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HONG KONG...And so it begins
Hi, Keith here. So... we begin our adventure in Hong Kong, and what a great place to start. The girls tell me it was everything they expected and more!! From landing at the airport they expertly navigated their way to the Guesthouse in Causeway Bay. Once checked into the Guesthouse (or was it some nice family's spare room?!) we wasted no time and headed out to explore. Having wondered the various districts of HK, and being massively impressed with the scale of christmas decorations, we stopped for our first beverage to celebrate the start of the adventure. Cocktails all round! We then decided to sample some local cuisine and found a fantastic little noodle restaurant. The girls back home would have been jealous, fresh frog noodles!! Bit different to Welling. Before heading back for our first night sleep, we travelled the world's longest covered escalator, all good until we realised we had to walk back the full distance of it!!!
Tuesday...
Our only full day in HK saw us up early and out, lots of things to see!! We headed for the Peak, a viewpoint 428m above sea level looking out across the whole of HK Island, it was amazing! And the only way to get up there, tram. It travelled at a 45 degree angle.. scary!! We then had a wonder round some Botanical Gardens before heading over to Lantau to see the giant Tian Tan buddha. The girls were very brave, especially Kathryn, as we travelled up the mountains by cable car! It made it all the more impressive to see the Buddha in the distance from that height. After a day of walking, we headed back to the Guesthouse, and after a little nap, headed out to the Peking restaurant. A recommendation to us that did not let us down...well, only when they said there was no more duck for us, after we had already eaten a whole one!! On a mission to see as much as we could we headed to Kowloon and the Temple St night market. The wine and beer played some part in the items the girls bought that night, lots of leather bracelets, to get into the whole travelling thing! Having stopped for a few more beers on the way back, we were tucked in and ready for what tomorrow would bring by 3am. Little did we know what was ahead!
Wednesday...
We all woke up early so that we could find out if Bangkok aiport was open, so after very few hours sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed to find out the people in yellow tshirts were still spoiling our plans! We called the airline to make sure the hour we had spent on arrival in HK aiport at the Thai airways check in desk getting booked on the later flight to Utapao (a few hours from Bangkok) was worth it and it seemed not - the lady on the phone told Kathryn that they had no seats on the only flight going to Thailand that day!! So it was time to get dressed and get to the aiport as quickly as possible to try and get seats on the flight. All ready for a fight they arrived at the desk to be greeted by a lovely Thai man who told them they were on the flight and got them checked in straight away! With over 8 hours to Kill Zoe wanted to see someone about her poorly eye which was causing her pain and meant that all morning she either had to wear an eye mask or have her eyes closed and hold Kathryn's hand to get anywhere! So off we all went to find the medical centre in the aiport - much to Zoe's surprise the Dr declared her unfit to travel and wrote an urget referal for her to be seen at a local hospital! not sure if she would make it back for the flight Zoe had no choice but to get in a taxi and go and experiennce the hell of a HK A&E department!...would she make it back in time for the flight, or would Kathryn and Zoe have to face a nice apart from each other in different countries?...
I stayed with Kathryn in the aiport where we had Katsu curry and then tucked up on the floor of the terminal for a nap! After a few hours we got up and got ourselves a picnic and just as we were trying some yummy cappaccino malteasers we saw Zoe making her way through the crowds - it was a tearful reunion that we all had feared wouldn't happen that day, it truly was a 'sight for sore eyes'!!! From there our day just got better and better as Bangkok aiport reopened so our flight got changed back to it's origional destination and Zoe's eye started to feel a bit better. As you will be able to see from our photos on the Thai Airways flight which was pretty amazing (thanks Mr Betts!) with relaxing music during take off and landing and even a hot meal on the 2 hour flight i also got given a new home to live in, in the shape of a beatiful purple bag!
So far me and the girls have had an enjoyable, if not dramatic, start to our trip! It seemed like everything was against us but nothing could stop us!! It makes for more of an adventure. We have all got on very well, as our pics will tell and even Zoe's Pat Sharpe hair in the morning hasn't scared us. As we head to Bangkok for a brief visit before getting the overnight train to Laos, we are very excited about what the next part of the adventure holds! Blog on!!
Keep smilin'! Over and out, Keith x
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