Dear friends, This time the text is in Dutch only, sorry for the inconvenience. Monkey and Bear Lieve vrienden en vriendinnen, Niet echt een travelblog, maar wij willen jullie laten weten dat wij goed en veilig in Hong Kong zijn aangekomen. Onze reis is volledig volgens schema verlopen, hoewel China Airlines niet helemaal de juiste informatie heeft verstrekt. Bij het boeken via internet wordt de indruk gewekt dat de vlucht Amsterdam - Taipei rechtstreeks gaat en dan vervolgens met een overstap naar Hong Kong. Niets is minder waar. Vanuit Amsterdam nog steeds eerst naar Bangkok, daar een tussenstop van circa anderhalf uur en dan pas door naar Taipei. Kortom behoorlijk wat meer uren onderweg. Maar de service e.d van China Airlines is uitstekend. In Hong Kong op het vliegveld best nog wat stress gehad met de ... read more

Dear Friends, Our adventure of nearly two months stops here. Today we fly home again. We leave Hong Kong at 11.05 pm and arrive in Amsterdam at 05.15 am. We have had a great time, met lots of new people and we make about 12.000 pictures and more than 10 hours of video. Thanks to all the very nice people we met, our tourguides in Mainland China: Lee and Huo, Susan, James and mr. Ho, Sophy, Sylvia and the great people of the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel - Harbourclub floor - Joyce, Vicky, Cloe and Joyce of the Harbour leasing Department. And last but not least: Gary of Discoverchina - www.discoverchina.com. When you leave home starting your trip of two months it seems a very, very, very long time. But it is over before you know ... read more

Dear Friends, The Mai Po Nature Reserve is one of the six most important wetlands reserves of China. To visit Mai Po Nature Reserve you need a permit of the WWF Hong Kong and by entering the reserve you need an official permission of the Department of Agriculture and Fishery of Hong Kong. When we visit the nature reserve, we were the only two visitors that morning. It's really great to walk around in this fantastic nature conservation. Although lots of birds immigrated after the winter you can see many waterfowls who are local, many butterflies, insects, dragonflies and small watercreatures like fiddler crabs and mudskippers. It is a great experience to visit Mai Po Nature Reserve. Also the many Gei Wai in this area are very interesting. A Gei Wai is a small pond where ... read more

Dear Friends, Today we visit the Victoria Peak (The Peak). This is one of the most popular attractions in Hong Kong. To reach the Peak you can go by public bus or taxi, but more spectacular is to hop aboard the Peak Tram at the Lower Peak Tram Terminus. If possible sit on the right-hand sight for better views and watch in amazement as the famous funicular railway glides up the 373 metres to the top. The grade is so steep that the buildings outside seem to lean at a 45 degree angle. At the Upper Peak Terminus you find in de mainbuilding a branch of Madame Tussauds. It's fun to visit this place and especially the special horror par (Scream)!!!!!. After our visit to Madame Tussauds, we have a good fishbasket lunch (shrimps, lobstertails and ... read more

Dear friends, This morning we leave our hotel in Hong Kong for a 3 days and 2 nights escape in the Venetian Casino and Resort Hotel Macau. We read about the Venetian Hotel in the weekly travelpart of the Algemeen Dagblad (a Dutch newspaper). The hotel is open since 2007 and is the largest casino and resort hotel in Macau - Taipa Island. Bear booked this escape as a farewell UMCG present for Monkey. It is here really great. The suite is fantastic, the service is great and there are also five swimmingpools with private cabanas (including airconditioning and a huge tvscreen). We played many times on the slotmachines and all that we lost was 200 Hong Kong dollar (around 18 euro), but we have lots of fun!!!!! We also went to a performance of Cirque ... read more

Dear friends, People of Hong Kong love the nature and the natural enviroment around Hong Kong, the Islands and the beaches. We visit today a part of the Wetlands of Hong Kong in the New Territories. The weather is great again, but the huminity is very high. Around 86%. Information privided by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong. Thanks a lot for using the information in our Travelblog. General Information about Wetland. What are Wetlands Wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the ecosystem. They occur in areas where the water meets the land. In general, wetlands cover a wide variety of natural habitat types including rivers and streams, freshwater or brackish marshes, intertidal areas at estuaries and mangroves. In addition, there are human-made wetlands such as fish and shrimp ... read more