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Published: August 24th 2009
View from our hotel room window
The view was wonderful once the rain clearedHONG KONG
Hong Kong was our last stop on this incredible adventure we had been on for the last 7 months. We were excited to be going to this great place because Megan and Sophie had never been and we wanted them to see it but at the same time we were a little sad because it not only meant that it was the end of an incredible vacation but that our time on this side of the world was ending.
We arrived in Hong Kong very tired after an 8 hour flight from Cairns. The journey had been trouble free with no ticketing problems, delays and sickness although we were travelling with Cathay Pacific who I have to say has had the best service on any airline we have travelled with so far.
It was raining when we arrived but at this time of year a storm a day is not unusual so we were hopeful that it would better in the morning!! We had splashed out for these last couple of days and had booked into the InterContinental in Kowloon with a harbor view. The room was great and the view even though curtained by a
Hong Kong Harbour
Kevin, Claire and Sophie posing during a quick break from the rain!! wall of rain was still spectacular.
Our first morning we were woken up, or should I say that I was woken up (since I have always been the first up on this vacation) to what sounded like rocks being thrown at our window. I was horrified to look out and only see fog. The view was totally gone in fact I could barely see the river and the rain was coming down heavy!! It was such a sinking feeling to see because it had been glorious sunshine the last time that Kevin and I had been here and we wanted the same experience for the girls. Heck..what was there to do in the rain?
After a moment (or 2 or 3) of feeling sad I made myself a cup of tea (always does the trick!), got myself showered and dressed and decided that even if there was a Typhoon blowing we were going to have fun! Kevin and the girls got ready and off we headed outside with our umbrellas! It’s an odd feeling to go out in shorts and tank tops (well not Kevin!) because it is so hot and be met by this warm rain. It’s
like walking in an outside shower! Anyway after a drink and a breakfast snack at our trusted friend Starbucks, we were ready to tackle anything!
First stop was Nathan Road, which is one of the main shopping streets near to our hotel in Kowloon. The rain wasn’t stopping anyone from being out and so it was packed. Just imagine sidewalks crammed with people, all trying to walk with umbrellas. It was a game of “dodge the umbrella spikes”! At one point Sophie was actually spiked in the head but she just laughed about it. We were surprised by how many Indian/Middle Eastern men there were along the streets, all of whom were trying to sell tailored suits, blouses or anything else that could be made. I imagine it must be a hassle to anyone that lives in Hong Kong cause they were relentless!!
The rain was Kevin’s worst nightmare because there wasn’t much to do except shop. Megan is a shopaholic and so every store had something that she wanted. Even I was growing tired of it so when it reached time for the Space Museum to open we were so relieved. The Space Museum was pretty cool
Hong Kong Harbor
We watched several of these Junk's sail by. and we all had a good time trying out some of the interesting hands on displays. It was a refreshing change to be amongst the Chinese again at an event and not have to deal with them pushing and shoving to be first to do anything. Everyone was patient and respectful…yeah, finally!!!
When we emerged from the museum expecting to see more rain we were ecstatic to see some blue sky and a little sunshine. It was still only 3pm so instantly we knew what we wanted to do. Kevin and I had been up to a place called “The Peak” on our last visit to Hong Kong and we wanted Megan and Sophie to experience it too. We got tickets to go across to Hong Kong Island on the ferry. We then decided to take a taxi up the mountain to the “Peak”. The peak is a mall at the top of the mountain but it is also a viewing area to see a view of Hong Kong both on the island and Kowloon. You can see you for miles and it looks incredible. We got there at just the perfect time. There were still some clouds hanging
Ferry Boat
Megan was enjoying the ferry ride between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island over in spots on the different mountainous peaks around us. It looked beautiful. The main view itself was wonderful and the girls were having a blast using the view finders up there to zoom in on different buildings, boats on the river and more. It was fun watching men working on a building far off in the distance.
As we stood looking around we noticed that the clouds were beginning to roll in again and they were coming in very fast. I even video taped the clouds moving in because the speed was astounding! We were going to take the tram back down to the city streets but on our way to the tram station the clouds had come in so much it felt like we were walking through fog and anything we had seen just 10 minutes earlier was now hidden in the mist. It was spooky but really cool!!!!!
The tram had Megan a little nervous. It travels backwards on the way down and at a steep angle of about 45 degrees. It doesn’t help when the rest of us start teasing her about the breaks failing and the tram crashing down like a rollercoaster!!! We
One of the views from the Peak
It was really cool to see the clouds come down over the mountains near the Peak. made it to the bottom without injury although it would take a while for Megan’s white knuckles to get back to normal! A short walk followed by a ride on the subway got us back over to Kowloon. The sun was shining again and as we looked up towards where we had been on the peak it was perfectly clear again. Only a few clouds hung in the distance. This weather is certainly fast..blink and you might miss it!!!
