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Published: March 15th 2012
This simply could not be a bigger contrast to what has gone before! After the wonderful tranquility and easy going nature of New Zealand, we pitched ourselves into the sheer madness of Hong Kong, which must be one of the most vibrant, crowded and bizarre places on earth. It took a while to get over the shock! But once we did, we dived in, and we have packed out our few days here and made the most of it, exploring not just the city but other parts of the island too, including the lovely Repulse Bay.
In the city itself we have walked for miles, made good use of the rapid transit system, equally good use of the not so rapid trams, and the quaint Star Ferry. So we have seen a great deal of the place, and sampled most of the remarkable views you can get of this physically improbable, unstoppable place.
It was fun to be able to share a good deal of our time here with our good friend Stevie, who by extraordinary coincidence was out here on work. We all had great fun spending an evening at the races at Happy Valley. As many of
you will know the Chinese are big gamblers, so, when in China..... Seven races later, we left what must be the most stunningly positioned race course in the world cheerily counting our profit on the evening.
The rate of change and development here is staggering. Andrew was here just five years ago and says that the changes are huge, in particular in Kowloon, where massive skyscrapers and glitzy shopping malls have sprung up, close to the port, where today we saw the Queen Elizabeth, as well as some of her passengers tottering around the malls weighed down with their shopping!
We concluded our time here by crossing back over to Kowloon, to visit the 118th floor of the ICC building - the very best place, so we were told, to get panoramic views of the city. All well and good in theory, but not necessarily in practice. We wondered why the windows were made of smoked grey glass, until we figured out that we were up in the clouds. So what are you to do? The obvious. Drop down a few floors to the Ritz Carlton, the world's highest hotel, and hit the cocktail bar. It seemed the
obvious and right thing to do to round off this most memorable and remarkable experience.
That's just about all folks. This has been an amazing trip and a fitting way for Andrew to mark his half-century. We have aimed to share the experience with you and we hope you have been able to enjoy as much or as little of it as you have wished. Until the next time.....
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John Walker
non-member comment
Safe trip home.
Dear Andrew and James, Many thanks for sharing your experiences with us all - delighted that you had such a great time. Have a good run home and I will have a razor ready for your return Andrew!! Cheers, John