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Hong Kong (Tues 3rd - Sat 7th March)
Arrived in HK Tuesday pm after a 70k taxi ride to KL Airport, a 3.5 hour Cathay Pacific flight, an express train to Kowloon and a shuttle bus to our hotel. We have been staying at the Guang Dong hotel in the touristy Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon.
The weather this week has been an important factor in our stay in Hong Kong. This is meant to be the best time of year to visit but the weather has been very unseasonable. It has been wet , quite cold and misty and for the first time since we left New Zealand 10 weeks ago we have had to wear clothes other than tee-shirt, shorts and sandals.
We caught our now almost obligatory hop-on hop-off open top sight-seeing bus trip round HK. One day we took the Star Ferry across the harbour to do the HK Island section of the route. We transferred to the Peak Tram (really a funicular) to the top of the Peak where on a clear day you can get fabulous views of HK and the harbour area. Unfortunately this was not a clear day and our views were non existent. However 2 days later the weather improved and we returned to the Peak to get some reasonable pictures. A second day we did the Kowloon section (a mixture of grotty high rise accommodation and spanking new skyscraper hotels and shopping malls) hopping off to wander round the Jade Market. We travelled through some areas that are in the Guinness Book of Records for having the highest population density in the world. Later that same day we did a "Raffles" and had afternoon tea at the best hotel in HK The Peninsula.
Another day we did a half day tour of the New Territories. First stop was the Yuen Yuen Institute, a replica of the Temple of Heavan in Beijing dedicated to 3 religions Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. We then drove up HK highest mountain Tao Mo Shan which means "big misty mountain" which is appropriate as again the weather was so bad you could not see anything. The trip would have been a disaster if it hadn't been for our local guide Andy. He was very entertaining and informative. One of the things he made very clear is that HK is not China. It is an SAR (Special Administrative Region) of China but it is not China. They speak a different language, drive on the other side, have a different currency and you need a visa to get in.
The harbour area is easily the most attractive and photogenic area in HK. Every evening at 8.00pm there is a 15 minute sound-and-light show involving 20 buildings in the HK Island skyline. Not particularly spectacular or exciting but not bad free entertainment if you happen to be strolling along the promenade.
On our last day we transferred to another hotel on Lantau Island - partly because it was close to the airport but also because it was very near to the Asia World Arena where Rod Stewart was performing. Gwen has seen him in concert several times but this was a first for me. The show was excellent - he sang all the old favourites and was on stage for about 2 hours.
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