DAY 14

All's great with the world or so I assume as I head out of my room for an exciting day. Well exciting because its gonna be my first real day out in the concrete jungle. I am heading out to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), where there are museums galore. ;)

I know I am a freak to have headed out to museum on such a lovely day. But that's how I am. And now that I have my best friend - an understandable guide map, I am seriously going places. The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) or Metro is cool. Only the exit points are confusing and you mess with them and your life is all messed up. So I get out of one exit, don't understand where it is pointed to and am back on the Metro station. Have been lost before, but it wasn’t so exciting that I could do it over and over again. So I choose my exit carefully and then head out to the nearest museum-the Space Museum. But next to the Space Museum is the Art Museum and somehow I can't find the entry to the Space museum, so I just head to the Art Museum.

Here's a tip. If you enjoy going around the museums and would like to save on the entry fee, which is btw quite low, but the stingy guy that I am, I intend to save that too!! ;) And the tip is to keep your Student's ID card, I mean the College ID. It comes handy often and can sometimes get you 50% discount. Atleast, it does so here and for the first time I realise that the card indeed has some value.

Now I have a 6 month pass (though I am here for 2 months) to seven museums and entry is free to all. The net cost is HKD 25 while entry to one museum is HKD 10. So now, I have a place for shelter whenever it rains and am out in TST!! ;)

A Hong Kong Art Museum was really enjoyable with their various exhibits. Best of all was that photography is allowed in almost all areas, except some special exhibits where there are ancient scrolls and paintings, which maybe affected by the extreme light of the flash. I was allowed to photograph even those exhibits until my flash went off!! :(

After a 3 hour stint in the Art Museum, I did say that I'm loving it and headed out to catch some fresh air. Hmmmmmm. The air was fresh but it was the sea breeze so the saltyness or whatever that smell is, was quite obvious. Never mind. The view of the Hong Kong Island was so beautiful that I just couldn't contain myself and off went the clicking.

Took a stroll through the HK Cultural Centre and a standup comedian was entertaining people. Unfortunately the stuff was in Cantonese, so my only source of amusement was the laughing faces of zillions of people. Again am out and roaming the ocean front and watching the ferries go and come.

Soon I am headed to the Space Museum, but the exhibits aren't as absorbing as the Art ones were. I just pass by snapping randomly and reading some stuff. But none of it was too impressive, except perhaps the spacecraft made by lasers. It’s a pic where there is a rainbow coloured spacecraft (as a friend quoted).

That was perhaps, the only display that was awesome. No. I forgot. The Moon Walk. A saddle in which you are strapped into and then you walk around on the floor and you experience a sixth of the gravity on earth. Oh, that was the high point in the journey of the day. Leaping around, though it wasn’t much of a leap being constrained to move along a line, but it felt great.

There are numerous shows in the Space Museum, but the one about to start while I was there, was "Mystic India" and that too in Cantonese. I decided to pass the show. Will catch it some other weekend. Now it's almost 5 and I decide that I have had enough of the space museum. So I charted a course to see where the Science museum is located. That is tomorrow's destination. So I wander through the map to land up in front of the science museum and then walk through the Avenue of Stars and cross numerous buildings and the view of Hong Kong is great.

Some interesting food stuff was also available, but I still haven't been able to bring myself to try it. Maybe in due course of time, I'd make up to it. You'd know, when I succeed. Walked all the way to the place where the Science museum should be there, but no museum. There are too many buildings before me, but on the map there are just three, so that tends to be comfusing, when you can't be sure of your orientation.

Never mind. Now that I am hungry, I don't have an option to continue the search, so I now try to locate a place where I can have a good meal. I do find one, and have soemthing hot and nice. Well, nice => consumable :).

Back on the road, headed to the MTR station, I find myself lost a little, but my friend helps me get out of a dangerous situation and am at the station in about 30 mins. At the station, in a train, at the destination, out of the station and lost again. The same place where I got lost last when it started to rain. I pull out my guide, but there are way too many roads now. So I walk and I walk till I gain some orientation of the city. (Now am not running around in circles) And finally reach the bus stop. But a new whim. I decide to chuck the bus and walk to the next bus stop. Well I didn't know that I could get to my room on foot, else that's what I'd strive for.

Now I realise this isn't as pedestrian friendly city as it earlier seemed. To cover a distance of about a kilometer and a half, I end up walking close to 6 km and then I realise that just the previous Metro station is where I should have alighted, 'cause that's where I have come walking. I catch a bus, head to my room and phewww. My day is on the verge of ending. Though I don’t end it so soon. I watch TV, chat on the net and finally watch more of TV. :D What a life! ;)

Off to bed, ciya tomorrow!