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Hi All
We are coming to end of our time here in Hong Kong and although it started off a little rocky, it turned out to be great.
After flying club class here (flatbeds are heaven) we got the bus to our hostel, but it is horrible, the wallpaper is stuck on with sellotape and we have to shower over the toilet but we haven't been spending much time there so we can see the funny side of it!
On our first night we walked down to Victoria harbor so we could look across at Hong Kong Island where all the flashy buildings are and then at 8pm there was a light show to music. Then we just walked around a bit to see what was where and got hassled by loads of hawkers selling 'copy watch, copy handbag mam?' or 'suit for you my friend, I am tailor, make you nice suit!' It's never ending on Nathan Road and the same guy who is outside the hostel building must have asked us 50 times! There are also leaflets for Indian restaurants and I told matt to take one but it was like putting out a crumb for the pigeons, once one sees they all flocked and mobbed him, it took a while to get away!
The second day we were both so tired, bloody jetlag! We went to the good old tourist office for a map and some leaflets like you do and then we spent the day going to the museums here because they are free on Wednesdays. We went to the art museum first which had some amazing Chinese paintings in it and some really old pieces of pottery like from the year 600! Then we went to the Science museum which was so good, there are millions of interactive displays, we must have spent about 2hours in one room alone.
Jet lag was kicking in really bad then so we reluctantly decided to go back to the hostel and rest! In the evening we went to the Space museum which was so good it had a gyroscope which we both rode and it had a gravity simulator but the queue was too long so we didn't wait to go on it.
After that we got something to eat and then we walked the long walk up to the night market in an attempt to tire ourselves out. The night market was not as big as I thought it would be but around it there are loads of food places and all kinds of strange sights and smells, like live fish in a bucket with an air tube being fed into it.
On Thursday we were both still knackered and still not sleeping but we got the MTR (underground) to Lantau Island so we could go to see the Big Buddha. The MTR is very good, the trains are massive and super clean, so are the stations - everywhere is pretty clean as there are millions of people cleaning where ever you go - apart from out hostel apparently! After we got to Lantau Island we found a French cafe to have breakfast at, we're not quite ready for noodles and soup in the morning yet! Then we took the 25 minute cable car ride up the mountain to where the Buddha is, unfortunately it was really cloudy and raining a bit so the view wasn't as good as it could've been, at one point the whole car was surrounded and we couldn't see a thing.
It was raining when we got there so we bought an umbrella and made our way up to the Buddha via the massive amount of steps. It is massive, we could barely see it through the clouds from the bottom but it was fine once we got to the top and started clearing as we walked down but was covered again when we got down, the cloud/fog here is crazy, very fast moving!
We then took a walk around Lo Pin Monastery which is very pretty, everywhere is gold and there are loads of Buddha's of course. There is also loads of incense burning wherever you go, I thing people light it like we light candles in church to pray. There are also loads of flowers and orange bushes which smell lovely.
After we came back down we took the MTR to Hong Kong Island and walked around for a bit, it's very different from where we are staying in Kowloon, I think you must have to be super rich to live there coz we barely saw one non-designer shop. The streets are a lot older and narrower and as it's on a hill very steep in places so there are outdoor escalators - the Guinness Book of records longest covered escalator in fact!
In the evening we ate again - the food here is not as good as I thought it would be, a bit bland and the portions are massive. We then went to the goldfish market where there are millions of fish all individually put up for sale in plastic bags, it's very crazy but they look sad!
We're running out of time now so will finish this off another day!
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