Hong Kong - The Beginning

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Hello everyone!

We finally made it to Hong Kong! Fortunately our plane did manage to leave the tarmac unlike some other ones we've been hearing about! ha ha.

However we havent been too lucky with the weather....its pretty much the same as the Uk just without the rain!Lovely! Apparently there is a cyclone somewhere out near Fiji that's playing around with the weather here.
And we obviously havent got any warm clothes with us!
Anyway,enough with the ranting (that was Yas ranting by the way - she's been muttering ... bloody weather.. all day! ha ha)

So.. without further ado. Here's a quick run through of what we ve been up to so far:

Flight wasn't too bad - long but as expected. Only an hour of delay, so about 13 hours in total. We got into Central, Hong Kong Island about an hour or so after landing. The transport here is great! So quick.

We are staying with some friends of the family, in Pok Fu Lam on the island. We spent much of the rest of the day catching up with Mike and recovering from the journey. However, after dinner the clouds cleared a little, and we decided to go on an impromptu drive up to the Peak. Absolutely amazing view over the night scene of Hong Kong.

We spent Friday on Lantao Island visiting the world largest Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery, on a cold cloudy and misty day. It felt very much like being in England (again!). It was nice to see some other parts of Hong Kong that weren't high rise buildings, shops or offices. It was a short and choppy ferry ride over the South China Sea and then a bus ride to get there, which was really something as well, weaving around the stunnng coastline. MTR (the Hong Kong version of the tube - very clean and efficient) back to Kowloon and a look around the busy shopping districts on the way back to the Star Ferry across to the island.

On Friday evening we went for a meal with our hosts Mike and James in the Soho area (full of bars and restaurants) and then headed on down to the Lan Kwai Fong where there are lots of funky bars where there is a massive ex-pat community night out. Great fun we had there partying in the street. They are also quite liberal with there measures of spirits which meant Yasi really did enjoy herself! ha ha.

Saturday we went to the ladies market in Kowloon, (not quite "ladies anymore" though) full of mainly cheap/fake handbags and clothing. On the way back from there we headed back to the island and the Wan Chai district. Not much there but offices, but we walked 15 mins towards the waterfront where there were some stunning views back to central and across to Kowloon. Also the Golden Bauhinia statue which marks the handover of HK back to the Chinese. Hence the thousands of mainland Chinese tourists that are bussed straight there as a first port of call!!

Sunday was a gorgoeus day, the first proper day we saw sun. We spent the day in Shek O, out on the far eastern side of the island. The Manns are members of a Golf club out there, which was absolutely stunning sitting and eating lunch out on the veranda overlooking the course and the rugged coastline in the glorious sunshine. We spent the afternoon in Stanley, and visited the Stanley market which sells anything and everything at a cheap price. In the evening Yas & I went for a meal on the Jumbo floating restaurant in Aberdeen (of all places!). It certainly makes for an interesting meal. You get picked up from a jetty by a little ferry that crosses the harbour to the restaurant and then gorged on a lovely authentic chinese meal.

Today is our last day in HK, and despite it being only the very beginning of our trip we will be quite sad to leave! 😞 We hope everyone is well and not suffering too much from the rain! Our tans have just started to appear you'll be glad to know! So our next report will be from Australia.

Love Chris & Yas

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Comments

[Claire]

yo!
Hey Chris and Yas, great to hear from you guys, loving the photos so far and am jealous of all the things uv been up to! lots of love, keep us posted! claire