It was not going to be long before the sun started to go down and what better way to watch it and watch the Hong Kong Harbor lights come on than sitting at an outside bar with a cold beer. Megan even had a fancy “fruit punch” cocktail drink so that she could feel “cool” too. Sophie’s apple juice didn’t quite have the same effect but she didn’t care. The lights were beautiful but would you believe that as we sat there relaxing and enjoying the scene around us we were asked by some “Chinese” tourists if they could have their photo with us. We thought we had moved away from being part of the Chinese photo albums but obviously
Yeah! I'm in Hong Kong
What a pose, in front of a magnificent view!!! not. What was funny is that Hong Kong is full of westereners. They are everywhere yet once again we were the target. I think we must walk around with a “photograph me” poster on our backs!!
After a fabulous meal at a pub called the “Bulldog” we turned in for the night, ready to get a good night’s sleep and be ready for a good day tomorrow.
When we woke up the next morning it was once again raining but nowhere near as hard as it had been yesterday. We decided just to take our time getting ready to see what the weather would do. By mid morning it looked like it was drying up so we headed to the subway to get to the bus station on Hong Kong Island. We had made the decision last night to go to Ocean Park on the other side of the island. Ocean Park is an amusement park/mini zoo/aquarium.
We stood in line with hundreds of other Chinese and western people to get the 629 bus to the park. This bus is geared specifically for transporting to and from the park and it also allowed us to buy our
Tram Ride
Megan was a little scared by the steep slope on the tram. tickets into the park at the same time as the bus tickets. It was a double decker bus so the girls were thrilled to be able to sit on the upper level and watch the world go by. This was actually the first time that they have been on a public bus so it was quite an adventure.
It didn’t take long to get Ocean Park and once inside we took out our little paper maps and set out to try and see everything. We started with the birds since they were the closest. Everybody else was heading towards the big rides so there were few people heading in our direction. When we looked up at the entry to the Avery an eerie feeling came over us cause it looked just like the Avery on Jurassic Park. I think all of us looked up expecting a Terydactol to fly above us!!! Instead we saw a big variety of “small” birds of different shapes and sizes.
The girls don’t enjoy the big rollercoasters so we avoided those although we did try to get on the water ride. Unfortunately the line not only went through the twists and turns at
the ride itself but also went out and up the pathway near it for a long way so we decided to concentrate on the things that we knew we wanted to see. We headed for the sea lions and at that moment the heavens opened up and the rain started to hammer down. Thankfully we were undercover and although the seals were not they didn’t care at all. It was nice to see 4 or 5 BIG seals swimming around and jumping in and out of the water. I think we timed it perfectly because after watching them for about 10 minutes their “keepers” came and called them in. This happens everywhere and I still can’t understand why when you have so many animals you have to take all of them away at once. When people have paid to see them it’s disappointing to only see an empty tank or enclosure!!!!
We them walked up to the ocean theatre to see the dolphin show. There was still 20 minutes to go before it started so we thought we had plenty of time…WRONG!!! There were hundreds of seats and all of them were filled with bottoms. It was packed! If
Hong Kong Subway
Megan and Claire sitting on the very clean and surprisingly empty subway carriage someone came out they would let someone in but there was no way all 4 of us would be able to sit together. Kevin and Megan managed to get some seats but Sophie and I decided to stay at the top because we were looking out over the whole pool so could see pretty well, plus we had a magnificent view of the ocean and small islands behind the pool and the sun was coming out. We were happy to stay put! The show was entertaining but very short. I guess we have been spoiled by having been to Sea world in the past. When you have seen some of their shows, anything else is just a “flop” in comparison.
The jelly fish area was amazing with so many different kinds of jelly fish.. I didn’t even know that they came in so many different shapes, sizes and colors! Our main reason for coming was to see the Panda’s so we headed to the cable cars so we could get to them. The park is divided into two areas divided by mountainous hills. The only way to get from one to the other is by cable car. The sun
was glorious now in fact you wouldn’t even know that there had been any rain at all. There were of course a million and one umbrellas to avoid because when the Chinese aren’t using them for the rain they are using them to keep the sun off them!!
The cable car looked scary (well for Megan and I anyway cause of the height issue!!) and we couldn’t believe how many cars there were flying over the hills. There were 4 lines of cars all of which were fairly close together and we were laughing because Sophie said it looked like a scene from the “Bee Movie” where they were all in formation when working! (her comment actually made me laugh and alleviated some of the fear of dying!!) Once again the views were spectacular and although the car did some steep ascents and descents it was actually quite an enjoyable ride!
