Hong Kong, Here we come…

Goodbye Time, I do so hate to say Goodbye, Hugs and tears and more hugs, Not sure when we’ll see Mike & Nell again, but they are hoping they to come over next year to the UK for a visit 🙂

We took a midnight flight from Perth to Hong Kong, and arrived at 7.30, early. Stowed our large case and just took hand luggage into the city.

Found the high speed train station and took the train to Kowloon, quick McD’s then got a free bus! Found Nathan Road then the Chung King Mansions.

All the different windows on the skyscrapers were great to see, such imagination

This is where it suddenly got worrying, we were entering another world, lots of market stalls, people everywhere. We found our lift entrance, and got in, only to find no floor 5, so got out at 6 and walked down a floor. The stair well was scarey and grubby. On floor 5 we knocked on the door of Guangdong Guest House and found a palace! spotless, clean, and a smiling Simon To. He’d offered to store our bags, as check in/out was after 12 and it was still only 9.30am.

Hannah called to say she was downstairs so lets go get coffee! Hugs tears and more hugs, I’ve not seen her since September

All the different buildings, many of them are lit up at night but look amazing at any time of the day

I was amazed at the sky scrapers. There were so many, all so different. I walked round with my head looking up and my camera clicking.

These all light up at night with different patterns, but they look amazing at any time of the daythat direction, took the Star Ferryacross to Hong Kong Island (you just have to do it, don’t you) and on every walk way we bumped into more and more Brothers and Sisters. We got to the meeting place and stayed for the Special Talk then our stomachs got the better of us and we found a chinese restaurant to eat, the only one in Hong Kong that doesn’t speak english! But we survived… replenished we found Starbucks for proper coffee, comfy seats and plan making for our next adventure.

The Tram that goes up and down the hill, the view from the window about half way up and the iconic building with the Sky Terrace on the top (where we went)

The Peak was decided as we were quite near to the tram terminal. There was a queue (the HK’s queue for everything) and we held our place whilst each of us took turns to find a loo! After an hour+, and a decision of should we spend and extra HK$25 to go to the Sky Terrace 428 (not knowing what that was) we voted yes, lets do it. later we worked out it was the princely sum of £2.

After queuing for the tickets we queued for the tram, a red car came into sight and on we climbed. The incline is so steep (I’m sure it was a 45° angle) and half way up we passed the return car. Once at the top we followed everyone like sheep up escalator after escalator up to another ticket barrier – this is the Sky Terrace – up two more escalators to find ourselves on top of the world, in a cloud!

You can wander round the top to take in the views, its very windy (but a warm wind) but as the mist cleared you can see all the city laid out below. Stunning, I found the colour of everything so different here from WA, there its sharp blues, whites, high contrast, but here its all gently blended blues, greys, purple and greens, and they change every 5 mins depending on the mist.

Next it was noodles in a noodle cafe for a pick me up before our descent. We left the top in daylight, it was dark by the time we got to the bottom.

Popped back to our hostel to check in with Simon To, get a key etc and dashed out to see the Symphony of Lights. As all our phones, cameras etc were flat we opted for watching tonight, film photos tomorrow (its on every day 8pm), that we we could really enjoy it all rather than what you see through a view finder. And WOW was it cool! 15 mins of synchronised lights and music.

Found a lovely Japanese restaurant very close to home for tea, made plans to meet at McD’s for breakfast near her in the morning and said goodnight to Hannah

We found a 24 hour metro pass was great value, HK$55 each and it gave you unlimited travel on the underground. We worked it to only need 2 as we got our 2nd one late enough to last us til we were heading to the airport again. The metro is easy enough once you get the hang of the station names, and when you know where you are based it all falls into place very quickly. Although busy I never felt threatened anywhere in Hong Kong.

So back at our hostel we showered in our tiny bathroom and slept like logs til 9am (due to missing a lot of sleep the previous night)