Well, you probably thought we'd disappeared from the face of the earth - I'm afraid we're still very much alive & kicking on our last day here in Hong Kong. The typhoon that has hit South-East China on Saturday/Sunday hasn't affected us as we left Shanghai on Saturday morning. In fact it's very hot & humid here and we're really enjoying the air-con in the hotel and shopping arcades!
As we suspected, once we left the cruise ship last Monday, our itinerary was extremely busy and Internet access has been impossible either due to lack of facilities or lack of time. We'll catch up on the events of the last week in separate blogs but may not have time to post all these before we leave for the UK tomorrow morning so keep looking. Will also post a selection of photos once we get home.
Hong Kong is an interesting place - much more western than mainland China. We are very impressed by the service and facilities of the 4* Eaton Hotel in the Kowloon district of HK where we are staying as compared to the 4* and 5* we have stayed in in Shanghai, Xi-an and Beijing and have particularly enjoyed the time to relax in the roof-top pool.
We arrived in HK on Saturday afternoon and were hit by the heat and humidity (approx 33 degrees and 55%) as we got off the plane. Shanghai had been hot (about 28 degrees) but not as humid. After some 'leisure time' the 6 of us who had taken the HK extension following the China tour (Pat & Jim, Mary & Brian and ourselves) ventured out onto the Nathan Road (one of the main shopping roads which leads down to the harbour (about 1.5km). We were accosted by vendors selling everything from "Rolex" watches, "Sony" & "Nikon" cameras, mobile phones & other electrical goods (authentic copies of the real thing!!), made-to-measure suits, massages, etc, etc. we got very good at dodging them and John collected a pocketful of promotional leaflets in an effort to appease them. Anyway we made our way, slowly, to the Avenue of Stars ( Chinese celebrities & film stars' hand prints in the pavement on the harbour front). The only one we recognised was 'Jacky Chan' (our Chinese guide's namesake) and we took a picture of this to send to Jacky on our return home.
We had been encouraged to get to the harbour-front in time for the laser show at 8pm - a synchronised display of lights and music played out across the tall buildings of HK Island.
This was rather disappointing as we had been expecting something with more impact but another 'must do' crossed off our list. We ate in a harbour-front restaurant and enjoying the sights and sounds of this busy city, before making our way back to the hotel.
John & I enjoyed a Mr Whippy ice cream about half-way back up the Nathan Road - I think it was the best I've ever tasted but maybe that was to do with how hot and sticky we were and the fact that it only cost 6 HK dollars ( about 40p)! After a long cold drink of ginger beer in the hotel bar we retired to bed, looking forward to our HK city tour in the morning.
We had the luxury of a 9.20am start for the half-day city tour on Sunday. After a number of hotel pick-ups in the Kowloon District we headed to HK Island through the Harbour Tunnel .....
..... and up to Victoria Peak with superb panoramic views of Victoria Harbour and the Kowloon Peninsula.
Although still rather hazy we did manage to get some reasonable photos of the harbour area and the vast array of skyscrapers that litter the landscape here.
From here we headed down to Repulse Bay which was named, not because it's repulsive (in fact, it's one of the most beautiful beaches on the island!) but as a memorial of the battle between the Chinese and the British in which HMS Repulse was sunk. It is also home to two huge statues of Tin Hau, Goddess of the Sea, overlooking the most popular and accessible beach on the island. Although we only had half an hour here we were determined to have a swim in the South China Sea. Mary & I had both worn our bikinis under our clothes so had a lovely swim (hoping that the surrounding shark nets were all intact, especially after our local guide had been humming the Jaws theme as we left the coach!) whilst the others paddled on the edge. We were a little damp when we got back on the coach but at least we kept cool for the rest of the tour!
Our next stop was Aberdeen, once a small (by Chinese standards!) fishing town but now home to numerous high-rise buildings and a large harbour - an interesting mix of the old and the new with sampans and traditional fishing boats mingling with modern millionaire yachts.
We took a sampan tour around the the small floating village in the centre of the harbour and were proudly shown traditional Chinese house boats moored alongside fishing boats and lobster nets. The sampans were all 'manned' by elderly Chinese ladies who had a great plan for making sure they weren't ripped off by the tourists - at the end of the tour they stopped in the middle of the harbour and would only make their way back to the quay once everyone had paid their fare in full, so..... unless you wanted to swim for it!!!
Our guide told us that many of the fisherman now work in local factories and that the fishing industry is slowly dying out - this seems to be the way of Hong Kong as the old, traditional ways are wiped out in favour of the relentless striving for the new and the modern - very sad! we returned to our hotel after a brief visit to a HK jewellery factory where we all resisted the temptation to make any purchases (very expensive). Another swim in the roof-top pool before heading back out into the city and the Star Ferry to cross Victoria Harbour to HK Island for dinner. This was more difficult than we thought partly because it was dark and partly because our map wasn't very detailed - our walk to the ferry terminal took us over an hour and took us through a large park with open-air municipal swimming pool and flamingos, hotel lobbies, subways and shopping malls.
However, we did see the Doulos Ship in dock - we had heard that it was on it's final journey before being decommissioned and had stopped off in HK but the local paper led us to believe that it had already left so we were delighted to come across it by accident!
After much walking in the evening heat ( still above 30 degrees) we eventually managed to find a rather expensive Italian restaurant in the IFC (International Finance Centre) overlooking the harbour - it was worth it to have some western food at last! Chinese food is great but after nearly 3 weeks I think we'll be giving the local takeaway a miss for a while!! Our journey back to the hotel was also eventful as we decided to take a bus from the Star ferry - once we located the right bus (they all seemed to go up the Nathan Road but we were told to get the No. 2) our lady bus-driver didn't understand English and when we showed her where we wanted to go on the map she indicated that she couldn't see - she wore thick-lensed glasses so this didn't bode well for a safe ride! We then discovered that most people have electronic bus passes and that the machine only accepted the right coins so we were scrambling around in our pockets for enough coins for the fare - we never did find enough and she eventually gave up on us and let us take the ride anyway. Amazingly we managed to get off the bus just a short walk from the hotel and made our way to the air-conditioned bar for the now customary ginger beer with ice before embarking on the beer and cocktails.
Today we are making the most of our first day of leisure for about 10 days - we got up late (at 9am) for breakfast - we have had so many early starts (at 6-6.30am) in the last week we had forgotten what a lay-in was! Now sitting in the Internet cafe in the basement of our hotel and enjoying the speed of the Internet once again - a real treat after the interminable slowness of access on the Yangtze. We're planning to do some last minute shopping this afternoon before having a leisurely evening meal with the remaining 4 members of our party and an early night before our 5am start tomorrow morning. Because of the way in which the itinerary has been arranged we are having to fly from Hong Kong to Shanghai and then connect to our flight for the UK rather than a direct flight from HK so we will be travelling for about 18 hours in total. Thankfully we've both taken Wednesday off so will have some time to recover a little before returning to work on Thursday.
However, it has been worth it - this has been a most amazing and fascinating trip and one which we will never forget!
Looking forward to catching up with many of you when we get home,
Lots of love
Carol & John xxxx
P.S. Our final Peking Duck dinner - Hong Kong style!!
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