Hong Kong - Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
After the laid back life in the Philippines we headed for Hong Kong where we booked 6 nights. But not before a final night in Angeles City in the Philippines which is the countries sex capital. Safe to say it was the seediest place we've ever been. We arrived at the bus station after dark and took a tricycle to the hotel, the driver quoted us 100peso and said it would take 20 minutes. Over an hour later and after asking 7 different people we were still driving around aimlessly, by chance we stumbled across the hotel. An argument ensued as the driver wanted more money to feed his family, we politely told him to do one. We thought we were going to get well and truly screwed, but all worked out well in the end at least for us. Back to Hong Kong, we both really enjoyed the city which was rammed. When we arrived we were told they were building up to the mid autumn festival - a celebration to welcome winter which is held across Asia. There was a real buzz about the place with the tradition to buy people moon cakes as a gift - a fruit filled cake. In Victoria park there were lanterns and lights everywhere which they turned on at night, was like a text book night scene of Asia. We stayed on Hong Kong Island a bit out of the way, the hotel was really nice - luxury compared to the £5 a night places we had become accustomed to in the Philippines. As its so busy people just barge past you, Luce was struggling with it and nearly kicked off a few times, I was enjoying body checking random people - a kill or be killed mentality is needed to negotiate the crowds. On the first day we went to the Avenue of the Stars where you get to view all the sky scrapers on Hong Kong island, there must be hundreds of them, a great site. We walked into Kowloon in the evening to a few of the street markets and ate in a local filled back street cafe/kitchen. The waiter spoke no English and ushered us in sitting us at a table with a random stranger who was slurping away on his noodles. Was a bit bizarre but apparently you sit where there's a space and don't get your own table. We both sat in silence people watching and agreed that there table manners leave a lot two be desired, people were chewing chunks of meat and spitting the bones out on the table. At least you don't have to watch how you eat we thought. The following day we took a trip out to Stanley, a beach side town on the other side of Hong Kong island where a lot of ex-pats live. Was a chilled out little place with a big old colonial building in the centre and a pier, a good place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. After a walk around the market and down the main drag we sat and had lunch and watched people fishing off the pier. We also took a trip out to Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island which apparently is the largest seated Buddha statue in the world. There were good photo opportunities and views but there were a load of steps you had to climb to get to the top, think we've developed an allergy to steps after our rice terrace experiences. We went everywhere by either bus or train which were brilliant, we purchased an octopus card on arrival and stuck some money on it. You can use it on all public transport and to buy drinks and snacks in shops, a real convenient thing to get. The views from the top deck of the buses were amazing, there are over 200 islands that make up Hong Kong and its a mix of huge sky scrapers and mountains covered in greenery. To get the best view of the city we ventured up to the Peak view point which is a pretty good place to go and watch the world go by along with great photo opportunities. The ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong island was another good trip, only cost 25p and you got to see the whole of Victoria harbour. On our last day we got the ferry across to Macau which is a former Portuguese colony, it was just like walking around a Spanish or Portuguese town with tiled pavements and old colonial buildings. Just south of the town is the Cotai Strip, they are apparently trying to turn it into the Las Vegas of Asia with huge OTT casinos. As you cannot gamble in china or Hong Kong it's a popular spot for visitors from those countries wanting to waste a load of money. We pottered around a few casinos, the Venetian was without doubt the biggest and brashest with 40 storeys it cost £1.6billion to build. As the name suggests it has a Venetian theme, the entrance has the Rialto Bridge over it with the basilica just down the road from it. The shopping centre inside is set out like the streets of Venice complete with a canal running through it which you can take a gondola ride on. There's also a mock up of St Marks Square with little hump back bridges over the canal, was like stepping into a different world. It also took us 20 minutes to find our way out which I think was intentional on the casinos part. They are currently building the Parisian casino which is going to be a mock up of Paris, will be a good place to visit in a couple of years when they've built everything, maybe a location for the next hangover film. That pretty much covers our Hong Kong exploits, Hanoi is our next stop so until then ta ta.