Hong Kong - We got an upgrade!!
Cathay Pacific is now officially my favourite airline. They upgraded us to business class - it was my first time. The welcome champagne was a nice touch, as was the (very small) table cloth, and I especially liked the way they remembered everyone's name. I always knew food on planes didn't HAVE to taste as bad as it usually does. Just a shame the flight from Bangkok was less than three hours - I'm considering investing in a suit for future flights, I'm sure the extra booze available would justify the price...
Anyway, we're in Hong Kong! And who'd've guessed, it's baking hot!
Arrived late at night and just had time to wander the streets near our hostel. We seem to be in the middle of shopping heaven - clothes, shoes, phones, phones, more phones. I want gadgets, but I can't find anything that I just can't live without. Jen's got her eye on a tiny little laptop...we'll see.
We went down to the harbour and took the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. It used to be the only way across to the island, but now they've got three tunnels as well. But it's still the cheapest - one thing we're learning on our travels is what crap value public transport is back home. The ferry costs about 12p.
Then we took the funicular (extortionate, well over a pound) up to Victoria Peak. You can see it in the previous picture - middle background, the big lumpy bit with the little pointy things on top.
Sorry about the glare, we'd escaped into Starbuck's air-con, which happened to have a great view all across the harbour. The book advised to stay until night for the best views, so we settled in...
Worth the wait. Here's one more from a different angle...
So what else did we do? Well, we wandered round the markets and as ever soon discovered that they repeat every 5 to 6 stalls or so. There must be agreements that the silk scarf ladies won't set up directly next to each other, and the watch people must have at least 3 stalls between each other, and god forbid if there are 2 fake handbag stalls within shouting distance. That obviously didn't stop us investing in all manner of useless tat, it's gonna be christmas soon after we get back, and some of you may be finding said useless tat in your stockings (especially if you don't start leaving comments - Michelle, Dave, Annie, etc. you know who you are!!)
This brings us to the highlight of our stay in Hong Kong - meeting Jen's extended family. Give us a wave...
Left to Right (I'd better get this right, here goes): Cousin Barry, with daughter Natalie and his wife Margaret, Auntie Anne, Cousin Malcolm (our host for the evening, thanks for the food) and daughter Hilary, Niece Natasha and us two.
Hilary and Natalie No.2 (friend of Hilary, taking the photo, and therefore not in the photo, obviously) came to meet us and took us off to a rather nice private club in Kowloon Tong to meet the family, and Jen's cousin Malcolm treated us to a rather civilised feed - not something we've been to used to over the last few months (thanks again, the sweet and sour was especially good I thought). Afterwards two of Jen's Nieces - Hilary and Natasha, plus Natalie (friend, not niece) took us over to Hong Kong Island for drinks and more food - if any of you find yourself in the Hollywood Road area look for Chocolux. It's down an alley and serves lots of chocolate based drinks and chocolate truffles and stuff. It's really quite good.
I think I'd better let Jen add some bits here - don't want to get in the way of family...
...and they kept us out till 3 in the morning finding more places to eat. Like a pub crawl but with a lot more munching. Smashing stuff. Despite the hour the cafe's are packed full of people ordering all sorts. It's a gastronomes paradise. I just wish I had a bigger appetite - I really didn't do it justice.
Families are family no matter how recently they've just been introduced so it wasn't long before we were discussing the relative merits of toilets in the west versus alarming ones in china they'd seen on recent visits. That, plus horror stories of travellers being kidnapped or conned, left us feeling well prepared for the next leg of the journey. (well prepared to give it a miss!)
But for now we are in Hong Kong - clean and organised with lots of transport - bus, tram, tube, ferry... so we wandered around trying it all out and using our new octopus travel card, which you can also use to pay for things in some shops too. Here's a quick look at a tram... which nows I come to look at it seems empty - It's all lies - the one we were on while I was taking this pic was packed solid.
She's right. The whole picture is in fact a lie. For a start you can see road and pavement, rather than cars and people, which is a rarity. The whole place is heaving - especially up around our hostel, which we were reliably informed is actually a bit of a dodgy area - there are signs advertising discount rates if you book your room for the whole night. At least they offer the rooms for two hours rather than just one. That would be a bit cheap.
By now we were starting to suffer from Temple Withdrawal Syndrome. So we took a quick dose of the Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas and started to feel a whole lot better. Just a short train ride and we were standing at the bottom of a whole load of steps leading up to what promised to be buddha heaven - or buddha nirvana I guess it would be. Anyway, there were allegedly a whole load of buddhas awaiting at the top. Just four hundred steps to go. Four hundred hot, sweaty steps. The things we have to go through to get these pictures (and not a commment to show for it blah blah blah...) At least we had company on the way up...
Not bad, that's a fair few buddhas for starters. And not just buddhas. Oh no, not here. They've also got.....a big blue dog!!!!!!
And more buddhas of course. Now, while they clearly have a whole load of buddhas here, in fact somewhere over 12,000 (most of them a lot smaller than the ones we've seen so far) they do appear to have been struggling a bit for ideas - all the big buddhas being different from each other. So, while there are plenty of perfectly acceptable variations on young and old buddhas, the pictures below show there are also some pretty lame excuses for buddhas...
