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Published: September 2nd 2014
Dave and Me
Our first night in Hong Kong. Fiona took us for a walkaboutWe landed in Hong Kong tired after our journey from Thailand. It was a busy airport. We had arranged to meet my cousin Fiona there; it was nice to think we would have someone there to meet us!
We got the train with Fiona into the city and then got a taxi to Hollywood Road where she lived. The apartment was beside the Man Mo Temple. We were so happy to be staying in someones home rather than a hostel, it was so much more comfortable! Fionas apartment was compact but we managed fine. It was great to have lie ins and home cooked meals 😊 Although, her bathroom door was in the living room and was frosted glass... Fiona kindly taped a shower curtain to the door so you couldn't see people peeing in there while you were watching your soaps.
After we had dropped our bags, we went for a walk around the city. We walked along the riverbank and took the ferry and saw all the lights. Above the city there were walkways elevated above ground, to keep pedestrians away from traffic. We saw lots of women playing cards on these walkways. These are the maids,
they're mostly filipino and Sunday is their only day off, so they come into the city and play cards all day.
After walking around for a bit, we called into a restaurant which sold Vietnamese food. It was so tasty. We chatted to Fiona about our trip and we swapped Thailand stories.
We really enjoyed our first full day there. We didn't get up till after 12 and just lazed about. We watched loads of DVDs (including Modern Family, which we never watched before but are now completely hooked). In the late afternoon, we headed out to get some shopping, as Dave was cooking some dinner that night. Fiona came home from work and we had dinner, then Skyped Sean and Maire.
After a couple of days lounging about we decided we better do the touristy thing so we headed to Mount Victoria. It wasn't too far away so we thought we would walk and get some exercise. We were dying by the time we got there, the heat was something else. We got the tram up to the top where there were great view of HK (although it was very misty) and as we nosed around
the shopping mall on top of the mountain, we saw a sign that made our day.. BUBBA GUMPS shrimp co. Boom! We headed in for a bite to eat. Bubbas was our staple food on our visit to the US 2 years previous. For those of you who don't know, its a Forrest Gump themed restaurant. We bought some stuff from the gift shop (they saw us coming!) including a teeshirt for Kev that said "My Momma says I'm special" and made our way back down in the tram.
The following day we took a bus out to Stanley, which was a beautiful beach and pier. We had some lunch sitting under a parasol looking out to sea. After lunch we strolled down to the beach and lay in the sand for the rest of the afternoon. It was great to recharge the batteries and relax.
It was getting close to going home, and it was saturday, and Fiona was off, so we all took a trip to Ocean Park. Ocean Park is a theme park and a zoo all rolled into one. We saw loads of animals, I was particularly impressed by the aquarium, and we also
saw Giant Pandas which was pretty awesome. The Park was huge, so huge, that you had to get a cable car across a gully to get to the other half. While we were in the cable car, it stopped, and we were swinging over this massive gully you couldn't even see the bottom. The cable car swung ominously as a massive black cloud headed across the bay from Stanley over to us. Fiona's phone bleeped: Weather Update: Typhoon expected. No shit!
Eventually the car got going again and we did the other side of the park. There was a dolphin/sealion show which was good but a bit kiddish, and a few rollercoasters and fun things to do. We headed home after dark, and from the cable car we could see the lights of Stanley. It was lovely. That evening, we headed out for some dinner and then for a couple of drinks. We ended up on the HK walk of fame where we saw Jackie Chan's and Bruce Lee's handprints. The city looked great at night so we took loads of photos.
On our last day we did some last minute shopping and had a look around the
markets. We were looking for some gifts for family and friends. We also bought a chess set (which we totally didn't need) and had a good nose around the stalls. We headed back to Fionas and packed up our bags before chilling out and heading to bed.
The next day we were heading home, so we legged it out for a quick bit of lunch before heading off to the airport. We went to a Mexican Restaurant with Fiona and said our goodbyes before heading to the airport. This time we were heading home!! We were sad and excited at the same time. The plane journey to London was long but we slept for most of the way. We landed in Heathrow and then boarded our plane to Dublin.
We arrived to a great welcome committee! There were hugs all around and plenty of stories to tell, so we set off back to Killakee for some lunch. Nana Rita was there and was delighted to see us. We sat in the sun telling all our stories from our travels, and caught up on news from home.
Now it was back to normality.....
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