Fish Market - Take 2

I didn’t purposely fall off the blog wagon again…our internet (phone and TV) were out for a week.  The cable/internet service provider here is a monopoly – absolutely no competition; between that and the language barrier, you can just imagine how fun it was to get them to come fix it.  Anyway…

My plans after a busy summer:  Ease back into life in Hong Kong.  Be a recluse for at least two weeks and leave the apartment as little as possible.  Bask in the quiet before re-entering the mayhem and noise of Hong Kong.  My introverted self was going to be re-charged.

Turns out, those weren’t real plans, but were a fantasy.

Day 1 back in Hong Kong:  the Mong Kok Fish Market

As you may recall, Mong Kok is a place where all senses are stimulated…and not in a good way.  And, our failed attempt at finding the right fish market before summer break was like a scene from a (smelly) horror film (for a vegetarian anyway).

The happy, fish-as-pets market was much more to my liking…and as you might expect, was nothing like I’d ever seen before.  There were dozens upon dozens of little shops selling fish of all shapes and sizes, along with turtles, coral, and other creatures.  I got chased away when I took photos of these pre-historic looking turtles (made me wonder if they’re on some sort of endangered species listing!):

Some shops had enormous tanks while others just had hundreds of little baggies with fish and plants in them.

We came home with 18 new fish – a dozen hearty looking colorful fish and six delicate looking angel fish that Lydia picked out.  We were a little worried about the angel fish.  Turns out, that was unnecessary – all the hearty ones died and the angel fish survived.  Obviously, we don’t know much about fish.

The cats LOVE the fish tank.  They watch it like TV.  Lydia described getting new fish as “changing the channel” for the cats.  We changed the channel for them again this weekend, buying  nine more goldfish and two sucker fish.  Clearly, the cats have a better, more responsive cable company than we have! J