Hong Kong

We had to stop off somewhere on the way back to NZ so choose Hong Kong as it was a place Philip had always wanted to visit (and he didn't need a visa for it, bonus!). We spent 6 whole days there and had a blast of a time. Although by the end of it we were both sick of Asian food, even though it's one of our favourite types of food you can only eat so much Chinese and Japanese food!

Day One - Didn't include much activity as we landed at about 7 in the morning and didn't get to our hotel until about 9.30. After missing out on a whole nights sleep we didn't feel like doing anything too adventurous. We decided to explore the local area but found after about 20 minutes walk we were the only non-asian people!! We found a restaurant that said 'Seafood Restaurant' in English so thought that'd be a good start. Inside it was a massive, casual style restaurant and we found out later you put your order on a peice of paper (written in Chinese of course) and hand it to a waiter. We didn't have a clue at first how the whole system worked but eventually somebody found an English speaking waiter. He did the ordering for us. We then had a tense half hour wait to see if our meal would arrive. We never spotted the waiter again and everybody around us seemed to be getting their food except us and we couldn't ask anybody if it was coming! Eventually it arrived! I was keen for a bit of market shopping so we headed into town to explore and also find the 'Ladies Market'. Well I had a great time here and Philip got into the spirit of bartering too!

Day Two

After quite a large sleep-in we headed back out near the airport to catch the '360 Degree' Cable Car ride up to see one of the largest sitting Budhas. Quite a pretty view from the cable car (it was a 22 min ride each way so plenty of time to soak up the view!) Except there was a constant haze over the city that we realised after a few days was from the pollution. While up at the little village ontop of the hill we decided to indulge on a Chinese Massage - big mistake!! I should've learnt from my Thai massage at the beginning of my travels as this was very similar. Both Philip and I got one and we took several days to recover!! That night we decided to head to a seafood festival. There was a small area that had a large cluster of seafood restaurants where you choose your food from a tank and they cook it for you. We had great fun in choosing our seafood and settled for: snapper, scampi, razor crab (?),some sort of crab and free prawns! It was our second most expensive out and was quite a feast.

On the way up in the cable car

At the top of the cable car ride, but at the bottom of the steps leading to the Buddha

Our seafood feast!!

Day Three - We decided to head out of the main city part of Hong Kong and booked a day bus trip to the Northern Territories. We had a real hoot of a guide who loved pulling out the good old English sayings, my personal favourite 'Different strokes for different folks'! The day included trips to: some temples, a fishing village, a small walled village, a waterfall and viewing from the top of a mountain and a traditional thai banquet lunch. That lunch we decided to take a look a the lantern festival. We were in Hong Kong at the perfect time as there was lots of festivals on.

Inside one of the temples next to my 'birth year' buddha, good old 1981!

The local fishing boats

A lady doing her washing in the walled village

At the Lantern Festival

Day Four - Today we went up the Peak Tram a short tram ride which gives great views over the city. Being a Saturday and a public holiday the lines were massive but moved quite swiftly. There was a bit of shopping to do at the top and you could walk around the side of the mountain a bit. We then caught the tram back down again. For dinner we went to the famous "Floating Restaurant" that serves around 3400 (?) people. You had to catch a special 'free' (totally built into the price!) ferry to the restaurant and it looked quite expensive. Now this was our most expensive meal clocking in at around 90 pounds or $270NZ, we didn't even spend this much on restaurant meals in london!! Well we did have beer, wine, plenty of food, dessert and port..... It was lots of fun and we got a table on the deck too.

Up the top of the mountain after peak tram ride, looking over the city

Sunset in Hong Kong, one of the few places on earth you can look directly at the sun!

Day Five - Another day at the markets!! We spent the day at Stanley Markets (and neglected to take any photos we were that into it!). We stumbled across a supermarket, the first we'd seen since arriving so so decided to buy some nibbles and wine and take it back to the hotel for dinner later in the evening as we weren't overly hungry. On the way to the display Philip managed to get the bag with the wine in it caught up in the turnstyle leading into the metro. The whole bottle of red wine smashed all over the floor leading to the metro, very embarassing!! Then we rushed back into the city to see the 'Symphony of Lights'. All the buildings light up with a light display accompanied by a fireworks display and music. After this we went on the mammoth search to find another bottle of wine in Hong Kong, not an easy task amongst a city of nonwine drinkers! We eventually found a mall and paid a ridiculous sum for a very average bottle of wine, but took our treats back to the hotel and enjoyed them anyway!

At the light display

Day Six - Today we visited Ocean Park, a theme park that Philip had been dieing to go to the whole week! We originally were going to go to Disneyland but opted for the park with the more adventurous rides. I'm annoyed I didn't really take any photos here, although I couldn't resist scanning in the bottom picture that we purchased. The look on Philip's face pretty much sums up his whole day!! We were flying out that night and had a slight hiccup where I almost mucked up the flight time but managed to get to the airport on time for our flight back to NZ!

At the beginning of the ride...

.... at the end of the ride!!!