First stop - Hong Kong

It's been a few days since I left Hong Kong, and over a week since I got there, so this is a bit late - but better late than never! The flight over was fine - at least as 11 1/2 hour flights go, anyway. I was met at the airport by my uncle Alan and my six-year old cousin, Louise. I was staying with them (plus my aunt Tina and my other cousin, 16 month old Jamie) in their apartment in the New Territories. It was very nice to have some friendly faces around for the first stage of my travels - even though only one of them (my uncle) was actually familiar, and even then I hadn't seen him in a very long time. Louise in particular was very chatty and seemed to take a liking to me...and became my personal alarm clock, waking me up at 6:45 every morning so that I could see her off on her school bus!

Because of my uncle's work, I only got to spend the weekend with him, and the rest of the days I was by myself. On the first day I stayed around their apartment - a relatively new development near Tuen Mun, with shops and restaurants across the road. It was very quiet (nothing like the centre of Hong Kong!) and, judging by the numbers of small children running around, very family friendly. My first day out proper was to Macau. This might seem like an odd choice for a first day out, but my uncle works out there and he suggested I go over there with him. Macau sounded quite interesting in my guide book, so I thought why not? Macau was a Portuguese colony until very recently (1999, I think) and is the only place in the whole of China where gambling is legal...so it's a very odd combination of European, Chinese and Las Vegas. Unfortunately for me it was made even more odd by the fact I'd barely slept the night before (jetlag!) so I spent most of the day wandering around in a dazed stupor, not really sure what to make of it all. I remember struggling to find somewhere to eat, confused by the European-nes of it into thinking that I could find somewhere familiar to eat. In the end I went to a cafe recommended by the trusty Rough Guide, which my uncle later told me is a Macau institution.

Having finally caught up on my sleep, the next day I headed down into Central. As with Macau, I wasn't sure what to make of it at first. I did what my guide book told me to do, and caught the Star Ferry across the harbour...and utterly failed to be moved by the view. I was even more unmoved by the sheer numbers of shopping malls that I found myself walking through. It was only went I abandoned the elevated walkways that connect all the buildings in Central and went down to street level that I started to really appreciate the place. I spent most of the rest of the day wandering around most of Central. It definitely got more interesting as I headed off the main streets and into the side streets, full of more traditional street markets and Chinese shops. However, as with Macau I struggled at first to find somewhere to eat. Although there were western-style places in abundance I was determined to have Chinese food. However, I found the Chinese places quite intimidating, as they were full of Chinese people and I was only by myself. However, aided as always by the trusty guidebook, I found somewhere which turned out to be not as scary as I had thought. And the food was delicious, even though my chopstick technique turned out to be a bit of a disaster :-) The day was finished off with a trip up Victoria Peak to admire the haze...sorry, view.

As I said, I spent the weekend on days out with my uncle and my cousin Louise. Tina couldn't come, as she had to stay with Jamie who was really too young for days out. These days out where quite whistle-stop tours to places that my uncle thought I should really see. First stop was Sai Kung, a village in the Sai Kung peninsula. It's home to a number of fantastic looking seafood places, with tanks of seafood outside from. You select your dinner from the tanks, and they take it away and cook it for you. I really wanted to have lunch there, but Louise had been promised pizza...and there's no arguing with a six-year-old who's been promised pizza. After lunch we went to Stanley, on the south side of Hong Island, to visit the market. The place was heaving with tourists, large numbers of whom were on coach trips - despite the fact that many of them were (according to my uncle) from Hong Kong. My uncle said that many people in Hong Kong do little but work, shop and stay in their flats so a trip to Stanley was a big adventure for them.

The next day we went to Lantau Island. The plan was to visit the Big Buddha, a fishing village called Tai O and then have lunch. However, due to the crowds of people waiting for the bus at Tung Chung, it became clear that we weren't going to do everything. So we went to Tai O, as the bus queue was shorter. By the time we got there we didn't have time to do anything but go on a short boat trip before jumping in a taxi to go for lunch. I'm sure it was a really interesting place, but I didn't get to find out for myself! Lunch, however, was very nice - a South African barbecue place on the beach. Lovely food, and a lovely location. I finally got to see the Big Buddha by myself on Monday. I was very glad we didn't get to see it on Sunday, as the crowds would have been unbearable.

So that was my time in Hong Kong. I don't think it was long enough to see everything - nowhere near. I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do, like eat lots of Chinese food. I also didn't get to go out at all at night, due to being by myself and staying so far out of the centre. I also found Hong Kong strangely alien, which maybe would have changed if I'd been there for longer. It was the first place I've really been too where I felt language was a real barrier. Although Hong Kong is officially bi-lingual, most people don't speak the other language. So in the Chinese places, such as restaurants, it was quite difficult...for example, I wanted to try eating at a dai pai dong (Chinese street food market) but my guide book said that they don't speak English. No problem, according to the guidebook - just point to what you want to eat. However, at the dai pai dong I saw, everything I could point at looked like meat - including chicken's feet and intestines. Mmmm....I don't think so! Also, I found the sheer numbers of people a little overwhelming, particularly at the weekend when it seemed like everyone in the whole of Hong Kong had decided to go to the same place at the same time. On the plus side, it was really nice to spend time with my uncle and to meet Tina and my cousins. Next stop, Singapore...

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