"Copy watch, copy watch?"

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We have spent the last 3 days exploring Hong Kong. The high level of efficiency meant that we could check our bags in at the train station this morning and get our boarding passes for our flight. That left us with the whole day to explore before going straight to the gate at the airport to board the plane. There was also computers with free internet at the gate so I got to do some blogging too!


On our first day we started by walking along the waterfront in Kowloon. This included the Avenue of Stars which is Hong Kong's answers to Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Unfortunately we had only heard of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I am sure the others were famous too! Having taking a lot of photos of the skyline we got the star ferry to Hong Kong Island. The ferry is something of a Hong Kong institution and spends the day crossing between the two islands. It was a bargain at 2.2 HK dollars (about 20p) a trip and that was for the more expensive upperdeck seats.

After a bit of a wander we headed up to The Peak. As the name suggests it is a peak! It gives you great views over Hong Kong island and the harbour. We got the tram up there which was a good idea as it would have been a very steep walk. After taking loads more photos of the skyline we went for a walk around the peak. As we were so high up we kept seeing birds (Kites I think) zooming around on the thermals.

That evening we went to the Symphony of lights show which is a light and laser show involving buildings on the waterfront. It also has the claim to fame that it is the 'World's Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show'. We are collecting a list of places and things that have bizarre claims to fame. In Australia we saw one of the world's longest fences (the rabbit proof fence), world's longest water main, world's longest grain silo(!) and the just plain bizarre dog rock of Albany. Hong Kong has also given us the world's largest seated outside bronze buddha.

The light show was really good. Hong Kong does have a very impressive skyline. It looks better at night when it is all lit up. It is also a lot easier to see the buildings as you can't see the smog!


On our second day we started by going to some markets. We started at the flower market before we went to Yuen Po Street bird garden. The bird garden had lots of song birds in cages and lots of stalls selling things for the birds. There was lots of live bird food including big containers full of locusts! After that it was off to the gold fish market. All the shops here had rows of bags hanging outside their shops filled with fish. It looked really cool, not sure if the fish liked it that much though.

In the afternoon we wandered around Hong Kong Island. We saw the central to mid level escalators which are these massive escalators (the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world!) which save you having to walk up (or down) some very steep hills. In the morning the escalators go down but during the rest of the day they go up.


Today we went to Lantau Island where we got the cable car to Ngong Ping. Nong Ping itself is a bit of a Disney like affair with lots of shops (Hong Kongers like to shop at every opportunity). It is themed as a Chinese style village. This struck me as weird as this is China, but there you go. We walked away from the village and went to the Tian Tan Buddha (the world's largest seated bronze Buddha) and the Po Lin monastery. There were a lot of steps up to the Buddha which were deceptively steep but it was worth it when we got there as the views were great.

We are about to board our plane to China. Hong Kong had been good although if I was here any longer I would have to get a sign saying “I don't want a suit or a copy watch” as it does not seem possible to walk more than 50 metres in some places without someone offering you one or both of these things. Luckily for me they seem to prefer Tim to me!

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Photos

Me at the big Buddha
Hopefully this will indicate how big the Buddha is.