Second full day in Hong Kong. I set off on my own today with three destinations in mind: the HK Rail Museum, the Dragon in Chinese Art exhibit, and Mong Kok for shopping. I did all that and am in great pain because of it. Here's why...

I walked the quick way to Kowloon Tong station (not the stupid way Michael showed us yesterday). On my way to the HK Rail Museum which is supposed to be a quick 5 minute walk from Tai Wo station according to its website. What a lie...I got out of the station and saw all these contradicting signs. It was hidden deep inside a bunch of streets. But it was free admission and I got to walk along a nice waterway.

Apparently, a huge white Samsung phone is very popular in Hong Kong.

A nice view along the way

The wall at Tai Wo station. I wasn't sure why they had this picture since there is an actual Tai Po Market station right before it.

Used the camera timer for this one and set it on a bench. There was no one around to help me take a picture.

After the museum, I went back to Tai Wo and had some lunch at the plaza. I went to a franchise called Menu. It was very good!

Set meal: cream soup and spaghetti bolognaise

Then I hopped back on the MTR and set off for the Hong Kong Chinese University. One of the buildings on campus is an art gallery and they are featuring an exhibit called The Dragon in Chinese Art. Also free admission. The website had a simplistic map. Google Maps said it would be a 15 minute walk. One painful hour later...I arrived. Totally NOT worth it. My feet and back are in a lot of pain right now. What my maps neglected to show me was that the HKCU campus IS ON A MOUNTAIN and that there is construction happening that would prevent a person from taking the most direct, and easiest route to their destination. And that there are shuttle buses to various buildings but are not frequent on a Sunday. But to be fair, the campus is quite beautiful. And I got to practice my Mandarin while asking for directions from people who kept giving me vague directions. (你要走那邉 -->)

There's a bamboo grove on campus!

I FINALLY found a map. The Art Gallery wasn't on it but I knew it was close to the Science Building.

Let's pause: What this map neglected to tell me was that I had to go into the engineering building and take the elevator to the 9th floor, wind my way through a maze of offices and labs that puts the 6th floor of the MC to shame, go across a foot bridge, through another building, up a bajillion steps and still NOT reach the art gallery. Ok, continue...

 At this point, I was in front of the William M. W. Mong Engineering Building. I needed to go past the Mong Man Wai Building. So I took over 1000 steps (lies) and only burned off 1/2 a cup of tea and 1 pc of shao mai? That is bull crap!

I finally found salvation in a vending machine. Delicious lychee ambrosia with chunks of lychee in it. I think it would have been delicious even if hadn't been tired and thirsty. And just to get something straight, I had been carrying a 1.25L bottle of water and drinking from it but I just needed the sugar.

I finally found you!

I wanted to take a picture with the dragon but no one was around to help me do it and there was no surface I could use to put my camera on for the timer.

No pictures were allowed in the museum. But the things were nice though I maintain that given the trouble I had getting there, not worth the trouble. Oh well, what's done is done and hopefully I lost some weight.

After I got back to the MTR station (a less eventful trek since it was downhill), I headed for Mong Kok. I had a list of things I wanted to get and basically came home with none of it because I was tired and forgot. Oh well...Even though I took a break, I was still really tired. There aren't a lot of places to sit in Hong Kong. There's too many old people. My break time happened at McDonalds and there was no where to sit there either! Too many tourists in Mong Kok. I probably gained back the weight I lost on the mountain.

McDonalds was having a Fairy Tale Hello Kitty themed July. Each week they had a specials.If you added $25HKD to your purchase, you could get one of the special dolls that week. For $238 dollars, you got a story book, a special plushie of Hello Kitty dressed as an owl, and some other stuff. I forget.

This week was The Frog Prince and the special was Green Tea Red Bean Sundae for only 7 HKD. That's $1! (Less since the conversion rate is 7.6) It was delicious, at least for me because the green tea wasn't too strong. I forget what the previous week's special was for The Ugly Duckling but next week it is Pineapple Punch for the Wizard of Oz, and then a Grape Float for Little Red Riding Hood. Each week featured a different dipping sauce for chicken nuggets too. This week was wasabi. Keeping it green.

Since I hurt all over and still needed to get some food for lunch the next day, I went to a grocery store and then headed home. Still in pain and very tired.

Tomorrow is the first day of school.