Blogs from Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, Asia - page 3

I had endured an uneventful day waiting in the extremely crowded business lounge in Amsterdam punctuated by periodic grazing of beef broth (basically a beef stock cube in warm water), cheese that looked like Scottish fudge and a meat based product which if I was pushed would guess was pork. However, given the Dutch propensity for our equine friends, I fear I may have been wrapping my gherkin in Shergars' distant cousin. I also polished off some chicken wings, the aforementioned gherkins which were the size of bananas and onion rings, Heston Blumnethal take note! Although you will not hear this from Oz Clarke or in the Decanter magazine, these dishes all matched superbly with several glasses of red wine from somewhere or other. Feeling extremely relaxed and looking forward to my luxurious business class flight ... read more

Endlich wieder Zivilisation. Nach einigen Tagen in Hong Kong wird mir erst einmal bewusst, was für eine Nummer das in Peking überhaupt war. Natürlich beginnt man schon in den letzten Tagen seines Aufenthaltes damit, die Ereignisse der letzten Monate zu reflektieren. Trotzdem wird mir jetzt mit ein bisschen Abstand darauf erst einmal klar, was dies für eine besondere Erfahrung war. Wie einfach das Leben sein kann, wenn man nicht mehr mit seinen Händen sprechen muss und sich normal mit den Leuten unterhalten kann, hatte ich schon fast vergessen. Für mich ist Hong Kong nach meinem 3 ½ monatigen Pekingaufenthalt mit seinen ca. 7 Millionen Einwohnern und mit seinen über 8.000 Wolkenkratzern fast schon ein Naherholungsgebiet. Die Luft ist nicht verschmutzt, man hat nicht 24 Stunden am Tag ein Hupgeräusch um sich herum, die Autos bleiben bei ... read more

Hong Kong is a sultry kind of place and is like living in a cloud. My hotel is in Wan Chai where old, ugly, colourful buildings stand high above the streets and trams shuttle past busy pavements. My balcony overlooks an apartment block and I can spy on two by one metre squares of the tenants lives. Many people watch television on unfeasibly large screens in tiny rooms. Red and gold daily calenders are on the walls. One man sits alone and stares into space smoking. Another, his kitchen full of pots and pans, chops tomatoes. Washing dries on the barred windows outside - underwear, trousers and t-shirts. Somebodies blue and white striped boxer shorts have fallen onto a window ledge and I wonder if they will ever be retrieved. I also think I should stop ... read more

Today is officially 99 days till I jump on a plane and head to Asia, I know it’s a bit early to start my blog but I’m just so excited!! For over 2 years now I have been planning this trip using the internet, guide books and the travel channel to get information and inspiration, it all started with the simple idea of going to Asia to see the celebrations for the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival! The more I researched my trip the more i started to add other things I wanted to see and do like the Terracotta Army, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and so my plans for a one week holiday evolved into a 2 month trip back packing around Asia! I worked really hard this year in ... read more

Day 1 (Thurs 6th Sept) So, my flight left London Heathrow at 9:30am. I checked in around half 6 looking like an extra from a zombie film, certainly wasn’t a pretty sight for the lady on the check in desk. Was also shivering like mad as the marble floor was freezing, this lasted nearly until I got on the plane. I flew with Jet Airways, who I’d never heard of before, booking to Hong Kong via Mumbai for a short interchange of planes. Luckily this morning flight from Heathrow had very few people on it for such a large plane, which meant not only did I have a window seat, which is always better to watch take offs and landings with, but I had 3 seats to myself to lounge over should I need a sleep, ... read more