Blogs from Lantau Island, Hong Kong, Asia - page 6

Hello everybody! So last time I made a return to Shanghai to finish up the city, see a bunch of art, even though I generally don’t like (western) art, and become the Shanghai socialite I always knew I could be. And now to Hong Kong Island! Aug 25th: So about Hong Kong Island. I woke up, packed up, and then pulled out my laptop to double check where my hostel was. And as it turned out – there was a mix up in the hostel reservations. The first few days I would be at Ngong Ping, on LanTau island. This is very west of the actual Hong Kong city, stuck up on a mountain top, and a good 40 min bus ride to the metro station, which is then another 40 min metro ride to where ... read more

Flight was uneventful. Both Eryl and I wore our flight socks! We landed on time at about 4pm local time, 9am UK time. Watches now moved on so this will be my last reference to UK time. Cars were there waiting for so that worked well. Trip from airport to hotel was about 45 minutes. Checked in and taken up to our rooms. Blown away by the size of them and the wonderful view of the harbour. This really is like no other YMCA! Also the good old British taught them to drive on the right side of the road and gave them standard square pin plugs! After a shower, we all went walking round the local streets and then ended up on the waterfront near to our hotel just before 8pm, in time to watch ... read more

Sinclair arrived about 20 minutes early but we were ready and waiting for him. Passed 2 crashes on M4, one with helicopter in attendance, but looked OK and didn’t hold us up. Arrived as Heathrow Terminal 5 around 4.45 and found that we couldn’t check in until 3 hours before (ie 6.30) so we had a drink while waiting. Very impressed with lack of queues at this terminal but unimpressed that apart from Stephanie all our bag were overweight! After a bit of juggling we reduced the number overweight to 4 but still an unwelcome additional cost of £160! In Hong Kong we will buy a decent size suitcase that’ acceptable to hand luggage and use that to try and avoid anymore overweight bags. Some people seem to take a ridiculous amount of hand luggage and ... read more

So, here we go. My first blog entry – six weeks in! A mere six weeks, out of a 14 month adventure! And – oh my goodness – the emotions, sights and experiences have been well and truly flowing. It really is about time this blog malarkey was underway. Take a deep breath and write, she says... Scattered tropical islands, evergreen mountains and endless seas. Amongst it all? Hong Kong International Airport, located on Lantau Island, China. It can only be described as an airport living life on the edge – which is really rather apt for HK! Being based on one of the outlying islands (Lantau), the runway extends to the very edge of the island, well and truly dipping its toes in the sea. One second out and we would have been in that ... read more

For part of my trip to Hong Kong, I decided I wanted to do some hiking. But due to the consistently gloomy weather, I scrapped this plan; I decided I didn't want to get stuck in the middle of who knows where in the middle of a downpour. Knowing that Lantau Island offers lots of beautiful views and has its own bus service, I decided to venture around the island for the day. I figured I could see lots of nature, quaint locales I hadn't seen, and was always pretty close to a bus if the weather turned foul. I took the metro out to the island and got off at the same stop as the cable cars to the Big Buddha. This time, though, instead of going to the cable cars, I veered to the ... read more