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We discovered yesterday morning that it was near impossible to find an internet cafe in Hong Kong! Nothing is in English - no where obviously supports net unless you have your own laptop and therefore wifi, very frustrating. We made our way about lunchtime to our next hostel, called Yui Fai Guest House along Nathan Road, dangerously close to the famous-for-the-wrong-reasons Chunking Mansions - a dodgy complex of hostels. Luckily, ours was run by a really helpful guy called Raymond who couldn't do enough to help us, he even let us use his own computer to check our flights! Our room was beyond small, but it was clean, very safe (3 different locked doors between us and the outside world) and in a great location near the tube station.
Once we dumped our stuff we made our way to the harbour side. The skyline was spectacular! Vowing to get over to the island we worked out how to catch the star ferry across and nipped over for just the equivalent of 20p! We have noticed that everything in Hong Kong is more expensive, but public transport is still dirt cheap and the fastest way to get around (taxis are extortionate compared to Beijing). On the island we ran for a bus to the peak tram terminal, toyed with the idea of going to Madame Tussauds - but knowing full well we'd only recognise a handful of the Chinese celebs, then made our way up to the Peak! The funicular is one of the steepest in the world, and it seems we were journeying up with an entire bus load of fellow tourists, as everyone vocally gasped when we saw the view of the skyscrapers, on a tilt. It was really windy on the top - we'd bought a combination ticket so we could get on the viewing platform for the best sights across the island. Hong Kong is categorically one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
On the evening the plan was to go and see the light show on the waterfront. Acclaimed by Guinness World Records as the largest show in the world, buildings stretchng right across the harbour would light up in time to music. Unfortunately, it started absolutely throwing it down with rain when we got to a good spot to watch, and it was really cloudy, so not quite as amazing as we'd hoped. We'd met up with some of our friends and they all thought the same so we headed back to Temple Street night market for some yummy street food! Actually tastier than the restaurant the night before aswell, we had pigs in blankets and strange dumplings with some sort of unrecognisable meat in it.... Paul and Alastair, being them, tried everything on the menu, then we all shopped for some souvenirs before we headed to a local (cheaper) pub for some farewell drinks, then we said our sad goodbyes - despite most of them staying in the same hostel as us that night.
The next day (today) we had a day to kill before our flight at 11.30pm tonight. I'm now at the airport awaiting our departure call, so to fill in.... we did think of going to Macau Island or to the largest outdoor Buddah in the world, but with lighter wallets and the uncertainty of how to get to the airport later we decided to go back onto Hong Kong island, to the (free) Zoological & Botanical Gardens for some animal-watching and icecream. Has to be one of the coolest aviarys in the world aswell! Birds never strike us as the most exciting sections of zoos particularly, but with just monkeys and feathery things to entertain us, we actually loved the birds! Then we went up the peak tram and have a nice hefty lunch at a rather strange place we spotted yesterday.
It was called Bubba Gump's Shrimp, and was possibly the coolest fish and chips restaurant you would ever go to. Full to the brim of Forest Gump memorabilia (you couldn't not like this film to eat here) everything on the menu was gump-orientated, even the fishnchip paper was a newspaper cutting of Jenny Gump's death (much less morbid than it sounds honestly). We were really high up again with an excellent view of the city - and we spent a couple of hours reminiscing of our time in china, and our trip, so far. We can't believe it's zoomed by so quickly, already the part we'd perhaps been looking forward to the most was over! And the thought that we'd soon have a month - the same amount of time we'd have across China - in one place, is weird. we reckon Perth will be much more laid back, less go go go, but we're still determined to see as much of the West coast as possible, despite being based in one city or around.
Goodbye China!
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