Left to right we have: 1) For comparison, a nice old buddha 2)Rock Star Buddha? 3) Going for a paddle Buddha? 4) Getting desperate now - Really long arm Buddha! I mean. Really. And if that wasn't bad enough we have 5) Comedy fake poo Buddha (look at his hand). I rest my case.
Almost forgot - they had a decent pagoda too....
All in all, despite the heat and the steps, we were glad to have made the effort to come and see the place. The buddhas were impressive and occassionally amusing. You could say it was the big blue...
Which brings us nicely onto another addition of Kiddies Corner.
Silly names galore in Hong Kong. It really is too easy.
Jen insisted I took this picture, but I don't understand why...
Mong Kok was just the MTR station round the corner. Nothing funny there.
A couple of places not to shop. Don't buy your watches here...
And definitely don't get your clothes here.......
Enough of this childish drivel. I'll let Jen add some of her own.
How exactly am I supposed to follow that?
Well we followed it with another dose of family. We met up with Aunty Anne and Hilary for a bite to eat, then with Aunty Anne's guidance we tried out a shopping mall, stopped for ice cream, visited cousin Malcolms offices, went to the museum, stopped for a cuppa, tried out another shopping mall... and then just as we looked set to try a bit more shopping Aunty Ann (who is in her eighties after all) had to cry off because we'd walked the knees off her. We out shopped a shopper. Incredible.
Anyways, we can't hang around Hong Kong shopping forever can we? It's high time we checked out those horror stories for ourselves. Let's board the train to Beijing. We've splashed out on 'hard sleepers' (40 quid each) which means theres 6 bunks to a room and no door. I'm pretty adept at climbing up to the third tier bunk as it happens, maybe I was a monkey in a former life.
Settle in for a nice lie down, for say, 24 hours? And I do mean lie down, the bunks are not quite big enough to actually sit up in. I hope you've brought a good book, there's very little by way of entertainment on trains - the chinese of course don't need books, they've got you to stare at. You're the star act. See you in China!
Anyway, we're in Hong Kong! And who'd've guessed, it's baking hot!
Arrived late at night and just had time to wander the streets near our hostel. We seem to be in the middle of shopping heaven - clothes, shoes, phones, phones, more phones. I want gadgets, but I can't find anything that I just can't live without. Jen's got her eye on a tiny little laptop...we'll see.
We went down to the harbour and took the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. It used to be the only way across to the island, but now they've got three tunnels as well. But it's still the cheapest - one thing we're learning on our travels is what crap value public transport is back home. The ferry costs about 12p.
Then we took the funicular (extortionate, well over a pound) up to Victoria Peak. You can see it in the previous picture - middle background, the big lumpy bit with the little pointy things on top.
Sorry about the glare, we'd escaped into Starbuck's air-con, which happened to have a great view all across the harbour. The book advised to stay until night for the best views, so we settled in...
Worth the wait. Here's one more from a different angle...
So what else did we do? Well, we wandered round the markets and as ever soon discovered that they repeat every 5 to 6 stalls or so. There must be agreements that the silk scarf ladies won't set up directly next to each other, and the watch people must have at least 3 stalls between each other, and god forbid if there are 2 fake handbag stalls within shouting distance. That obviously didn't stop us investing in all manner of useless tat, it's gonna be christmas soon after we get back, and some of you may be finding said useless tat in your stockings (especially if you don't start leaving comments - Michelle, Dave, Annie, etc. you know who you are!!)
This brings us to the highlight of our stay in Hong Kong - meeting Jen's extended family. Give us a wave...
Left to Right (I'd better get this right, here goes): Cousin Barry, with daughter Natalie and his wife Margaret, Auntie Anne, Cousin Malcolm (our host for the evening, thanks for the food) and daughter Hilary, Niece Natasha and us two.
Hilary and Natalie No.2 (friend of Hilary, taking the photo, and therefore not in the photo, obviously) came to meet us and took us off to a rather nice private club in Kowloon Tong to meet the family, and Jen's cousin Malcolm treated us to a rather civilised feed - not something we've been to used to over the last few months (thanks again, the sweet and sour was especially good I thought). Afterwards two of Jen's Nieces - Hilary and Natasha, plus Natalie (friend, not niece) took us over to Hong Kong Island for drinks and more food - if any of you find yourself in the Hollywood Road area look for Chocolux. It's down an alley and serves lots of chocolate based drinks and chocolate truffles and stuff. It's really quite good.
I think I'd better let Jen add some bits here - don't want to get in the way of family...
...and they kept us out till 3 in the morning finding more places to eat. Like a pub crawl but with a lot more munching. Smashing stuff. Despite the hour the cafe's are packed full of people ordering all sorts. It's a gastronomes paradise. I just wish I had a bigger appetite - I really didn't do it justice.
