Advertisement
Published: December 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
We stayed only one night in Gaungzhou, (Main land China), as there wasn't a lot going on! We had a walk around Shamain Island where we were staying & brought our tickets to get to Hong Kong for the following day. By 4pm we were bored so decided to purchase some light refreshments, (in the form of vodka), and go & sit in the sun in the local park & watch people sing & practice Thai Chi.
In the evening we went to a nice restaurant, unfortunately we didn't get exactly what we ordered but even so we tried Goose, (which was nice.) Upon leaving we spotted a bar & on investigating the drinks list I realised they sold white wine, even better, when it arrived it was cold, (a bit unusual for China), so decided to have a bit of a treat. In hindsight, probably wasn't the best idea since drinking vodka from 4pm.
We made friends with two Australia guys & carried on drinking Baileys & Beer. We felt a little worse for wear the following day & due to traffic missed our train to Hong Kong, (bit of a bummer!), the taxi driver had tried his best to get us there but it wasn't going to happen so we brought another train ticket. We arrived in Kowloon, Hong Kong at about 1pm, and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
On Thursday we got the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island & got the Peak Tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, it was a sunny day & the views were great. We ate lunch at the top of the peak & spent the afternoon in the Zoological & Botanical Gardens, seeing monkeys & birds & exploring the rest of the Island.
In the evening we went for a gorgeous meal with our room mate Megan from Melbourne to a Singapore Style Restaurant. We went for a walk along the harbour at night & again the views were amazing, no photo could capture how great it was. We walked along the Avenue of Stars & saw the autographs & handprints in the pavement of famous people like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Het Li & Chow Young Fat, (Claire that I was lying when I said I knew who he was & tried to tell me it was the name of a restaurant we had seen). We headed to an Irish Bar called Murphy's for a nightcap & then headed home.
Friday, we headed to Wing Fat's for lunch & then to the Ladies Market where I continued to develop my bartering skills to buy more things I really shouldn't but who knows the next time I will be in Hong Kong - if ever again!
In the afternoon we went to the Hong Kong Space Museum & got the chance to experience Moonwalking, (in a harness, not Michael Jackson style), & a handgliding simulator, (I crashed 8 times - rubbish!)
In the evening we watched the Symphony of Lights Laser Display across the harbour which was fantastic & then went on a boat tour of the harbour, it was unbelievable & there was only one other lady on the boat so we had the outside deck to ourselves.
Saturday, we got the ferry across to Hong Kong Island & got the bus to the Southern side of the Island, to a place called Stanley. We walked around the market & brought our Christmas presents for each other, we had lunch & sat on the beach. I went for a paddle & collected shells, it was really sunny too.
We went back to the hostel & dressed up in our nice clothes & for the first time in 5 weeks I put some make up on, (although my hair was still in a world of its own!). We went down to the harbour & watched the lights show again & had our photo taken professionally by some dodgy geezer with the harbour in the background.
We got the ferry over to Hong Kong Island & the Peak Tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, we had cocktails & ate a very nice expensive meal at Bubba Gumps on a table that was right next to the window over looking the whole of the skyline, it was really nice. We went out on the viewing terrace afterwards but it was really cold so didn't stay out long as my dress was trying to do a Marilyn Monroe & blow open.
We managed to miss the last ferry back to Kowloon, (I swear I had read somewhere the last ferry was at midnight), at which point I had a little panic thinking that we would be stuck on Hong Kong Island for the night. I then remembered the subway would still be running so we got that home & to calm my panic I had a beer.
Sunday - got up early, got ready & headed to the airport with our bags. We checked them into left luggage for the day & night & had some lunch. We got a bus to Tung Chung town centre & the cable car terminal that would take us to Ngong Ping village. We had to wait for an hour & a half to get a cable car but the views made it worth the wait. We got a one way ticket & had planned to do a walk out of a book we had got from Tourist Information, right the way back across Lantau Island.
We saw the Giant Bronze Seated Budda, walked along the wisdom path to some famous giant inscribed wooden monuments that were in a figure of eight, (that symbolised infinity & had a famous prayer written on them) & then continued on our walk.
We climbed 934 metres to the top of Lantau Peak, it is the second highest mountain in Hong Kong. It was hard work but I'm really glad we did it, the views from the top were a bit misty but we took some photos to show our achievement & thanked our lucky stars it wasn't any higher!
We headed back to the airport & had Roast Peking Duck in pancakes, (which we have been looking for since we were in Beijing) & a nice cold beer. We turned down the option of a dog sandwich & rested for the night.
China is completely different to how I expected it to be; it has been a challenge to navigate round, especially with the language barrier & useless maps but it has been a really good experience & we have met some great people.
Hong Kong has been brilliant, I would totally recommend it to anyone, it is more expensive than China but as English is so widely spoken & used on signs, it makes it a bit easier to get around & there is lots to see & do.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0385s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb