- Day 4 -

Sam Tung Uk Museum

We made our way to Taipo in the morning, where we found a small preserved area of traditional architecture similar to Beijing's Si He Yuan. It was quite a stark comparison to the high rise buildings and shopping malls sprouting up everywhere nearby. These old compounds normally house a huge extended family, all living in houses within the grid like pattern. There must be at least 15 rooms, with each probably housing a nuclear family of 4 to 5. It tells us a lot of how the tightly-knit the community were then. They had to - they depended on the support of one another for just survival.

It draws new light to the situation in Singapore. Increasingly, interhuman relations have weakened - many people don't even konw their neighbours, although they might live right next door. Greetings and conversations in lifts are now rare events as well. People just seem content at looking at the display digit jump till their levels. Such indifference and coldness among the people is a societal phenomena probably brought about by the issues likHe the lack of necessity, the fear of lurking salesmen and the hectic lifestyles people want nowadays.

Is this culture of forming close ties with people around you still relevant? if we have to force it to others, would it still be considered a culture? Should and would a culture stand without any obvious practical use?

Happy Valley Racecourse

One of the favourite pastimes of Hong Kong people - horse-racing. Like all other forms of gambling, it has evolved to many different systems of gambling, including winning, combo and other complicated rules. It was quite an experience to we watch the filled stadium of people waiting in anticipation, and then the insane cheering of the riders during the races. With a fresh race every 15 minutes, it was not a wonder how they people could spend their entire night at the racecourse, hoping to strike it lucky in the races.

Limin set a bet on the next race, hoping for beginner's luck. Screaming "7, 7, 7" with the rest of the locals screaming their own horses was another experience which was pretty fun. Too bad the laws of probabililty too over, and the racecourse happily and quickly gobbled up Limin's HK$10 as Horse 7 ended up in 4th placement.



The crowded stadium


Warm-up ride


Crazy run to the finish line


At the fences beside the racecourse


From the tram.. A disturbing photo - it wasn't taken through a window.. Neither was it due to my camera lens as the other photos turned out fine...

Bus Ride to Keneddy Town

Being poor students, one of the things we have insisted on in our trip is that we must be thrifty. And we were advaenturous enough to try out the various forms of public transport. In fact, we didn't take any taxis in Hong Kong at all - we managed to get to our destinations by the MTR train system and the public bus station. But there was only this once where we got just a bit lost.

After watching two races at Happy Valley, we left on a public tram bus, which we thought would bring us back to the nearby MTR station. Or any MTR station. We wanted to get to that harbour coast, where we can take a boat back to the main Kowloon island where our hotel was. In the end, we did get to the coast. Just about 30 minutes away from where we wanted to go. So we went about looking for alternate transports. Do note that it was about 10pm at night then. So we nearly boarded a small bus (xiao ba) that is supposed to be very fast. Only drawback we found out then was it was way expensive... Costs similar to taking a taxi. And being bright and quick students, we quickly found another tram bus which would bring us to the Central MTR station.

It was quite some detour. But a rather fun and adventurous one. How many chances do you have to explore Hong Kong on public transport? Haha... Though trying that when everyone was tired wasn't exactly the best time to go exploring Hong Kong Island. =)


The public tram