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The First Installment of my adventure... Hongkong!!
Well where to begin... after our 12 hour flight from England to Hongkong, me and Sophie were pretty nackered especially due to the time difference and our god damn rucksacks. (Which we now wish we had halfed, and halfed again - as our backs nearly gave way!!)
We hopped on a bus to Kowloon from the airport, only hoping for our accomodation to be fairly good.. As we arrived in the centre of Kowloon the atmosphere was amazing, the bus took us down the 'Golden Mile' which was jampacked with skyscapers, colourful lights and hundreds and hundreds of people. Obviously due to it being our first stop me and Sophie were pretty nervous as the place was definately overpowering. Fantastic though!
A young man helped us on our way to the hostel, and told us where to get off on the bus. As we pulled up to our stop - people were walking in every direction trying to get to different places - it was absolutley mayhem and definately an Eye Opener!! As me and Sophie didnt have a clue where our hostel was we manged to bump into a swedish backpacker who was also staying in a hostel near us. The hostel was like a shopping arcade (as you can see from mine and Sophies pictures on Facebook) It had market stalls down the arcade and our hostel was right at the back. Different could be one word to describe it.
We found reception on an above floor - bumping into a young english couple who were also backpacking hongkong like us. We happened to find out there was a mix up with their hostel, and they had to move to a different one which the company owned. Funny enough the same thing happened to us - we ended up being in a twin room rather than double and situated on a different 'floor' called the Safari Hostel, not the intended accomodation 'Garden Hostel'. The name really did describe what we were living in, but at the time this was all amusement to me and Sophie. We had to sleep on what we described as baby nappy changing mats, haha and wash in a very small wet room - have a shower on the toilet. Yum!
Though it wasnt our intended place, the hostel was alright and did the job for 3 nights even though we did have a bit of a hiccop on the first night, ha which looking back on was hilirious! As me and Sophie were settling down to get some kip from maniac new year celebrations, snuggled up in our sleeping bags, our telephone in our room began ringing! Clearly somebody was messing around, as then we started hearing whispering outside our hostel room. As stupid as this may sound me and sophie got our knife and forks out of bags ready to take fire. This tale i will describe in detail when we see you! It probably wasnt the best of situations to be in.
The reason we worried slightly was due to the location of the accomodation and the people living in it. At 2am in the morning, the arcade would be surrounded by what i described as black gangsters. ha! An experience it was which i wouldnt change... but was glad to be leaving on the friday.
Hongkong itself was stunning - the atmosphere made the place. It was quite a clean place, though a mixture of poor and wealthly people and accomodation in Kowloon, though Hongkong island was much different - a great place for a getaway break or especially a Honeymoon. The repulse bay which we passed was gorgeous surrounded by skyscrapers, beautiful scenery and blue skys. Love to go again! On Hongkong Island we toured the island on an open top bus which was really good. Cheesy but a great way to see everything! We visited Stanley Market where we bought lots of souvneirs.. Aberdeen which was a tradional Hongkong town with a nice beach, and plently of restaurants and bars, Repulsive Bay - which i would love to go back to when its hot, and the Fishermans Harbour with hundreds of antic boats, and fish stalls. I think dad would like this!
The surroundings were fantastic, hundreds of boats with skyscrapers built up around the harbour. Great for Photographs! On Hongkong Island we also one day went to the 'Peak' which was amazing. You take a tram up this incredibly steep mountain (this is no exaggeration!! - i have video footage!) up to the peak, which was great as you look down on to the skyscrapers- very high! At the top of Peak was amazing too, in the day and night. You could see the whole of Hongkong Island (though we could of seen more if it was wasnt foggy!) but it was still awesome. I did have wobbly legs here!
We were impressed so much we waited 5 hours till it got dark so we could see the the buildings lit up at night... fantastic!! This attraction was great as there was lots of places to drink and eat, cinema, games room (which was mad - as you can imagine the chinese to be!) etc.
We went out a couple of nights for food in Hongkong as suprisingly it was very cheap!! We went to a food hall where you could basically get anything you wanted for under 5 squid (you would of loved it!) We had Chinese pork and rice, and the portion was hugge. Filled a small hole. And we accomplished eating with chinese chopsticks! Rice was a bit difficult. One night however, I decided to be a bit more daring and have a Thai curry - there was infact whole chillies in it and i thought i had burnt my tongue off. Bit too adventurous i think!
Kowloon.. was a nice place but not quite as nice as Hongkong Island. The streets were amazing - very bright lights everywhere, but it wasnt as upmarket as Hongkong Island. The New Year at Kowloon was fantastic - an amazing firework display which was in snyc with music. Though we have a funny story to tell about this too! The Harbour walk was cool, the view was immense and even better when the sympothy of lights came on and the buildings lit up in snyc to music, - Green lazers and bright jazzy lights which reflected on the water. Fabulous views!
And well the cable cars we went in were awesome too at the end of Hongkong!! They really were, we went so high up in them over the mountains and saw some great views. I did have very wobbly legs however, especially when attemping to stand up! Very cool experience and the Giant Buddha which the cable cars took you too was very cultural and interesting. Many Chinese people were worshipping the Big Buddha which stood high above the attractions. Did feel a bit of a prat as me and Sophie were taking very toursit pictures of ourselves in 'I love Hongkong Tshirts' infront of the Buddha!
I think i have wrote an essay here, but Hongkong was such an experience and i would definately go back, i have so much more to tell you about it but knowing me i will forget when i get back as of all the other stuff we will be doing in the meanwhile. This is just a little insight into our Hongkong adventure...
Hope your all okay and il update you very soon about Australia, as im currently in Sydney!! xx
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