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Published: October 18th 2013
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After a 9 hour flight with Quantus we landed in Hong Kong. The change in temperature was phenomenal! We left Melbourne at 14c and entered Hong Kong who were experiencing an enormous heatwave at 34c at 5pm. We jumped onto the city flyer bus which was pretty posh compared to our local buses and made our way to our hostel. We got off the bus on a busy street called Nathan Road where it was shops upon shops and from there it was just a short 2 minute walk to our hostel, Hop Inn. We entered the lobby of our building and were both pretty worried as it was basically a construction site. We took the lift to our floor and nervously waited for the doors to open. The doors opened and the cool aircon hit us - we both looked at each other in relief.
We checked in and we were then shown to our room which was very cute but a bit on the small side, especially for Jon. The bed was a 3/4 bed and about 5ft10 in length - Jon spent most the time with his feet dangling over the edge. We chucked down our bags
and headed out as by this point it was 7.30pm and we were starving. After a short walk we came to one of the many shopping malls which had a food court inside. We went for the safe options and I had a very suspect 'beef' fried rice and Jon had shrimp noodles. Two meals and two drinks came to £6 so we were pretty impressed especially coming from the extortionate prices of Australia. After we had eaten we raced over to Victoria Harbour where all the skyscrapers and hotels put on a light show every night called the Symphony of Lights for 5 minutes. I had never seen anything like it before, all the buildings were exhibiting their bright lights and lasers in time to the loud cheerful music playing in the background. We made sure to get some snaps and videos and then called it a night as we were both absolutely shattered.
The following morning we woke up and went to the Chinese embassy to apply for our visas. It didn't take long to hand everything in and we were told to come back the next day to pay and collect our passports - a lot
easier than we had anticipated. We then made our way to the harbour and got on the Star Ferry across the river. We headed to Victoria Peak (a mountain on Hong Kong island) getting a little lost along the way but eventually found the que for the tram to the top, a very long que at that. Eventually though we made it to the top and got to admire the views of the harbour and skyscrapers below which was pretty amazing. It was a really hot day so we took some shelter in the shade for a while. Me and Jon were talking and I noticed him keep looking over my shoulder. I turned around to see a middle aged Chinese lady trying to get her friend to take pictures of me as if we were together. I found it quite funny how they were so fascinated and just offered to pose for pictures with them in the end which they got excited about. This was the start of the sneaky or not so sneaky paparazzi.
Around 3pm we left the peak and went back to the hostel to try and escape the heat and have a few hours
rest. Once re cooperated we went out to Temple Street which had been recommended by the hostel. The street was full of market stalls selling everything from beautiful handcrafts to fake electronic goods and clothing. There were also plenty of food stalls all along the street where we went and pulled up a plastic chair and had some dinner and a bottle of Asahi (Chinese beer). After eating we were stuffed so went for a walk along the night market joking around with all the sellers and then headed home for some sleep.
The next day we had another early start as we had to collect our visas from the embassy. We then went out for breakfast and spent the rest of the mid-afternoon hiding from the blaring sun - I had never felt heat like it. Later in the evening we went to another market in Mongkok called Ladies Market but it was very similar to the stuff from the market we'd been to the night before so didn't spend a great deal of time there. We decided to go back to Temple Street for dinner and along the way saw a local guy doing a Michael Jackson
tribute act in the middle of the road which put a smile on our faces. Back at Temple Street we were more adventurous and had crab, prawns and bok choy for dinner rather than a fried rice - it was delicious.
Our last day in Hong Kong was spent at the Big Buddha. We took a one hour bus there and when we arrived the change in temperature was great as we were so high up the weather was lovely and cool. As soon as we got off the bus we could see the Big Buddha which was pretty impressive and this wasn't even up close. We climbed up the 240 odd steps and finally reached the top to see the Buddha up close. It was bronze in colour sat on a lotus throne and huge in size looking down onto everybody below. It would of felt really peaceful up there apart from the hundreds of Chinese tourists who you could barely get past to take a photo. As we walked around we came across lots of other statues who looked to be offering gifts to the Buddha and we were also able to look out onto some incredible
green scenery far into the distance.
We walked back down to the bottom and strolled around the grounds for a while and spotted a monk who I took a few sneaky pictures of. It was about 3pm so we got the bus back to the hostel for a few hours. For our last meal we went to the popular Tsui Wah restaurant and had a beef noodle broth and a Thai curry which was all very nice but not the best or cheapest food we had in Hong Kong. After dinner we got back and did some last minute planning for our next destination - Shanghai.
Hong Kong was great, especially if you like shopping. It was also a nice and easy way to prepare ourselves for the rest of China where we had heard things could be quite out of the ordinary and difficult.
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JHG
JHG
Happy hols
Glad you had a good time in Hong Kong - I live here. Have a great time in China too! Look forward to seeing where you go!