My Four Stamps

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Got up and was out at 9am. Decided that today I would hit the main business area, as well as the main parks and the peak. Hopped onto the MRT and headed to admiralty, the stop for Hong Kong park. What an amazing little park. Spent a bit of time in the tea museum, yes tea museum. Was actually quite interestingdespite the fact i cannot stand the stuff! From here I then walked through the greenhouses, more like big indoor gardens, particularly liked the cactus garden. The park has a very pretty man made lake and waterfall, which I had to walk around to get to the walk through aviary. Oh yes, not the regular run of the mill cages with a couple of random birds in. Oh no. This was a huge, walk through thing, a bit like some of the jurassic park cages! Had some amazing birds in it, though I feel a lot of them were probably hiding at the time!

Leaving the park, I found myself at the Peak Tram station, where i got on the tram (technically a funicular!) up to Victoria Peak. The tram ride lasts about 5 minutes i reckon, and is constantly changing in gradient, and even has a big old bend in it. The ride up has varying views, though get pretty impressive towards the top. Arriving at the peak, I sat down and had a drink whilst checking out the view. Have to admit in hindsight, I should of headed straight to the viewing deck since the cloud rolled in very quickly. You can see the outcome here! I hit the viewing deck after my drink, and well, the view was still cool, but largely ruined by cloud. Gutted. Oh yeah, the building the viewing deck is on looks like a giant anvil. Doesnt look that great, and kind o stands out when there is no cloud!

Back down at the bottom of the Peak, I had a look at the cathedral (definitely a church!) before walking through the botanical gardens. I have lost track how many that is now, but it was the last one of the trip! Some really beautiful parts of the gardens, but the best feature was the mammal enclosures. Now to be honest I think it was showing off a bit, since they had a lot of generous "cages" with various creatures in, some of which i had never seen before. The orangutans were very cool. And all of this was completely free as part of the park, mental! You'd pay twenty quid for that at home!

I could sense lunch was rapidly approaching so I made my way into Soho, a network of alleyways and roads, full of boutique shops and places to eat and drink. Got myself a table at the Cafe Siam, and as i sat down the heavens opened. Good timing! I had a great noodles and seafood for lunch, and it came in like a pancake. Was really good, and great value for money I must say. By the time I had finished the rain had stopped, so I headed back out and on to the soho esculators. This sounds random I know, but no joke, there is a system of esculators and moving walkways, that is 800m long, and goes from the bottom of Soho up to the top. It was amazing. It is constantly broken so that you can get off if you see a shop or bar or whatever. Very impressive I have to say, if a little lazy!

The next part of my day was a lot of walking for no reason. Two places I had intended to go to in the area past SOHO, were both shut. Gutted, though I did get to see a cute little temple. Cut forward an hour and I found myself down at the waterfront, where I got some information about my trip to Macau. The rest of my day is all about buildings.

I made my way into the main business area, where I visited various buildings. The HSBC, the ITF, and of course the china bank tower. They are all very impressive buildings, but partiocularly the HSBC building. You get in through an esculator that just goes straight up from the ground into the middle of the building, which is a huge atrium. Very impressive. Went up to the 43rd floor of the china bank tower, and got some cool views of the main city. During this part of my day I also checked out a few of the smaller parks in the city.

My final stop before going back to the hostel was an exhibition on the development and infrastructure of Hong Kong. All I will say is that they have some cool and clever stuff planned! Back at the hostel, I had a shower and a rest before going out for tea. I was to meet Belles' friend and her family for dinner at the Hong Kong Yaught club. Was a really nice evening, and some good film. They were all very nice and had a good laugh together. Afterwards, I walked the 3 girls to the bus before going back for the night. All in all a great day!

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