Arrived in HK very early (before 6am) from NZ. Caught a shuttle bus to the hotel in Kowloon - very posh bus. Got an upgrade on the room as the one we booked was not ready. Although the room we got still looked quite old and I wondered if not getting an upgrade might have been better. Never mind, its just a room for sleeping. We crashed and eventually got up later that morning. Headed across to Hong Kong island on the MTR, after purchasing our Octopus cards, for some reason the underground systems seem to like naming their cards after seafood e.g. Oyster Card in London. Got some lunch at a cafe selling traditional Cantonese food, yay I got my wanton noodles! Walked towards the mid level escalators - which are the longest series of escalators in the world, and made our way up the 20 odd escalators and a few travelators. At the top we walked to the lower peak tram station via the botanical and zoological gardens, to catch the tram up to Victoria Peak. It was quite a steep ride in parts. At the top, we went up the Peak tower which looks like a semicircle. Unfortunately the day was misty - probably partly contributed by the pollution - so the views were not great, and it was rather cold too. After that we decided to walk down the Peak to HK park and check out the Flagstaff Museum of Teaware. We got lost a few times in the maze of roads going under and over each other because it is very hilly. The museum had displays of the recent teaware competition with very varied and interesting designs. There were also interesting displays on tea making and different ways of making tea ware. We then headed down to the pier to catch the Star Ferry back across to Kowloon. At the terminal in Kowloon, I spotted a little shop selling eggs cooked in a herbal concoction, so we had to have one - brought back reminders of childhood in Malaysia. As we were feeling rather tired by this point we caught a bus up Nathan Rd to have dinner at a famous (according to LP) Cantonese restaurant in Kimberley Rd. Restaurant felt upmarket and standard of service was high (which was a surprise to me) e.g. serving our fried rice for us off the dish, and forcing us to use the lift to go up/down only one floor. After a good meal we headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
15 Feb
We woke up early and eventually got up. We were still tossing up whether to go to Macau and eventually decided that we would. Went to our local MTR (Jordan) and picked up some breakfast at a bakery and headed to Tsim Tsa Shui and walked to the China Ferry Terminal where as the name suggests ferries depart for China. After walking past it the first time, we eventually found the place. Unfortunately we couldn't get onto a sailing until 11am (it was just after 9.30 at this point and the ferries run every half an hour). We decided that we would go tomorrow instead, so we got some tickets and headed towards Lantau island to check out the Tian Tan Buddha which is the large outdoor Buddha well known in HK. We walked to Kowloon MTR from the ferry terminal (a rather long way away) and hopped on the line out to Tung Chung. At Tung Chung we queued to get tickets to catch the cable car up to Ngong Ping where the Buddha is. Nearly an hour later we got on the cable car. We were lucky we got to the terminal when we did, as not long after we joined the queue, it became rather busy and the queue rapidly extended. Weather was cold and once again we were not very well dressed. On the ride we had good views over the island and airport though still slightly misty. Had lunch at Ngong Ping village and then headed towards Po Lin monastery where the Buddha is located up some 200 odd steps. This is one of the largest outdoor Buddha's in the world. At the top we had a good view all around and the statue was certainly impressive. We headed back to the village where we decided to check out the Walking with Buddha audio visual show which was about how he became the Buddha - it was ok. After that we decided it was time to head back down to Tung Chung. Once again we queued to get on the cable car back down. It was fairly orderly and the queue moved reasonably quickly. Off the cable car and back on the MTR to Prince Edward station where we were going to do a walk described in the LP. We went in the wrong direction out of the MTR station but found our way. Along the way we saw the flower market which is a street filled with flower vendors selling all varieties of flowers - roses, orchids, carnations, lilies etc. Some of the flowers, mainly roses, had been painted/dyed into some odd colours - blue, bright green, some even had sparkles! We walked through the bird market and around back towards where the flower market started. We then walked down a street filled with markets followed by the fish market - a street filled with shops selling fish in plastic bags. Fun to see to begin with until we realised that it was cruel for the fish. After that we walked through the ladies market basically markets selling everything with people selling "copy watches" which they yelled out every time they saw a white person (Andrew). This went on for several blocks. Along the way we found a bakery selling egg tarts (which Grace was craving for) so we picked up a couple. After all that walking we had had enough, so headed back to the hotel for a rest. For dinner we headed to Temple St night markets which was across Nathan Rd from the hotel. We walked through the markets and eventually found a couple of restaurants with guys standing around harrasing you to eat at their place. We had prawns, claypot rice and it was so cheap! We picked up some things at a few shops and then headed back to the hotel as we had a fairly early start the next day for our trip to Macau.
16 Feb
Early start today to catch our ferry to Macau at 9.15am. Breakfast once again was picked up along the way at a bakery. This one didn't have any English, so I had to guess by looking at what others had picked up. Checked in at the ferry terminal, went through immigration and proceeded to the boarding gate. At this stage it felt like we weren't in HK anymore, people were less orderly and more pushy, much like what I would normally expect in an Asian country. People were crowding around the entrance to the walkway to the ferry, we waited until the crowd died a little before boarding. There were allocated seats anyway so we weren't exactly going to miss out on a seat if we weren't on the ferry first. The ferry ride lasted just over an hour, for which I mostly slept as I'm not great on boats. Off at the other end and through immigration. Outside we decided that we would walk to the centre of the town where the LP had a walk lined out. Along the way we walked past the casinos and on the grand prix route. This part of the city felt like a miniature Las Vegas with lots of buildings in different forms e.g. one which looked like a volcano. We also saw the long bridge which connected to Taipa. The most impressive (or ridiculous depending on your point of view) was the Grand Lisboa hotel, this building towered over all the other buildings and was gold in colour. We eventually got to the start of our walk which was in an area with old colonial style buildings. As Macau was colonised by Portugese for a significant period of time, all signs still has Portugese as well as Chinese written on them. We walked past a couple of churches and then up a really steep street to the fort which contains the Museum of Macau. We were going to check out the Museum but wanted some lunch first, so we proceded to the ruins of St Paul's (check) church which only has the facade remaining. At this point, there is a place nearby which the LP recommended for lunch but trying to find it unsuccessfully we gave up, and ended up having food from a local side stall. We then headed back to the museum to check it out. I was fairly tired at this point and didn't really absorb too much of the museum. After the museum we continued a bit further on the walk, but decided that we were too tired to finish it. So we went shopping instead! After a significant purchase at Esprit, it was time to get some dinner before catching our ferry back. We went to a restaurant featuring Portugese and Macanese food (once again recommended by LP) where we had a baked duck rice and a stew both apparently Portugese style, and delicious. We managed to get on an earlier sailing back to Kowloon and back to the hotel, where we spent some time packing everything up, and hoping that we weren't significantly over the weight limit.
17 Feb
Our flight was at 8.15am, so it was an early start back on the shuttle bus to the airport. After the long 12 hour flight we were finally back in cold, but surprisingly sunny & clear, London.
A lot of food places have plastic models of their food on show to entice you in to eat. We saw this very impressive one at the Airport (see below)! Also, here's our plane and the (very cold) landscape of China or Russia (or somewhere like that).
