Bookshops and a bus trip to Aberdeen

Finally, I got a decent night's sleep! I slept right through till about nine o'clock this morning 😀. I sorted out my laundry and took it to a place downstairs. It was five pounds in weight and it was only 50 Hong Kong dollars. So about five pounds in money, which I didn't think was bad at all, seeing as we are in Hong Kong.

I've been stressing a little bit about not having done any research or preparation for going to the Philippines tomorrow. My preferred method is to actually have a physical guidebook which I can then annotate and make plans from and discard bits. I just find it suits me to have it all in one place and to have a paper copy to refer to. I know it's old-fashioned, but that's what I like. And it's been stressing me out not having it and not knowing anything about where I'm going tomorrow. So the first thing I did after I'd taken my laundry down was to go out and look for a Lonely Planet guidebook to the Philippines.

I went straight to Central on the MTR. I'd seen a bookstore there a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, they were sold out. The lady in there was very helpful and she phoned their other branch, but they too had sold out. I Googled other options and came up with a store called Bookazine. There was a branch not too far away, so I went to find it. Oh my goodness, it was in a shopping mall in Princess Building. What a horrible place. It's full of top-end stores - Gucci, Prada, Tiffany's, and the like. They're all there, but it's a maze. It's horrible. I just kept getting completely lost. I asked the concierge where the shop was and he told me. I set off to look for it and then I ended up in front of the concierge again!Goodness knows what I did! Anyway, I did find it eventually, but I just found the whole building depressing. The bookshop served its purpose, though. They had a copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to the Philippines. I bought it and because I'd spent over 200 Hong Kong dollars, I got a voucher for a free coffee at their newly opened flagship store and cafe in the adjacent shopping mall. I thought I might as well have a free coffee. According to Google Maps, it was a three-minute walk away. But inside all these buildings - Prince's Building, Alexandra House, and the Landmark Atrium - all linked together by walkways, it took me ages to find it! I gate this kind of shopping mall - full of high-end brands, all the big names, and then above each of the malls was a tower, 50 or 60 floors of offices. By the time I was looking for the second Bookazine store, loads of office workers were coming down to the same level that I was on to get coffee or whatever. There was something called a Starbucks Supreme, their premium store. I just found the whole place really depressing. These people don't see the light of day! It's just awful! I hated it!

Anyway, I found the other shop. I had a coffee. I didn't have to pay fifty dollars for it. I sat there, browsed through my Philippines book, and then decided where I wanted to go for my last day in Hong Kong. There's so much that I still want to see, but you can only do so much. It's funny, a friend of mine is here in Hong Kong. I didn't know she was here until I saw her post on Facebook last night. So I messaged her and she messaged back asking me what my plans were for today. And I said, well, I had been going to go and see the Big Buddha. That was my plan. To use the cable car. But in the end I just could not be bothered. I know the queues would have been horrendous. It's one of the most popular tourist attractions in Hong Kong. It's not an ancient site. It was only built in 1993. From what I've read, it's built for tourists. It's a bit Disneyfied. And I just thought, no, I don't want to do that. So I cancelled the trip that I had already booked and I was going to go to the beach, which is what I told my friend on this message. She came back with, you're on holiday - you can do both. And I just thought that's what people don't get, the difference between a holiday that she's on for three weeks, and what I do, which is longer term travel. I don't have to cram it all in. I don't have to do two things in one day if I don't want to. In the end I decided I wasn't going to do any of that.

Instead, I took the bus to Aberdeen Harbour. I've always loved being around boats and fishing places. And I know Mark would have loved it as well. We'd have definitely been going if Mark was still here. So that's what I decided to do. I went on the bus, which was cheap as chips. I was upstairs front seat as I try to be every time to get the best view. I was going in a different direction to where I've gone before. The southern suburbs of Hong Kong Island are still being built. There's so much construction work going on. There are huge cranes everywhere, roads being built, more skyscrapers being built.

I got talking to somebody today who told me that Hong Kong is the world's tallest city with more than 2,300 skyscrapers, which he defined as buildings over 100 metres tall. I think it's probably even more than that. But anyway, many of these skyscrapers are apartment blocks. And in Hong Kong, more people live on the 15th floor or higher than anywhere else on Earth. That's quite a fact. It was an interesting drive down to Aberdeen.

I got off the bus where Google Maps told me to, and I ended up walking behind all of the fishing sheds. It was signposted Aberdeen Promenade, but I did feel like I was in an area that I shouldn't have been in. Anyway, I just continued walking through and eventually I did find the promenade. It was stunning. There were colourful fishing boats mixed in with super yachts in the harbour, with the background of skyscrapers on the other side of the water. It was a lovely place to walk.Read more