http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Hong Kong en-us Thu, 12 Nov 09 16:57:27 +0000 Thu, 12 Nov 09 16:57:27 +0000 21 OCTOBER 2009Arrive Shenzhen We had to catch our last public bus in China to reach the railway station where border crossing is and guess what ... how is this for our last experience in China the bus driver tried to charge us double for the room which our backpacks took up even though we were wearing them and even though bus was empty Does that not just totally summarise it So in a final s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-452383.html Fourteen hours after leaving the fall chill of Vancouver I emerged into the warm evening air of Hong Kong. Best of all my son Jon was waiting for me. My first day and a half in Asia was spent catching up on sleep and getting oriented. This was a short stop over on the way to mainland China. I will be back for a week at Christmas and will write about this amazing metropolis thenNext stop Bei http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-452077.html Hi EveryoneI have finally left India behind and am in my last stop on my world tour Hong Kong I have actually been to Hong Kong before about 4 years ago when my best friend studied abroad here for a semester. I saved for three months on ramen noodles to afford a 900 dollar ticket and because I had just started full time at Walmart I didn't have any vacation time so I could only afford to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-451657.html Hey Here's my first blog entry hopefully I will manage to keep it quite shortI met about half the group at the traveloge at Heathrow on Wednesday night and everyone seems really cool and friendly so that sort of calmed the nerves before heading off. The flight to Hong Kong was good didn't seem to long and I managed to watch loads of films. Only thing was my feet ended up a bit swollen and i ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-451281.html Last night was my first solo night out of my travels and maybe ever actually. It is a strange thing going out alone I'm not sure if I have done it before in England or anywhere. But last night I did. After speak to my dad he suggested I start in Wan Chai find some bars there and see what happens. So I shaved showerd and put on my going out clobber. Upon arrival at Wan Chai MTR sta http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/Wan-Chai/blog-451075.html Today has been largely uneventful my sleeping pattern has become rather odd. The day I arrived hadn't slept much before so had a long nap in the afternoon yesterday I awoke at 0653 and after a busy morning I again had a long nap in the afternoon. This morning I woke up looked at my phone and it was once again 0653... groundhog day ha and don't forget your booties cause its cold out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Lantau-Island/blog-450622.html Day 2 in Hong KongAfter awaking at 0655 put that down to time difference not keeness I had a great cup of coffee attempted to go back to bed but dad started talking to me d'oh I faffed around a bit for a few hours then decided to get into gear and start to work on getting visas for places down the line. I headed for the Philippean consulate in Admiral.I packed my satchelman bag oh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Lantau-Island/blog-450458.html Day one. and on the first day the lord said Let their be light... and there was.This has been a very long day so far but not for any bad reasons. It started as Saturday 31st of October and will run untill tonight Monday 2nd November. Saturday night was spent celebrating my leaving England to go travelling for 10 months the night itself was good fun but seeminly uneventful which is http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Lantau-Island/blog-450097.html This is our last day. This morning we headed off over to HK Island to use the mid level escalators which we are told climb a mile from the bottom at Central to maybe half way up the mountain. The escalator serves all the people living from those levels who live in the immediate densely populated areas. Otherwise the local streets are crosshatched all the way so access is Ok if you have transpo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449865.html Hello So this is month 2 in Hong Kong. Time really flies I can't believe it. This past month has been a lot of fun. I have been playing tourist visiting all the attractions and seeing all the sights. There's always something new to do in Hong KongLife is starting to fall into place here. Work is going well. I teach kids half the time and adults half the time. And every single one of my studen http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449861.html Man I was so tired from the weekend seeing that I didnrsquot sleep for much of it and I will admit that therersquos no bed like my own. But my sister Antonia came over right on 9am as she was taking me to the airport to make sure I got the plane on time. Worse things have happened beforeMy sister works for AQIS but told me that my shoes would have been fine to take to the UK apparent http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-449858.html Well we made a snap decision to leave Wuhan. It was pricey but a flight to Hong Kong got us out of the nuthouse that was the Chinese holiday.Hong Kong is great everything is in English Slick but budget busting transport from the airport to the centre of HK Island and Jon was there to show us to our appartment. Once he had left us we started to find the fridge was full including a packet o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Everest/blog-449830.html After a short break we caught the subway to they local market at Sham Shui Po in the New Territories. On arriving we were right in the middle of a local market this time there were no Europeans no hawkers no ldquoyou want imitation watchrdquo and no ldquoyou want new suit sirrdquo and you could shop without even being pestered by the shop owners. We both found this market more relaxfu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449801.html We arrived at our hotel in Hong Kong at around 3pm our train had been delayed and it took a bit of time to get everyone through customs and make our way to our hotel. In the afternoon we just had a walk around as we didn't have that much time before all meeting for our farewell dinner this was the last night of the actual tour Our last dinner was great and we all sat round a big table on the st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-449800.html This morning we visited the HK Museum of Science. I imagine itrsquos similar to the Melb Science Museum that I havenrsquot yet visited. So here and maybe unusually we saw the dinosaur exhibit for specimens taken from Lufeng in Yunnan province. It contained a few skeletons and a film the most important aspect of this is that itrsquos supposed to be one of the biggest dinosaur finds in the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449688.html We began today with a trip to Aberdeen over on the far side of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen has a fishing port with lots of traditional Chinese boats including smaller sampans. In order to get there we used the subway from Kowloon to cross under the harbour and then caught a bus from Central to reach Aberdeen. The bus uses the crossisland tunnel thru the mountain to reach the other side. If you to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449685.html First thing today we headed to the Hong Kong Museum which was three minutes walk from where we stay. But before we got there we met up with two butterflies whilst strolling past under a Chinese Banyan Tree on the way. They were large black with blue flashes and landed on Maurs shoulder one made a great picture. The history museum has two main exhibitions one on the early history of Hong Kon http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449681.html The morning began with a rush to catch the Star ferry over to Hong Kong Island so we could meet the 10.15am connection hop off bus to Stanley. We missed it by 2 minutes so we took another ride of yesterdays hop on hop off bus around Hong Kong Island on the Victoria harbour side this takes an hour before it linked back with the next Stanley bus. That worked fine and we were off to Stanley on the o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449679.html Today we bought a hop on hop off bus ticket and used it to travel through Kowloon where we are staying and over on Hong Kong Island. The best part bit of this was sitting up on open top of the double decker bus. We had English commentary via ear pieces. It was interesting noting close up how overhanging neon signs were steadied to buildings by very old cables the locals washing which was everywh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-449669.html Maurs and I went for a walk thru Kowloon Park which is the local public park in the city. Itrsquos a bit up and down and not much grass is about but instead there are lots of native trees and walkways and people. There was the usual aviary of parrots including some Aust Palm Cockatoos and Galahs but the best part was the lagoon or pond. In there were small tortoises some were just lined up on l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-449467.html