Hong Kong and Australia
In November Katie and I made our way to Australia via Hong Kong and absolutely loved it. Now, I don't want to bore people with what happened but I want to record it somewhere so I can look back on it over time. As such these posts will contain words AND pictures so those of you too lazy to read it all can goggle at the pics ;)
Anyway, onto our journey to Hong Kong and our 48 hours there:
So, after getting to Heathrow mightily early for what was to be the first long-haul flight (14ish hours) either of us had made (I'd been to Canada before but that was only 7 hours) we ate some food and then took off on a BA Boeing 747-400 around 7 pm. We flew over Holland and then Russia all the way to China before turning south towards Hong Kong. The flight was actually good fun and really smooth. We got to watch some films too (Dark Water and The wedding crashers in my case).
We stayed in Hong Kong on the SE corner of the island with Katie's cousin and his wife (Jai and Patty) in an area called Stanley. We got there via train and taxi from the airport and both were nice and cheap. Stanley itself was a nice contrast to the CBD and mainland in that it was quiet with very few people around at night (though in the day it hosted a popular market. Temperatures were up at 30ish and with 100 % humidity - oh how I loved that :).
The above picture is a view of Stanley Harbour from Jai and Patty's apartment. They have a cat too, who's unfortunately been through the wars a bit and lost an ear:
On that first night we were treated to a trip to an authentic Chinese restaurant which was an experience - the food was similar to what we'd have back home but the actual way the meal is served etc. Is quite different - one big thing is that they automatically give you a glass of green tea and just keep on refilling it. It was actually quite nice :).
After the first night where we didn't really suffer from jet-lag we got up fairly early in order to make the most of our one and only full day. We went straight to Victoria Peak via bus, foot and then Peak tram (the second steepest incline in the world in which a vehicle travels). Victoria Peak provides views of the mainland and harbor but due to pollution very little was visible as can be seen below!
After that we ventured over to the mainland using the Star Ferry across the harbour.
Here we basically walked for hours and took in the surroundings, noticing especially that as you got further north the influence from England diminished and the Chinese culture revealed itself more and more. However, the pollution was so bad we could smell and taste it so we had an ice-cream and then went looking for a restaurant for dinner. We ended up in a Japanese restaurant as it was the first we found that looked like it would be free of disease and that had an English menu. The food turned out to be really nice though, which was good.
After dinner we made our way to Temple Street Night Market which was good fun, very touristy though. My Brother had wanted a Breitling watch from here (fake, of course), so I asked various sellers if they had them. After finding a seller and then bartering with him on the price, he beckoned me behind the store to do the deal down some back-alley. I felt kind of freaked at this but fortunately it all turned out ok :).
That night we again slept well before going to Stanley Market the following morning and I bought some Silk ties for ~ £1 each and Katie got some pressies for people and a scarf-type thing for herself.
We met up Patty and her friend for lunch and went for some Dim-Sum, basically a variety of small Chinese dishes - Tapas in Chinese if you will. It was all very nice, and then we had a few minutes to go and check out a true locals market (very local - lots of dead birds and pigs etc. hanging from stalls as well as other foodstuffs and not a westerner, aside from ourselves in sight!) before heading back to the airport for our 10 hour journey to Melbourne.
And that story is for later...
Godfather.
Anyway, onto our journey to Hong Kong and our 48 hours there:
So, after getting to Heathrow mightily early for what was to be the first long-haul flight (14ish hours) either of us had made (I'd been to Canada before but that was only 7 hours) we ate some food and then took off on a BA Boeing 747-400 around 7 pm. We flew over Holland and then Russia all the way to China before turning south towards Hong Kong. The flight was actually good fun and really smooth. We got to watch some films too (Dark Water and The wedding crashers in my case).
We stayed in Hong Kong on the SE corner of the island with Katie's cousin and his wife (Jai and Patty) in an area called Stanley. We got there via train and taxi from the airport and both were nice and cheap. Stanley itself was a nice contrast to the CBD and mainland in that it was quiet with very few people around at night (though in the day it hosted a popular market. Temperatures were up at 30ish and with 100 % humidity - oh how I loved that :).
The above picture is a view of Stanley Harbour from Jai and Patty's apartment. They have a cat too, who's unfortunately been through the wars a bit and lost an ear:
On that first night we were treated to a trip to an authentic Chinese restaurant which was an experience - the food was similar to what we'd have back home but the actual way the meal is served etc. Is quite different - one big thing is that they automatically give you a glass of green tea and just keep on refilling it. It was actually quite nice :).
After the first night where we didn't really suffer from jet-lag we got up fairly early in order to make the most of our one and only full day. We went straight to Victoria Peak via bus, foot and then Peak tram (the second steepest incline in the world in which a vehicle travels). Victoria Peak provides views of the mainland and harbor but due to pollution very little was visible as can be seen below!
After that we ventured over to the mainland using the Star Ferry across the harbour.
Here we basically walked for hours and took in the surroundings, noticing especially that as you got further north the influence from England diminished and the Chinese culture revealed itself more and more. However, the pollution was so bad we could smell and taste it so we had an ice-cream and then went looking for a restaurant for dinner. We ended up in a Japanese restaurant as it was the first we found that looked like it would be free of disease and that had an English menu. The food turned out to be really nice though, which was good.
After dinner we made our way to Temple Street Night Market which was good fun, very touristy though. My Brother had wanted a Breitling watch from here (fake, of course), so I asked various sellers if they had them. After finding a seller and then bartering with him on the price, he beckoned me behind the store to do the deal down some back-alley. I felt kind of freaked at this but fortunately it all turned out ok :).
That night we again slept well before going to Stanley Market the following morning and I bought some Silk ties for ~ £1 each and Katie got some pressies for people and a scarf-type thing for herself.
We met up Patty and her friend for lunch and went for some Dim-Sum, basically a variety of small Chinese dishes - Tapas in Chinese if you will. It was all very nice, and then we had a few minutes to go and check out a true locals market (very local - lots of dead birds and pigs etc. hanging from stalls as well as other foodstuffs and not a westerner, aside from ourselves in sight!) before heading back to the airport for our 10 hour journey to Melbourne.
And that story is for later...
Godfather.
