Hong Kong

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Hi everyone

We made it to Hong Kong and it’s hot. Apparently there was a typhoon her last week which we were very lucky to miss.

I've decided to cross QANTAS off my preferred airline list. We ended up waiting 6 hours to get on the plane from Brisbane. Unfortunately there’s nothing much to amuse you at Brisbane airport so I was very grumpy. The flight was good but the food was woeful. It was so bad we killed ourselves laughing. Christine, even your dogs wouldn't have eaten this food. The flight attendants were however generous with their wine and whisky so all was not lost.

It’s about 30 years since we have been to Hong Kong and it’s really smartened itself up. Thankfully not as much as Singapore. There are still Asian smells floating around. I quite like the aroma of rotting vegetation, petrol fumes and Chinese food.

We are staying in the CosMos Hotel in Mongkok. http://www.cosmomongkok.com.hk/en/home/ We have an amazing view over to the new territories. The room is “compact”, to say the least. The bed is so short that Peter’s feet hang over the edge. Much to Peter’s amusement, we have the world’s smallest fridge which hold six cans. They have tried to do designer boutique touches bless them but it really hasn't worked.

Decorating quirks aside, this hotel is in an incredible location. It’s the epicentre of little Asian restaurants and shops. Unfortunately, quite a few of them are closed because it’s the Golden week holiday here. Last year 860,000 people from mainland china came to Hong Kong for Golden week. That’s a lot of people crammed on to a little island

We had an amazingly strange breakfast today. It was basically rice noodles in broth with a side of spam and eggs. This was accompanied by coffee with evaporated milk. The spam worked well with the rice noodles but we couldn’t come at the coffee.

I had trouble charging my ipad yesterday and after some searching I found out that the recent operating system update by apple means that you can only use ipad chargers and not the third party ones. I finally got a new apple one this morning. Oops forgot that it has a Hong Kong plug on it. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to buy another one in the UK.

Peter has just had a refreshing blue girl pilsener beer. Plenty of beer in shops. No white wine to be seen anywhere. The great wine search begins in earnest this afternoon.

love pj and sandy xx

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Comments

[jules]

Cleo and me
Greetings travelers - it's all fine back at base camp. Cleo and I are having fun but she doesn't know where the stubby holders are! PJ help please :) jx

[kerry brown]

Honkers
There is definitely an 'aroma' of HK! Enjoy your petite boutique hotel! Hong Kong Park on Kowloon - sculpture gardens, and blissful after the noise and congestion of the streets. Go to the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon as well - it is very grand and they have chamber quartet or pianist on grand piano with afternoon tea! Any of the markets are worth a look as well - Ladies market or Night Market