Today we have nothing scheduled until the evening and decide to wander around gawking and shopping. We start again with Dim Sum at Windsor House, but on the 6th floor. It's still really good, but we think the 5th floor may have an edge. Windsor House has an electronics mall higher up in the building that we also check out but don't buy anything at.
We head out to catch the lower end of the Central-Mid-Levels escalator, a series of outdoor escalators running 800m. They all run down in the early morning and up for the rest of the day. We ride from the base at Des Voeux Road Central up most of the length. We started this endeavor late enough for the ride to be up, but too early for some of the bars to be open, which is too bad because escalator pub crawl sounds like a good time. We pass through a section of town full of pubs and UK eateries. We exit at Mosque Street where there are supposed to be antique shops and walk back down to get a drink and snack at a now open pub. We stop at a couple of antique stores which are mostly filled with statues and beads. One has quite a lot of ivory carvings that the owner claims are from mammoth tusks. We also venture down some of the older shallow-staired alleys.
Our next stop is the Bank of China building which the tour book says we can visit the observation deck for a good view of the city. After a security check we get badges and take an elevator that only goes to the 43rd floor. The view is pretty cool:
After that, we decide it's time for shopping. H&M is a successful stop, but nothing besides the Christmas decor catches our eye in Time Square:
Another brief aside about the MTR system. Bill and I are taller than the average Hong Kong citizen. This comes in handy when we take the metro during peak hours because even when the train is completely packed, it doesn't feel claustrophobic if you're head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd.
One of our last stops is a department store called SoGo that is so large Y and I get totally lost trying to find the place we are supposed to meet the guys. I get a really cool green sweater and the feeling that we should probably have come here earlier in the day.
Our evening plan is to visit the Happy Valley Racecourse, conveniently located right across the street from our hotel. This is the only day we're in Hong Kong that races are happening. After several false starts and being redirected by employees we eventually find one of the public boxes and watch a race:
The view from the boxes is great, but there's not a lot of energy. After that race, we head downstairs to look for a gift shop and wander through the crowd at ground level, which is a lot more fun. Getting into the spirit, I place a bet on this horse:
Which is a $100 lost, but they're HK dollars. Nothing like a 7:1 exchange rate to both let you feel like a high roller when you place a bet and laugh it off when your favored steed rolls in 3rd from last.
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