Hong Kong
Ok, I know I’m not meant to flaunting my ignorance by highlighting Asian place names, but Hong Kong has a district called Mong Kok. Mong Kok. Apparently it’s the most densely populated part of what is the most sardine tin-like place on earth, and you can certainly believe that as you come out of the metro station onto a narrow main road packed with shops and pedestrians and surrounded by overpasses and subways. Walk up a few blocks to the various markets and you feel a little less claustrophobic, but this is a relative term in this vertical city-state, where our hotel’s reception was on the 5 th floor due to lack of surface space and where giant hills lurk beyond any mid-skyscraper gaps. View from the Peak Said markets, by the way, are technically rows of themed shops. The flower market is pretty standard stuff; the fish one less so, most of its wares being bulging bags of goldfish (considered lucky by the Chinese) plus the odd tank to put them in; the bird one th...