Blogs from Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, Asia - page 11

Hi Everyone Can l begin by asking your indulgence. Forgive any obvious spelling mistakes or the lack of good grammar but l am working under harsh circumtances - on the 25th Floor of the City Garden Hotel in downtown Wan Chi on Hongkong Island. That enough of the orientation (sorry about that pun - as l am still sober). Anyway. Can l begin by giving those interested a little geography of the route we took to get here (apart that is of persauding Nancy to come that is). We left Newcastle at a very civilised time at 17.50 via London Heathrow Terminal 5 over flying directly over Copenhagen, Riga, Moscow, Siberia and south through China to Hong Kong arriving through 7 time zones at 16.00 hours. Nancy and l were both concerned about our baggage going ... read more

4th OCTOBER 2008 - THE PEAK TRAM!! When I awoke on 4th October - day 3 - I felt Good!!! I had slept well again and was fairly happy that we were moving on to new a new part of Hong Kong and most of all......a new Hostel! We had already visited Tourist Information and they had advised us where to go to find a hostel! We planned our journey, put the heavy backpacks on and set off along the 15 minute walk to the harbour! Once at the harbour we purchased breakfast from our new favourite bakery and ate it on a bench in the harbour. My back was already hurting slightly but we thought the rest of the way would be straightforward........on how we were wrong!!! After breakfast we caught the boat across to ... read more

We're now in the country of Hong Kong. They have their own Olympic team, their own government, their own laws, but they're still part of China. The legislative elections actually took place when we were here. Half of the seats are voted by citizens and the other half are voted by special interest groups - who are mainly business groups. Whilst the citizens mainly vote democratic, whilst the business groups are unsurprisingly pro-Beijing. The end result gave the democrats the veto they needed to block legislation sent from Beijing. This system will change soon, though. In 2017 the Executive will be voted for solely by the citizens, and the same will be true of the Legislative by 2020. Not sure what's going to happen then.... Hong Kong is an incredible place where no piece of land ... read more

Well guys. The flight is booked from Newcastle to Paris and then onto Hong Kong leaving September 29th and having a few days of well earned rest around Wan chai and Kowloon with my uncle and best friend who lives in the Philipines who will join me for a few days before we head back to Manila for a coupleof weeks. There will be some heavy drinking, Dim Som and good laughs to be had and Im looking forward to begining this journey. If anyone has any information for a good sight seeing short break in Honkers then please feel free to let me know and I will do my best to make sure that I try them out. Well in the theme of Tom and Jerry.. thats all folks..... For now.... read more

The overnight thunderstorms left us with an even more diminished view than we had seen from our hotel window the previous morning and it was obvious we would not be taking a tram to The Peak on this visit which was a real disappointment. After another good breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and headed to a street Market where the traders peddled everything from clothes and tacky souvenirs to bamboo plants, fake designer watches to ‘100 year old eggs’ (real eggs caked in black soil) and cuts of meat. From here, we took a taxi (for the first time we could travel in a 5-passenger taxi together) to Central for the Star Ferry Harbour Cruise. We noted Hong Kong has the most expensive metered taxis in China, starting at $HK16 although still cheap by ... read more