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Published: December 15th 2006
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Unfortunately our arrival in HK saw the prices more than triple! Our accommodation, in a rather dishevelled building, in a small (Chinese size) double bed in the tiniest of rooms was to cost us five times more! This was a severe shock to the system.....so much so that we went to sleep!!!!
Waking up, we took to the streets and within 15 minutes found that we were lost! We got ourselves out of that pickle and headed to Victoria Peak via the Star Ferry (a must for the true HK experience!). This peak was reached on an age old funicular that got us to the top a helluva lot faster than walking would have done, where we were met by a pretty awesome sight. Hong Kong was lit up rather breathtakingly and, apparently, we were very fortunate as it was the clearest it had been for months.....we could even see the stars! Something quite unheard of in HK! However a slow shutter speed requirement on the cameras meant that our photos were somewhat blurry and didn't do the sight justice! THough we did have a great deal of fun trying...........
Day 2 saw a need to shop......no really!! Jen
needed to replace her previously stolen camera and we had heard that HK was the place to do it, thus a day was spent trawling the shops looking for the best deal and getting as many freebies thrown in as possible - our bartering tachinques honed in Thailand made things great fun and we secured a pretty good camera with all the extras imaginable! This experience was not without its dramas though as some evil camera shop pretenders sucked us in and signed us up for the camera we wanted only to tell us that it wasn't in stock ! Meanies!!! Their loss though!
That done we hit the town.......well in Jen and Jess stylee........ we met up with the son of a parent's friend of a friend (Ben)....if you catch my drift!!!! He was superbly helpful in giving us the low-down on what to do and what not to do in HK.......as well as treating us to one or two cocktails in sympathy for the poor travellers! We played on that one and won ourselves another one from a Welsh ex-pat he hangs out with! Slightly merry we decided dinner was a NEED! It was 9pm and 3
cocktails on an empty stomach (and as such light weights) had taken its toll slightly!!! Ben's advice had been not to attempt to do HK on a budget as we would ruin the experience! So we didn't!!!! Well for as long as we could stand not too! That lasted the whole of one evening and one breakfast then we were back on the stingy trail! Although this did mean that our consequential lapses from the budget for good food and drinks made the experience more bearable and less guilt ridden!
Our following day was to be a day of true sight seeing, all on foot and all to Ben's recommendations. Thus we went on the world's longest escalator, went to a place called Stanley to check out Murray House, the local market, beaches and see a bit of the rural side of the island (from our bus seats though!!) We also headed to Times Square and the shopping area around there - which was so stressful and full of people that we resorted to Pizza for dinner!!!
Our HK hihghlight absolutely had to be........our day at the races. To the worriers among you, never fear...this does not
Spectacular Night Views!
And a whole lot of energy wasted! mean that we have become gamblers and find ourselves addicted! Our grand total spending for the day was HK$40 and our winnings were HK$50, this is approximately a 60p gain (yes pence as in british pence - last of the big gamblers or what!!) The experience, however, was truly amazing! Ben informed us that more money is taken in one day at the HK races than is taken in a week in Vegas! At first this was a little hard to believe but when we got there it became a true reality! The stands were
packed !!! Our first challenge was to place a bet, and, being slightly naive and totally inexperienced it took 3 people and an instruction leaflet to get it! Finally though we were able to go all out and in our excitment opted to put 2, yes 2 bets on at HK$10 each, this was done with some hot tips from a little chinese dude that took a shine to us! Our tactic otherwise was to be to pick a name or colours that we liked!!! We were in luck for the race and (although our bets weren't the riskiest - being $10 on a
On the World's Longest Escalator!
Which is actually lots of short ones in a line! What a con! place - i.e. the horse we bet on coming 1st, 2nd or 3rd) we were delighted when one of them came in 2nd!! Although ironically enough if we had picked on name we would have bet on the winning horse! The race day was actually the Hong Kong International Races and was quite a big deal, meaning that some races were 'special' in some way; being sprints, longer or with a special name! Didn't really get all that bit! We went all out though and put on a further 2 bets winning them both back! AND...the last was made without any tip offs - that was how much our understanding of the boards had improved!!! We left after a thoroughly enjoyable experience and in pocket ....well in terms of the bets anyway......didn't quite pay for lunch! We went expensive again! tut tut!!!
The evening was then dedicated to walking the Avenue of the Stars - spying the numerous chinese actors that we knew...............well Bruce Lee and....urm....well anyway!
For our final HK experience we decided to head into the countryside and visit one of the Islands off HK, we opted for Lantau and after a relatively trauma free transfer found
ourselves atop a rather spectacular mountain overlooking lakes and rolling hills beside a ginormous outdoor Buddha. We spent the night there and after some sight seeing took the morning bus back to civilization to begin a bit of a film marathon! Opting to see Flushed Away, which it has to be said was pretty hilarious and great fun. Before embarking on our final asian journey to the airport for yet more films..........
The flight to Singapore was faultless with our own personal tvs and relative comfort (for economy class) lasting only 3 1/2 hours - so only time for the one film and one meal! We had a 4 hour stopover in Changi airport, Singapore which was amazing. The airport of airports!! (To Jen's dad - I completely agree!!!) It has everything...free internet, films, foot massages (we were there for about half an hour!!) x-box...the list goes on....as well as inumerable food outlets which we incredibly reasonable for airport food - but successfully resisted!!! Come 11pm and we were off again with yet more plane food offered and more films to see. Unfortunately exhaustion did kick in and we only managed to fit the one film in! After a
whole 3 hours sleep we were rudely awoken to be fed yet more food.........at 4am!!! before landing in Adelaide to start the Ozzie Experience!
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