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Day 1 - 02/12/2011
We arrived in Hong Kong on Friday 2nd December after an 11 hour flight with pretty much no sleep and grabbed a CityBus to our hotel in Kowloon. The first impression was that everything looked all office-blockey with huge skyscrapers everywhere. As we got nearer the centre of the town it all started to look how we expected it to look - all bright neon flashing lights for the shops, then windows above with rows of washing hanging outside.
We checked into out very la-di-da hotel (BP International just off the main road) and got shown to our room which was on the 22nd floor. The view from our window was amazing. We headed straight out to Temple Street, as recommended by our receptionist, where there were loads of tables and chairs out in the street with big groups of people eating and drinking, so we sat down and got amongst it. The smell of food from all directions was immense and when our food arrived we were not disappointed. We had our first attempt at eating a meal with chopsticks which meant pretty much only being able to pick one item up at a time. This however gave us more time to appreciate the entertainment....
There was a Temple Street Summer Street Festival going on which entailed many bad renditions of UK 80's Hits such as Material Girl and some Phil Collins classics! It was so bad that it was good, and we felt properly immersed in the outside eating/drinking culture.
As we hadn't slept since Wednesday night we decided to call it a day ready for our only full day in HK.
Day 2 - 03/12/2011
Oh my god HK is amazing!! It does everything to the extreme - the buildings are higher than i've ever seen, the lights brighter and so many, and as for the christmas decorations.. wawaweewa! They are huge!
The sun was shining so Hickey had his shorts, t'shirts and sunnies on (and didn't change out if until we arrived in Melbourne) and we caught the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island, which cost the equivalent of about 25p each. Bargain. The plan was to head up to Victoria Peak in the mountains.
This is where the fluffing began. First we got the wrong bus and ended up in a place called Stanley, completely the opposite side of the island to the tram we were intending to take up to the peak. This ended up being a blessing in disguise though as we stumbled across Stanley market which was huge. Stanley is a lush beachy sort of place with loads of bars and restaurants but also has more traditional markets, food places and toilets - where Lorry encountered her first hole in the floor toilet experience which was an epic fail!!
One thing we have noticed about Hong Kong so far is the bizarre street entertainment. Last night it was 80's pop gone wrong, and today is was a "Hong Kong's Next Top Dog Model" competition!
After watch some dogs not do some tricks we made our second attempt to get to the Victoria Peak tram, but again fluffing it and getting on the wrong bus!
We finally made it to the peak - the views were amazing as you could see allover HK. We got there in time for the sunset, and within minutes of the sun going down it got dark and cold! At night the view looks even more amazing with all the lights on all the skyscrapers it looked wicked. There is a laser show at 8pm every night which is definitely worth experiencing. After this we decided to get the tram down from peak seeing as we missed it on the way up, which again is something worth experiencing. Just make sure you are near the doors when they open to get on as the residents have no qualms in shoving people out of the way to get a seat!
We then got the ferry back to Kowloon to get back to our hotel as we had been on our feet for 14 hours. This is when we realised Lorry had made a massive faux pas and told Lucy to get us from Melbourne airport on Sunday morning, when in fact we weren't leaving HK until Sunday evening! Cue a frantic panic of trying to get the message to Lucy.
Day 3 - 04/12/2011
Today was our last day in HK, boo! Got woken up at 7am by reception giving us a alarm call, for a tour we weren't going on. Apparently there are 2 Gill's in the hotel!!
Decided to head back to HK Island as we had such a good time yesterday but thought we would check out the centre today. Wandered around the centre which was a mixture of 2 extremes - really posh places like Gucci, Tiffany's, Armarni etc on the main street and loads of tiny market stalls down the side streets.
There we people absolutely everywhere today, sitting on cardboard, eating loads of food, playing cards whilst protesting about things we couldn't understand the banners for.
After looking around the markets we decided to do what any English person does abroad... go to McDonalds! (only because we had about 10 quid left!). This is where we witnessed a one man verbal onslaught against McDonalds and all it stands for. Basically an Indian bloke walked into Maccy D's and spent a good 10 minutes berating the staff and customers. It was hilarious, his parting shot was " I can't hear you McDonalds" which said in a angry Indian voice added comical value.
After McDonalds-gate we headed back to Kowloon to pick up our bags from the hotel. We popped into Kowloon park expecting nothing much to be going on and it turned out to be the opposite. As we arrived there was a show going on with 2 blokes dancing indside a chinese dragon outfit. We had to take a video of this as it captured what HK is all about, Fun, Weird and Awesome.
The park also had a massive pond with flamingos, an aviary with parrots and toucans, waterfalls, a maze and even an elderly persons exercise area! Unfortunately we ran out of time so we had to say our goodbyes to Hong Kong. We are already talking about coming back!!
Now its off Melbourne. Yay. While in HK we were told that we "smiled like Austalians" so hopefully we'll fit in!
A few things we noticed about Hong Kong are:
- Everything is about 7x bigger than in the UK (except the people)
- The massive skyscrapers still use bamboo tied with leather for their scaffolding
- It is perfect for tourists as everything is so well signposted (but somehow we still managed to go wrong!)
- Your eyes and nose go into overdrive
- comments
Han ban Awesome, i'm sat at my desk in cold, cloudy Swindon chuckling away to myself :) Love you guys, i'm gonna stalk you on this now xxxxxxxxxxxx
Jan Hickey Sounds great, I'm very jealous, looking forward to the next instalment. Love you. xx
Eve Sounds fab! Reminds me of when we were there, it really is an amazing place. Just love this blog, can't wait to read the next installment!! Xxx
KK ha brilliant...if you keep this up you will have no more stories to share when you are back :) Stanley market is brilliant, this makes me miss Hong Kong so much! I am loving the bit about the shouting indian man...wonder what made him so angry...love u both xxx We will keep you posted also but facebook seems to be doing a good job of that....mini gracey has arrived xxxxx
Teresa Gill Wow, what brilliant photos - great to see you both looking so happy - looking forward to the next instalment
David Sounds amazing and i have a feeling that following this blog may become addictive
dad and sue photos are amazing, it looks brilliant! hope youre having a great time, take care xxx
Jude Pictures are amazing it's freezing in Swindon have fun xx