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Published: March 14th 2007
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No news is good news
As we got on the plane they offered us a Chinese newspaper. Very kind, except - The front page is a report about a plane crash. Well, our adventure has begun! Our plane to Hong Kong landed at 7:30am. The flight was pretty comfortable, and we each had our own TVs and air hostesses bringing 12yr old Chivas Regal Scotch for a night cap.
Our plane touched down and we did the imigration thing, which took about an hour, and got our visitors visas for Hong Kong. We then changed our last R320 for HK$265 and set out in search of a ticket to Hong Kong island (The airport is on a man-made island because space in Hong Kong is so valuable!). We found train tickets, which cost us HK$100 each, return. We tried to leave our hand luggage at the baggage counter, because they were full of books and stuff to save weight in our main luggage. Turns out it costs HK$50 per bag, so we gave it a skip.
Heavy bags and all we got off on Hong Kong Island in search of food. We soon found a little shop filled with locals, which is probably a good sign. The lady behind the counter didn't speak English, but we managed to order one meal that looked good to us and one that she
Goodbye Africa
Our last view of the African coast was very keen to sell us, with rice, of course. We also found a lovely little park with pools and fountains to sit and eat. Turns out we had pork and beef, both sort of stewed. The beef was better.
The first thing that really struck us about Hong Kong is the huge height of all the buildings. Narrow skyscrapers take up just about every empty piece of land, most of them about 80 floors high high. They are far bigger than anything we get in SA.
The city is built on the side of a mountain, so we started walking upwards, towards a big ricebowl-shaped building that overlooks the city. It took most of the morning and a bunch of wrong turns until, having soaked our only T-shirts in sweat we decided it was not possible without using the Tram (which we'd skipped since our budget is a little below shoe-string). Just as we were turning back down we passed a nice, clearly marked path to the top.
We walked the last bit of the way, and finally stood on top of the odd 458m (above sea-level) building. It was a bit misty, but we were
Sunset
Time to try and get some airplane-sleep still able to get a pretty impressive view of Hong Kong from above and even see across to the other coast of the island.
On the way down we notice on our map that the world's longest escalator runs from sea level to the top of the city. We walked halfway across town to find the elevator. When we got there we were met with a happy surprise. The escalator runs up. Only. Next to it is a nice long staircase. So we walked down the world's longest-staircase-next-to-an-escalator. Fun fun.
When we got to the bottom we caught the subway across to Kowloon, the peninsula on the Chinese mainland that is also part of Hong Kong. We managed to arrive at a station way out of town and found ourselves trekking our daypacks back to the main shopping district. Hunger pains and a lack of local currency resulted in our wondering the streets in search of food and an ATM. We found both in one of HK's huge multi-storey malls, called Gateway, and escaped the mania to have supper in the beautiful Kowloon Park.
Our last stop was to the waterfront where we could get a great
SkySCRAPERS
Buildings that disappear up into the clouds view of the neighbouring Hong Kong island skyline across the water. Most of the large buildings have impressive lighting on the sides as well as powerful spotlights and lasers on their roofs. For 15 mins the lighting is all choreographed to music which makes that the worlds massivest light dispay. It was still a bit misty, which made the lasers and ligting even more impressive.
As soon as the show was over, we caught the train back to the airport. We arrived back by 9:30pm. After going through passport control we found a nice soft place to sit, since our flight was only at 00:20am. We climbed onto the plane very tired and fell asleep before it even took off.
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Andries
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WOW
Wow guys!! it looks like you're having loads of fun! and seeing the coolest things! SOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooOOOOOO jealous:)