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Published: October 3rd 2008
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Hong Kong Island & a Star Ferry
As you can see, the weather is hazy and humid - it feels alot warmer than it probably is! Well the time has arrived....for our final travel blog entry and the last day and a half of our amazing, incredible, exciting, scary, stressful, wonderful and unforgettable month together in Europe and Asia! I'm writing this at 10.30pm as we all try to get organised for bed - a little difficult when outside is carrying on as though it was 4pm in the afternoon!! The air is warm and extremely humid, and we had a little drizzle earlier with thunderstorms threatening later (we won't mention the Level 1 typhoon warning just in case people get worried!!!)
It was really difficult for all of us to say goodbye to the Slee family on Tuesday morning after experiencing four days of such incredibly warm hospitality, fun, adventure and delicious meals prepared by Chef Claire (not to mention those hot cups of tea each morning!) Paul was kind enough to drive us down to Heathrow from Castle Donington (about 3 hours each way) and we boarded our flight to Hong Kong just after lunch Tuesday, arriving about 7.30am Wednesday morning - that was the end of us! None of us really slept on the flight so needless to say we were pretty wrecked. I
won't go into the story of the Holiday Inn room saga here but the first day was spent with the kids sleeping on the only bed that was available, and Dean and I filling in time going in and out for food and looking at shops while attempting to keep our eyes open and legs stumbling along! It was a Public Holiday celebration of some description (Chinese like to celebrate these things with huge fanfare and excitement!) so the streets were full, some shops weren't open and there was massive fireworks around the harbour at 9pm which was also telecast on television. Probably not a good start to our visit here while feeling dead tired!! Thursday (yesterday) was better, and we hopped on the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island (a whole $1.20 for four!), spent a couple of hours shopping, then hit the longest escalators in the world - a kind of fun way to survey the streets while not doing too much!) We then wandered over to The Peak Tram station, joined the queue and eventually made our way up the incredibly steep hill. What an experience!! The views from the top were beautiful, although unfortunately a
Nathan Road at night.
If only I could capture the sounds and smells too! bit hazy, but we're glad we did it then as today's weather would have made the views impossible. I was glad I wasn't facing the front on the way down, but the strain in my neck proved the descent was a strong angle! Dean and Lochie said it was akin to going on a roller coaster - one must forget that this tram is held and pulled by a single cable! Further wandering on the streets with a walk to some computer shops (no really good deals to be found) then onto the Wan Chai pier for the ferry trip home - by then it was about 7pm and dark, so the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon cities and harbours were an amazing sight, all lit up in many colors.
Today has been spent doing some shopping (yes! really!!) and a bit of swimming. We wandered the Temple Street Night Market tonight which Ains really enjoyed and Lochie didn't (!!). We seem to be all feeling the strain of 4 weeks of living in each others pockets, not to mention disordered sleep patterns from the flight here and extremely hot and humid weather. I think we're all ready to come
OH & S at its best...
This was taken from our hotel window. Metal scaffolding doesn't exist here - instead, bamboo is used. This little gem is more than 10 floors up from the ground! home to our own beds and routines, and we miss our families, friends and Henny. Dean and I had hoped to include a little more sightseeing and discovery of Hong Kong and surrounding areas but 'the wind has gone out of our sails' and the kids have just about had enough!! We hope to do a couple of things tomorrow and spend those last few dollars!!
It's been such a wonderful holiday for us all, and we will take home and treasure so many memories. We've loved hearing from you all during our trip and those messages have all put a smile on our faces at different times. We hope you've enjoyed our travel blog, and we look forward to catching up with you all over the coming weeks and leading up to the festive season. We land in Melbourne late on Sunday night - the kids are back to school Tuesday, I'm off to work on Wednesday and lucky Dean will be the house wife until November 5th!!
Back to the real world!!!! xxxxxxxxxxx
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Wattsy,\
non-member comment
Hong Kong need Barrier
looks like Barrier should open a shop in Hong Kong with some safety barriers after seeing that photo.