Once down we headed straight for the Panda’s. There were two separate areas to see them. The main one was supposed to house 3 of their bigger Panda’s but surprise, surprise, 2 of them weren’t there!!! We were disappointed but the one that was there was wonderful.
Bar by the "Avenue of Stars"
Kevin and the girls enjoying a drink or two at the bar. If you look carefully you can see that at the moment this photo was taken Megan was spilling her drink! Panda’s look so cuddly and it was so different seeing this one compared to the ones we saw in Beijing early in the year. This Panda was actually black and white and his enclosure was perfect. We had thought the ones in Beijing were happy but I bet they would have loved being here instead!
The second area actually had Panda’s (only one was home again!), Red Pandas (which are adorable), alligators and a few more other animals. We were having such a nice afternoon looking at everything. We even stopped by to see the Goldfish. Again we were shocked at the different varieties there were. Some of these fish were like mutants with tiny bodies and huge bulging eyes or lumps on their heads. Surprisingly they were all beautiful!
It was time to leave the park but not time for home. Stanley market was not to far away so once again we hopped on a local bus and headed along the island to the market. Kevin has been to this market a few times when he has been passing through on business so we decided we should at least take a look since we were close. Well
the girls don’t like rollercoaster’s but they certainly had quite a ride on this bus. It was going along winding streets, going up and down and what felt like round and round. It was crazy! Even Kevin was glad when we arrived so we could get off !! Any longer and it would have been, “clean up on the back row!!!!”
The market had changed since Kevin was last here. It had been modernized to suit the needs of the tourists I think. We wandered around making only a couple of purchases. A lot of the stalls were selling the same things we had bought for a fraction of the price in China so we just browsed around and watched the people bartering for their wares.
We finished the afternoon with a drink and a plate of Nacho’s at a bar overlooking the bay. This was literally our last afternoon in this part of the world. Tomorrow we were flying home so we wanted to lap up every second that we had left. I think the girls were beginning to like sitting at the bars too! (we’ll have to break that habit with them pretty quick when we
get back)
With sickness tablets in our system we grabbed the bus back to the ferry and then took the ferry back to Kowloon. By now it had gone dark so the ferry ride was wonderful because we sat and looked at the city lights. We were laughing about all the different forms of transport we had used in jus the last 2 days. We had been on a ferry, car, tram, bus, subway and cable car!
The walk to our hotel was amazing because we were just in time for the city light display. We weren’t sure what to expect but were surprised that the buildings on Hong Kong Island flash their lights in an incredible colorful display in time to music. Its remarkable how they do it with such precision. I wonder how much planning it takes just to design the light pattern on each of these buildings anyway but then to facture in coordinating them with dozens of other buildings. It was great to see!
Time to leave Hong Kong and head back to the US. We had stayed up incredibly late and had just a few hours sleep so that we would be
tired on the plane and able to sleep. Jet lag was going to be a problem back home so although it was only morning to us now we tried to sleep because it was night time back home.
The journey was long but not too bad. We were flying business class (company paid!!) so we were able to lie down, have decent food and be entertained by a whole host of movies, music and shows. What is wonderful is that the girls are old enough o be able to manage everything themselves. For 15hrs I had peace and quiet (well for most of it, cause they did have to check in a few times!!!)
HOME
It was strange driving home from the airport. We were looking to see if anything had changed while we were away. Seeing the house was great but it looked so big. In China the houses look totally different and there are not that many of them because everyone has apartments. Even in Australia we didn’t really go into areas of housing so this was looking very quiet and spaced out.
Inside was very odd. For the past 7 months we have lived
Ocean Park
Sophie and Megan getting cosy with a couple of Sea Lions at the entrance to the sea lion viewing area. with light walls, light marble floors and light furniture. Even the hotels had been light and here we are walking into warm homey colors with darker wood and furniture. It’s only been a short time away but you forget very quickly. Of course we knew it wouldn’t be long before this became familiar again and the lightness of China would fade.
As we sat that first night watching a TV with great picture and sound (Kevin's pride and Joy!!!!) eating would you believe Chinese takeout that seemed bland in comparison to what we had been eatingin China; we started to feel like we were home again.
This adventure had come to an end but we would just begin another one, another chapter! Our story is not ending though, because there will be a sequel. We have long lasting friends all over the world now and our eyes have been opened to the many weird, unusual but incredible places there are to see out there.
Stay tuned because the Wilson’s will be back!!
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