that we have done the very same thing with our time.
Of course doing all of the things I have just described, and also the activities we've spend time doing since arriving on Tuesday have improved by the presence of another person who actually gets to take these things in with me rather than just looking at photographs and them not having much meaning.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, before coming out to Hong Kong, Sarah had done some research about the things she wanted to see and do whilst she was here, and we'd made plans this evening to go to the O-Zone Bar which is the highest in the world. She'd emailed them to make reservations for later so all we had to do was think of a couple of things that we could do to keep ourselves busy beforehand.
Particularly since coming to Hong Kong, I wouldn't say there were any 'unique' sights that we'd seen that you wouldn't find anywhere else in the world, so I set about putting that right this afternoon as we took the bus for the first time and headed towards Tung Choi Street which is well known to locals, but perhaps not so heralded by tourists.
Although I don't do a great deal of research about each country before I visit, I'd say that I pick up a fair few things, and have done all throughout my travels, and one thing I do know about Asia is that they are very keen on pets.
In Hong Kong there are lots of different markets all over the city which specialise in certain things. We haven't got there as yet, but there is a Jade Market which sells jewellery and items connected to that particular stone, but there are plenty of others that I've read about including street markets which specialise in seafood, kitchens, electronics and even one which specialises in feminine products. Most notable of all is the one we headed towards first which is the Goldfish Market.
Goldfish have always been a part of Chinese culture since ancient times, and they are believed to bring abundance and prosperity leading them to be a very revered item in this part of the world.
I read somewhere that it is connected to Feng Shui and people believe that tanks and aquariums are connected to all five major elements of the student of the ancient art, and they also believe that a fish tank placed in the right place within a home contributes to good energy.
Having seen some pictures online as well as enjoying admiring fish in aquariums I felt like this would be too good an opportunity to miss out on so we got off the bus and made our way across a bridge which led us to the street where the market stretched along.
At first it was a bizarre sight as there were lots of shops with bags of fish hanging on the outside of them....
....it was almost like you were at the fair or something, but eventually there were some stalls which looked more like pet shops which also contained other animals, but their main seller was definitely fish as we watched people spend minutes looking at each one individually before making a purchase:
The whole street must have been about one hundred shops or so all selling fish and although a lot of them were essentially the same it was certainly interesting to look at as there were lots of different varieties that I'd certainly never seen anywhere before.
After the intrigue of the Goldfish Market it was time to move on to our next destination which was pretty much at the other side of the island as we headed for Hong Kong Wetland Park.
We had to get on the metro and then an above ground train followed by a short ride on a tram before eventually arriving at the Wetland Park.
I don't think I've ever been to a Wetland Park before, and it was an intriguing prospect walking around one, particularly one in the unique surroundings of Hong Kong which become more and more incomparable each day.
Hong Kong Wetland Park is a conservation area of around 60-hectares which comes complete with a visitor centre and an indoor aquarium.
It was about an hour away from closing when we got there so was quite quiet. Not only that but it was extremely warm, and just walking around there was enough to make you sweat.
After walking from the MTR Light Rail Station and buying our ticket was followed the main path through the centre of the Wetland Park which took us to several different areas where we mainly tried, but failed to spot any kind of wildlife. Despite that though, the scenery was beautiful, and truly unique:
Along an area called the Stream Walk there was plenty of animals lurking around as we saw mudskippers and fiddler crabs which were busy scurrying around. It reminded me of the start of my journey when I went to Bako National Park and saw them in abundence there.
There were a couple of bird hides scattered around the place....
...most of which were filled with people boasting camera with huge lenses looking to pick out some birds which even when looking through some binoculars I couldn't spot. Even if we weren't seeing any animals it was a nice area to walk around in and having spent most of our time in the middle of the city, it was nice to be in what seemed like the countryside, even if there were reminders that we weren't pretty much everywhere:
Not far out from closing time we headed for the exit, got back on the light rail train and then rode the metro all the way back to Causeway Bay in order to get ourselves ready for tonight.
Despite buying myself a new pair of shoes when I was in Busan, they hadn't survived very well and I decided that it was probably a good idea to go and buy some new ones ahead of the classy surroundings we were likely to find ourselves in this evening.
Sarah needed to go and buy some tights so we split off to get what we needed although only I had some success as I eventually came across a small shop at the back of the market which had some cheap shoes in.
With our reservation in hand we headed to the Ritz Carlton O-Zone Bar which was right next to Kowloon MTR Station and meant we didn't actually have to leave the station itself in order to get there.
Drinking and going to bars has never really been my thing, but I couldn't help but be impressed by our surroundings as we took the elevator up to the top floor of the hotel before being escorted up another couple of floors to where the bar was.
The Ozone bar is notable for its incredible views and when we got there it was pretty busy on the side where the windows you could see out of were so we sat and had a drink before eventually deciding to see if we could squeeze our way into somewhere in order to get a view. Thankfully there were some people leaving just as we arrived and we were able to find a space next to the window and share the spectacular view out of the window:
It's surreal, but no matter how many different angles you seem to view Hong Kong and the bay area from, it just seems to get better every time.
After a couple of rounds of expensive drinks we decided to head back down to ground level and outside to see if if we could get some photos from out there which we did:
It was strange to think that on our first full day in Hong Kong we'd looked across the water to see this huge building and here were were having spent some time at the top of it.
We decided it was time to get the metro back towards Causeway Bay and find somewhere to eat dinner.
By now we've found a street which has plenty of restaurants down it and ended up going into one where someone had been trying to get us to go into yesterday after we'd already eaten.
It was quite funny to think that we probably had the cheapest meal we'll eat in Hong Kong which was the 'desert' to some of the most expensive drinks we're every likely to experience!
Cocktails for Two
Spike Jones and the City Slickers (1945)
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