Mum's Visit pt. 1

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On the 22nd of January I got the bus from Xiamen to Hong Kong. The trip itself wasn't too bad; a nine hour trip on a reasonably comfortable coach with lunch thrown in at a hotel along the way. I found the hotel in Kowloon without too much difficulty and had a couple of hours to myself to relax and watch a bit of English language TV before Mum's flight arrived at about 10 that evening.

The next day we went for a wander to try and get our bearings. Hong Kong is quite an impressive city and (understandably) has a very different feel to the rest of China. It was quite a relief to be able to wander around without being stared at and go into a shop without being hassled.

First thing we took the legendary Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island proper and then spent a hour or two wandering round Hong Kong park - an unusual island of green surrounded by skyscrapers. The park itself had an orchid exhibit on display, which was really interesting and something I think my Grandparents would have loved to see. We had lunch in a traditional tea house in the park. Had some great vegetarian dim-sum and Chinese teas. We then spent the evening strolling around Kowloon. The one thing that really struck me is how much busier Hong Kong is than Xiamen - it took a while to get used to the crowds again.

The next morning we took the ferry to Lantau island, where we took the bus up to the summit to see the giant bronze Buddha. It's the largest seated, outdoor Buddha in the world and is certainly impressive. The views were amazing too although not as clear as they could've been due to a fair amount of mist. We ate lunch at the veggie restaurant attached to the temple before having a look around the tourist village and taking the cable car back down and heading back to Kowloon on the metro.

That evening we met up with Res, one of Mum's colleagues, who was in Hong Kong with her husband who's from there. They took us to the Hong Kong races. It was the first time i've ever been to a race meet. It was great fun and Mum and I had a little flutter (and a mean little - we never put more than 60p on a horse, the minimum bet!) using the entirely scientific method of picking horses with interesting names. Mum had far more luck than I did. I didn't back a winner once in 8 races! But in the end we broke about even so it was all good in the end. Thanks again to Res and her husband for a great night out.

Thursday was our last full day in Hong Kong and we spent the best part of the morning sorting out our onward travel to Xiamen. If there's one gripe I had with our time in Hong Kong it'd be that the guide books we had seemed to be quite dated even though they were the most recent editions. We'd find something interesting (a shop or restaurant) in the book but when we went to find it it had moved, closed down or was undergoing rennovations. It must have happened half-a-dozen times at least (and would continue to plague us in Shanghai) - a consequence of the constant change and "progress" taking place in China. We spent most of the day looking through markets and antique shops and I picked up a few English books as they're a scarse resource in Xiamen.

In the evening we took the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak and had a great dinner. Again the brilliant view was somewhat spoiled by the unclear weather but nevermind. Then it was back to the hotel before leaving early the next morning to get the bus to Xiamen - something that caused us a little bit of bother but before we knew it we were on board the luxury coach (reclining leather seats with pillows and duvets) and on our way.

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