Families are family no matter how recently they've just been introduced so it wasn't long before we were discussing the relative merits of toilets in the west versus alarming ones in china they'd seen on recent visits. That, plus horror stories of travellers being kidnapped or conned, left us feeling well prepared for the next leg of the journey. (well prepared to give it a miss!)
But for now we are in Hong Kong - clean and organised with lots of transport - bus, tram, tube, ferry... so we wandered around trying it all out and using our new octopus travel card, which you can also use to pay for things in some shops too. Here's a quick look at a tram... which nows I come to look at it seems empty - It's all lies - the one we were on while I was taking this pic was packed solid.
She's right. The whole picture is in fact a lie. For a start you can see road and pavement, rather than cars and people, which is a rarity. The whole place is heaving - especially up around our hostel, which we were reliably informed is actually a bit of a dodgy area - there are signs advertising discount rates if you book your room for the whole night. At least they offer the rooms for two hours rather than just one. That would be a bit cheap.
By now we were starting to suffer from Temple Withdrawal Syndrome. So we took a quick dose of the Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas and started to feel a whole lot better. Just a short train ride and we were standing at the bottom of a whole load of steps leading up to what promised to be buddha heaven - or buddha nirvana I guess it would be. Anyway, there were allegedly a whole load of buddhas awaiting at the top. Just four hundred steps to go. Four hundred hot, sweaty steps. The things we have to go through to get these pictures (and not a commment to show for it blah blah blah...) At least we had company on the way up...
Not bad, that's a fair few buddhas for starters. And not just buddhas. Oh no, not here. They've also got.....a big blue dog!!!!!!
And more buddhas of course. Now, while they clearly have a whole load of buddhas here, in fact somewhere over 12,000 (most of them a lot smaller than the ones we've seen so far) they do appear to have been struggling a bit for ideas - all the big buddhas being different from each other. So, while there are plenty of perfectly acceptable variations on young and old buddhas, the pictures below show there are also some pretty lame excuses for buddhas...
(Click and it will grow)
Left to right we have: 1) For comparison, a nice old buddha 2)Rock Star Buddha? 3) Going for a paddle Buddha? 4) Getting desperate now - Really long arm Buddha! I mean. Really. And if that wasn't bad enough we have 5) Comedy fake poo Buddha (look at his hand). I rest my case.
Almost forgot - they had a decent pagoda too....
All in all, despite the heat and the steps, we were glad to have made the effort to come and see the place. The buddhas were impressive and occassionally amusing. You could say it was the big blue...
Which brings us nicely onto another addition of Kiddies Corner.
Silly names galore in Hong Kong. It really is too easy.
Jen insisted I took this picture, but I don't understand why...
Mong Kok was just the MTR station round the corner. Nothing funny there.
A couple of places not to shop. Don't buy your watches here...
And definitely don't get your clothes here.......
Enough of this childish drivel. I'll let Jen add some of her own.
How exactly am I supposed to follow that?
Well we followed it with another dose of family. We met up with Aunty Anne and Hilary for a bite to eat, then with Aunty Anne's guidance we tried out a shopping mall, stopped for ice cream, visited cousin Malcolms offices, went to the museum, stopped for a cuppa, tried out another shopping mall... and then just as we looked set to try a bit more shopping Aunty Ann (who is in her eighties after all) had to cry off because we'd walked the knees off her. We out shopped a shopper. Incredible.
Anyways, we can't hang around Hong Kong shopping forever can we? It's high time we checked out those horror stories for ourselves. Let's board the train to Beijing. We've splashed out on 'hard sleepers' (40 quid each) which means theres 6 bunks to a room and no door. I'm pretty adept at climbing up to the third tier bunk as it happens, maybe I was a monkey in a former life.
Settle in for a nice lie down, for say, 24 hours? And I do mean lie down, the bunks are not quite big enough to actually sit up in. I hope you've brought a good book, there's very little by way of entertainment on trains - the chinese of course don't need books, they've got you to stare at. You're the star act. See you in China!
posted by Jen & Col at
11:07 pm
2 Comments:
Look! Look! I'm commenting! Sorry Col, I forgot about this bit of the site. Will promise faithfully to write amusing a witty comments forthwith!
Erm.....well I....I think I need to go away and think about it.
By
Anonymous, at 3:25 am
So you leave Thailand and, a couple of weeks later, there's a military coup. Coincidence? I think not.
I am now scanning the papers for news of social and political unrest in Hong Kong and quite possibly a takeover bid for Cathay Pacific by a shadowy Reading-based company.
Was struck in your blog by the juxtaposition (hey, nice word) of rampant laptop and gadget commercialism and equally rampant religious artefacts: is it me or is that weirdly kinda..opposite? Bit like the US trying to effectivly close down online gaming websites (check the news)whilst encouraging places like Las Vegas - something schizophrenic going on there.
Disappointed in the lack of toilet photos but otherwise as good as ever.
PS: Re your Cathay comments, ALWAYS have the veggie food option on planes. They seldom do more than one "class" of meal (my inside sources tell me) so you essentially eat 1st class...and you usually get served first.
By
Tom, at 2:31 pm
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