Hong Kong is fantastic - I wish we had stayed longer - but will visit again. It's very safe and easy to navigate. The public transport [ranging from trams, buses, rail, taxis and ferries] are incredibly efficient and cheap. The whole place runs on this Octopus card [even the 7-elevens], which you rent at the airport and recharge with cash at supermarkets, so you don't need a lot of change, you just swipe the card whenever you use public transport - which made it even easier! Generally, Hong Kong citizens are very friendly and helpful [except when you're in a queue, then it's every person for themselves] and we had no language problems. On the whole it's very cheap unless you shop\eat at expensive places
Saturday 12 May 2007 - We woke up VERY early, dressed and bundled our stuff into the car, gave a teary farewell to Leo and Margie and then drove up to Sydney with Mum and Dad. We made it to Sydney with plenty of time to spare and had breaky before another teary farewell to Mum and Dad and checking into our flight.
The flight was very comfortable and we settled down to inflight movies and food, those new screens on the backs of chairs really make a difference - our flight was approx 9 hours but you don't really notice it after 2-3 movies and the meal breaks.
Arrived in Hong Kong at about 6pm, by which stage I had caught Jay's head cold [grr], but we breezed through customs picked up our luggage and met with my [sort of] aunt Phoebe who took us to my Uncle Ian's flat in Happy Valley.The drive from the airport on Lantau Island through to Hong Kong island is a great way to get an overview of the place. It's a bit strange in that central Hong Kong is actually on an island with the outlying suburbs located on mainland China.We were pretty stuffed by the time we reached the flat, so no partying for us - instead straight to bed!
13 May 2007 - Woke pretty early and went for a walk with Ian to the supermarket in HV and had a look at the main street near his flat - so much goes on and there's lots of little odd shops and grocers, butchers etc... We went past a butchers where they were cutting up the meat for the day, on the floor [where else!] and the guy had a ciggy hanging out of his mouth! Anyway... picked up breaky went back to the flat and got ready for the day...
Jay and I took a tram ride in the morning out towards Causeway bay - took some photos, etc... and then went back to Ian's flat where we met with Phoebe and then headed out to Yum Cha for lunch. Yum Cha was soooo good! My favourite were these little pastries filled with grated white carrot and the seafood was good too. We even tried chickens feet, which to my surprise was quite eadible - very similar to eating a chicken wing and the sauce was very tasty, sort of a sweet chilli with lots of ginger and garlic.
After lunch Jay and I took the Peak tram up to Mount Victoria to get a view of the harbour. The tram is actually a train and when one goes up it acts as a counter weight to move the train going down. It's a very steep climb - almost vertical it seemed - safe though. It's pretty touristy up there and you have to navigate through this massive, overpriced plaza, but when you get outside it's lovely and green and the air is very cool and clean, so it's a good way to get out of the city and chill out. We stayed up there for a while and then headed back down and through the gardens and back to the flat for rest.
That night we went out on the harbour to watch the light show - once again very touristy but worth a look. All the big high rises on the harbour have put lights all up their facades that flash different colours and there are lazers pointed off their roofs. It starts at 8pm-ish and goes for about 15 minutes. We took a ferry over to Kowloon and Tsim Sha Tsui, where most of the backpackers are, found an outside food market and had dinner - also very tasty and cheap - it was a similar sort of place to the stalls you find in Chiang Mai in Thailand - pretty grotty but with fantastic food - and safe to eat at. Afterwards we perused the night market - lots of colourful stalls - mostly junk stuff - some good vendors though and lots of fortune tellers and outdoor opera. Got to bed fairly late.
14 May 2007 - Headcold turned into sinus infection - but never fear as drugs can be purchased over the counter at chemists - so started to feel better bfore the end of the day.
Went out to Lantau island with Ian [who works out there] to see the Tian Tan big buddha and the Po Lin monastry. Caught the sky rail cable cars to Ngong Ping village, great vew of the mountatins. We bought a vegetarian meal ticket at the base of the big buddha, which gave us entry into the upper tiers of the buddha and also a cheap lunch at the monastry. Climbed up the stairs [not quite as steep as wat doi sutep in Thailand] but steep all the same up to the big buddha and had a walk around and went inside the museum, etc... It's not worth buying the ticket to go up to the extra tiers as it's all tourist shops and displays written in Chinese, the main section is free admission and that's where all the English signage is located and the Jataka buddhist stories, but it is worth buying the ticket for the vegetarian lunch!
After seeing the buddha we headed back down the hill to the Monastry, where the restaurant is, it worked out to be approx $10 AUD and we got about 5 plates of food and rice, tea, etc... including some more of the white carrot pastries! Don't get turned off by the vegetarian bit - it's very good. It was a bit sad to see we were only 1 of 3 tables of westerners dining in the Monastry restaurant, but I guess it's not surprising.
After lunch we wandered around the monastry. They have these lovely ponds with lotus flowers and terepins swimming around! Took lots of photos of the terepins, which were very cute. The temple is really lovely too, but also pretty touristy.
Instead of taking the cable car back down the hill we took a number 2 bus to Mui Wo, which is a seaside village on the other side of the island. The bus ride was a good way to see the island and the little villages, etc... From Mui Wo we caught possibly the slowest ferry back to HK island and then found our Happy Vally tram and headed home.
That evening Phoebe and Ian took us to a restaurant specialising in Northern Chinese food, where Jay could sample is favourite dish [you know it Nat!] Shantung Chiken! Was surprised to see how accurate the Sammy's version was to the dish we had at the restaurant. We asked Phoebe and Ian to order food that we wouldn't normally have in Oz and it was all very yummy. We even ate pigeon meat! The San Choy Bau is typically made with pigeon, but as it's so costly, they mix it with lots of nuts and vegies, etc... so you don't eat to much and it tastes very similar to pork - so I didn't really notice it. Afer dinner we went to bed early cos of the flight the next day.
15 May 2007 - Woke up early and caugh taxi to airport. Once again HK airport was a breeze to get through. Returned our Octopus cards and they refunded money and then went to board plane.13 hour plane ride - pretty tedious, but movie screens made it bareable, didn't sleep though. Arrived in Heathrow at about 2pm. The Brits need to take a lesson from the HK airport. Heathrow was disorganised and we spent ages in the que to customs, etc... Plus they didn't announce our gate time til 20 minutes before our flight to Rome!
Anyway... flight to Rome was OK, arrived at 10pm-ish - having not slept for 24 hours!!!! Rome airport also easy to get through, breezed through customs and baggage collection. Thankfully we bumped into 3 American girls who told us that the last xpress train to termini left in about 1 minute so we all sprinted over to the airport station and clambered onto the train. Chatted with the US girls on the train - they were about the same age and were squeezing about 6 countries into 12 days!!!! Crazy - but they were having fun.
Arrived at Termini at about 11pm, realised Jay hadn't printed out the hotel reservation from his email and had no idea where the hostel was [I almost killed him!] Plus I felt pretty sick and we were both tired. Thanks to an all night internet cafe we found details and realised we were very close to hostel [ie. 1 block away] and managed to get to apartment OK.
Apartment is amazing!!! But will tell you about it in the next posting as this is turning into a novel, so...
Talk to you all soon and will post photos etc....
Realise I have spent most of this entry talking about the food we ate in Hong Kong - but Mum and Dad were right - it's an important part of their culture and it's incredibly good!! Now we're in Europe we wont have money for food, so it will be more stories about the places we visit.
Lots of love to family and friends - we miss you already!!!!!!!
Lucy and Jay
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