Causeway Bay

Hello everyone, and greetings from Hong Kong's famous Causeway Bay!  As usual, it's a little late in coming, but here are the highlights from this past Sunday evening.  Around last Friday, Su asked if I'd like to go to Causeway Bay to hang out with some people Sunday night.  Seeing as how I'm always in the market for new friends (and because I hadn't been to Causeway Bay yet), I happily agreed.

That Sunday morning, I went to church and enjoyed dim sum with everybody, after which I returned to the dorm for a little down time.  I met up with Su around 5:30pm, and met some new folks:  Teresita from North Carolina, and Yoana from California.  The bus to the train station was jam-packed so we ended up walking all the way from United College to the MTR...25 minutes or so, but downhill all the way.

At the train station, we met up with Eleanor, who is an exchange student from Scotland, and then began the journey to Causeway Bay Station.  When we changed lines at Mong Kok, we actually ran into another exchange student from North Carolina named Sinead, and ended up just taking her with us.  2 local students, Ivy and Phoenix, had arranged to meet up with us at Causeway Bay Station.  Finally, we had the whole group:  8 girls total.

Our first destination was Victoria Park.  This is a really famous public park in Hong Kong, especially at this time of the year.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  It's holiday time in China and everywhere else in East and Southeast Asia!  Tonight (Wednesday the 22nd) is the beginning of the Mid-Autumn Festival.  I'll provide more details on that later, but let's just suffice it to say that Victoria Park is the place to be in Hong Kong during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

  

 It was already crowded when we got there Sunday night but, from what I've heard, there will hardly any room to stand come Wednesday night.  That's why I'm steering clear at that time.  However, the park was already festively decorated when we got there.  Have a look:

  

 

Peking Opera masks:

  

Fish lanterns, cloud lanterns, etc.:

 

And of course the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns:

 

A man was selling little toy lanterns that you could shoot into the air with a rubber band slingshot.  Many of the girls in my group bought one and had a ton of fun playing with it.  Whoever markets these in the US during the 4th of July will make a fortune:

 

More lanterns (you'll see this is a recurring theme around Mid-Autumn Festival), only these are supposed to look like barrels of rice wine:

 

 

 

Ready, set, go!  Here's some of the girls having a toy lantern competition:

 

And Yoana appearing to have some technical difficulties (shooting one of those little things is harder than it looks):

 

Eleanor seemed to have the hang of it, though:

  

It seemed only appropriate to take a photo of the "reason for the season."  As you can see, it's almost full-moon:

 

 

Take a guess at what the round things are...Congratulations if you guessed lanterns!

  

 

 

There's that tacky American tourist again, looking oddly Smurf-like, I may add:

 

 

 

 

You knew it was coming:  the Group Photo.  From left to right are Yoana, Ivy, Sinead, Teresita, Su, Eleanor, Me, and Phoenix.  And yes that is an "orb" hanging around my shirt.  Have a field day, enthusiasts of the paranormal, it's the Ghost of Mid-Autumn Past.

 

Eventually, we left Victoria Park and decided to walk around Causeway Bay.  After all, it's not called "Times Square" for nothing!  There's shopping, shopping, and more shopping!  Of course, for us college students, it means window shopping only.  We had a little too much fun with the fake glasses in one store.  They're hot items in Hong Kong, even without the lenses!  Teresita, Phoenix, and Ivy can most certainly sport the look:

 

 

 

 

Here's the proof I wasn't kidding earlier.  Hong Kong really does have a "Times Square."

 

 

We took a small break from window shopping, and enjoyed some Thai food for dinner.  After that, though, the "shopping" continued.  So what did we all find that we liked the most?  The world's snazziest piano, that's what:

 

 I made a lot of new friends and had fun hanging out with some older ones.  Causeway Bay is an incredible place, but it's legit downtown Hong Kong as well.  Even Sunday night, the crowd control was crazy.  I will say this, though, it's still no Mong Kok.