TEN TEN TEN

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This was the memorable date we left the UK heading for Hong Kong on the first leg of our travels. Saying goodbye to our family was difficult but we look forward to keeping in touch by Skype throughout our journey. We were travelling with Air New Zealand and were so glad we upgraded as we had plenty of room and the service and food was good, together with great New Zealand wines. We arrived in Hong Kong late in the afternoon to extremely warm temperatures and made our way to the Eaton Hotel in the Kowloon area which proved to be a very useful location, next to busy markets and good transport links by metro or bus. Our room was on the 18th floor so great views from the windows to the busy city streets below. On our first day we followed a Hong Kong Island tour which proved an excellent orientation tour of the city. The tour started from the famous fishing village of Aberdeen to see the ‘floating community’ still very much a part of Hong Kong’s society and we enjoyed a sampan ride allowing a ‘close up’ view of the waterborne life. We then wound our way up the mountain to Victoria Peak for a panoramic view of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the surrounding islands and what a view this was, skyscrapers everywhere each competing with each other for any available sky space. Later we walked down to the waterfront to see Hong Kong at night and when the lights came on the buildings became ‘alive’ and people came out to eat and walk along the harbour and watch the light shows. We also sailed within the harbour on the China Sea and enjoyed tremendous views on both sides. We spent an exhausting day walking around the many markets of Hong Kong including the Bird Market (stacks of wonderfully carved wooden cages filled with much-prized songbirds filling the air with birdsong), Goldfish Market, Temple Night Market, Ladies Market and Jade Market - you can buy just about anything you want all within a very short distance, expensive jade, pearls and gold jewellery next to dried fish shops some of which smell awful. On our final day we travelled to Lantau Island, the largest island in Hong Kong and up the mountain to Ngong Ping Plateau where the Giant-Buddha sits majestically close to the Po Lin Monastery. We made the journey via the new glass bottom cable cars which was awesome particularly when we crossed the water with boats sailing underneath us (put my vertigo to the test again). Next to the existing temple which is quite magnificent they are building a new temple to house a ‘thousand’ Buddha’s. The builders use bamboo scaffolding without any harnesses (no health and safety here)! We returned to our hotel by metro where it was standing room only, not surprising really when there are 16 thousand people per square mile in Hong Kong compared with London’s, 12 thousand. The majority we are sure were on the metro this day as the noise levels were deafening, not withstanding the fact that most of them were on the latest mobile phone! Next stop Auckland, New Zealand.

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Comments

[Douglas Lackey]

Latest Blog
Wow, I'm really jealous. Make sure you don't tire yourselves out too much with all the sightseeing. xxx

[Margaret Lackey]

Your travels
Hello you two, well you are certainly taking retirement by the horns, trust you to do it in style. Sounds and looks great, keep enjoying and keep us informed. Love to you both