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Published: July 10th 2008
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Hong Kong By Night
Hong Kong Island from Kowloon Pier Well Hong Kong Part one is over now (writing from Beijing) and I have to say that it lived up to my expectations and a whole lot more! I am very glad that I have alotted another few days there on my way back down to Thailand. I have uploaded a few photos for ye to see and below are a few of the boring facts of what I got up to for those at home interested....
But I don't plan to have all my updates this factual...I'm aiming for a more of an "Observations from abraod" kind of blog! And I'll give you the bad as well as the good! I might even fill you in on all the "foot massages" I have been offered...I SAID OFFERED!! or the women in a Beijing shop that keep slapping me on the bum!! And wait till I get to telling you about the dive I'm in at the moment! Not the internet shop, the city...hygenie wouldn't be high up in their list of priororities! Of course everynow an then I will also update the factual stuff about where I have been and include a few photos for those of you who
Kowloon
Kowloon from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong are still interested!!
But anyway for now I will only give you the Hong Kong Update!
The flight with BA took just over 11 hours and passed off without any major incident. Mind you BA could do with adding a little extra leg room. I found it tight enough...you can imagine how DJ found it! And while I could see the movie on the console in front of me, I couln't hear it properly because the earphone jack was playing up. DJ on the other hand could hear the movies no problem but his screen was causing him the problems! Just as well then that I slept for at least 6 hours of the flight! Oh and to date that brings my time in the air (not including hanging around in airports) to 15.5 hours.
We finally arrived in the city in late evening when the sun was on its way down but we still couldn't help but be hit by the blanket of heat as we got out of the bus. I think it was hovering around 29 degrees at the time. But it wasn't really the temperature but more so the humidity combined with the
Street Scene, Hong Kong Island
Busy Street Scence taken on 25 second time lapse fusion of smells dissipating from the street side restaurants that hits you immediately.
Hong Kong is a night-time town. Night markets busltle away late into the night and restaurants around the place stay open til about 4am. After settling in to our hotel we headed out to one of these for something to eat and a beer (or two)....and t'was nice!
We got our first view of the city scape of Hong Kong Island across the harbour by night. Nothing I could write here would do it justice. (So see photo!) For anybody who has any interest in that kind of thing it is totally breathtaking. You could sit down for hours just gazing out at it. And you needed worry about getting cold at night. It cools from the day...but not a lot.
Prices..All the guide books say that Hong Kong is an expensive place....maybe coming from elsewhere in Asia but when compared to Dublin it is a lot lot cheaper. Each night we managed to eat very well (in the haunts where the locals eat) and have a few beers after dinner for about 20euro at the most...and thats for all three of us!
SHA TIN RACES.
We managed to get there in the end....and some of us almost managed to break even! (Thank you last race) They like there races in Hong Kong. Bar Maccau (A boat trip away from Hong Kong), the races are the only legal place to gamble in Hong Kong and it shows with up to 1 billion Hong Kong Dollars (approx 90million euro) been bet at one race meeting alone. No bookmakers, all Tote!
HONG KONG ISLAND.
We only managed to get over to the island of Hong Kong on day three. Talk about effeciency. They have thought of everything. For example they have elevated walkways the can bring you almost anywhere around the city centre. These are a bit mad because they literally bring you through the centre of buildings enroute to others. I was wondering do they CPO the center of the buildings for this? (I know that sounded like this is my first time outside the county boundaries and I haven't still got out of the wellingtons but honestly, when you see the effeciency of the place, you can't help but be impressed) We headed up to the 43rd floor of the Bank of China Tower. When Adrian couldn't open a bank account we decided to have a look at the view of the city. Mighty! But that wasn't high enough for us (aka. Me) so we headed out (to the 32+, 70% humidity) and headed for the peak (the top of the hills surrouding the back of the city. The weaklings made me take the tram to the top.... and worse still, back down again! :-). My legs didn't know what to do with themselves.
With all there is to see and do in Hong Kong it turns out that 3 days is far to little so I glad that I had decided to spend another 3 days here enroute to Thailand.... I will fill you in on the other goings on in Hong Kong then.
Then it was time for Beijing.....
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James Bonsall
non-member comment
Ah-(right)-So
Aidan the blog looks great - nice pictures (appreciating the time lapse!!). How's the food and have you tried any intresting insects yet?