Hong Kong travelogue

Helloooo, it’s time for a Hong Kong report to complete my archives, hehe. The pics are all over at Flickr if you haven’t seen them yet, and they mostly tell the story of where I went etc. So hopefully this won’t be too long. 😛 [um yeah scrap that]

The start of the trip was quite worrying cuz we had shitloads of snow and there was next to no public transport. I ended up getting a taxi all the way to Heathrow, which got me there at like 2pm when my flight was at 9pm. 😐 (lol not cuz we thought it would take that long, but cuz they were going anyways so got a better deal) So then I hung around LHR T5 for hours and hours, being very bored. The taxi driver had reminded me of IRIS so I thought yay, I’ll register for this! But then they were closed and the guy I asked about it said he’d heard they were planning to start using something new so maybe I should wait. *lol*

The flight itself was remarkably bearable. I slept through most of it, even tho my neighbour (who lives in HK and does the trip a lot) said I should only try to sleep thru the first part do minimise jetlag. But since I am able to sleep almost any time, I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep again at the hotel later. *lol* I didn’t even eat their (superior cuz economy plus *lol*) food. So yay! I can do long haul flights if I schedule them to depart at night! 😀 I mean of course I can do them anyway, but what I mean is they’re not too terrible to put me off.

We landed around 5pm so I didn’t do that much the first day. Just walked around a bit, from Wan Chai (where my hotel was) to Central, but since I didn’t consult a guide before leaving, I walked mostly through boring main thoroughfares. *lol* I had Internet at the hotel tho, of course it cost money 8-| but it was great anyway. 😀

The next day cute and lovely Joanne picked me up and we started by going go Stanley, a little beachy village on the South coast of the island. This was ok, not that interesting, kinda touristy, plus I felt pretty sick on the way out (bus ride across windy roads, yuck). Then we went to Mong Kok area and to the Ladies Street night market (it was getting dark by now). Joanne was desperately trying to find a 16GB iPad (her husband found one eventually so she had one by the end of my stay lol). Theeen we went to Tsim Sha Tsui, on the South tip of Kowloon, for some more shopping (so many shopping opportunities throughout this trip… and all I bought was a bag! and some sweets, and a hairclip, and a magnet for Amanda), and to see the pretty view towards Hong Kong harbour. We caught the Star ferry across the harbour (during which time there was the 10min or so nightly “laser show” on the highrises). And then we went for dinner and that was more or less it.

SUNDAY! First off Joanne took me for dim sum, then we caught the tram to the Peak, i.e. the mountain behind Hong Kong. The view was absolutely amazing, and apparently most days it’s quite hazy cuz of pollution. In fact the Hong Kong weather was on its best behaviour the whole time it was there – it was very hot! 😀 (almost too hot some days actually. definitely never going in summer, lol) After that we walked around the Central area of Hong Kong and Joanne showed me shops and other stuff, we also saw St John’s Cathedral and a few other “sights”. And went to the patio on the IFC forum, where you have a nice view towards Kowloon, and lots of people are eating or just sitting around. And to dinner. Obviously.

Monday I had no Joanne, and I spent most of the day taking public to somewhere and walking around… first to Victoria Park (from where I walked back to the hotel), then to Sheung Wan, then to Jordan MTR stop on Kowloon (this is also where Temple Street night market is, tho it wasn’t night when I was there, but we’d seen Ladies Street night market the first day which is pretty much the same thing). I walked rather a lot. I also saw quite a few things, some temples, the Noonday gun, a post office (lmao, important! but I bought stamps for cards), and I tried to find a geocache but failed.

Tuesday was Macau-day. I’d been unsure about going and almost cancelled about a dozen times, but did go in the end. I felt very sick on the ferry, so one of the first things I did when I got there was buy travel sickness pills. *lol* I did lots and lots of walking on Macau, pretty much across the whole city, and went through the various sights my guidebook suggested. I hated the “casino coast” if you wanna call it that, but the centre was cute. Saw lots of churches, a few busy streets, a few cute gardens, two cemeteries, and caught the cable car up their hill, which cost 18p, cuute, and then walked down the other side, and it took me friggin’ ages to find the way down so it was quite late and I was quite beat when I got back to the hotel. Later I went for a walk around Fisherman’s Wharf, which is this kinda tourist trap with replicas of various things (e.g. a Colosseum and a volcano… you get the idea).

Wednesday, back to Hong Kong and last day. 🙁 Joanne had taken half a day off but in the end she had to stay longer cuz her boss was ill. Originally we were gonna go to the Big Buddha on Lantau island, but I’d decided not to bother cuz I wasn’t actually that keen. So I just did more walking around. Can’t even remember much where I went. My feet still hurt a bit from Macau, plus my head (this hurt 4 days out of 5 I think 😐 ), so I also took breaks. Saw loads of cute market streets and stuff tho. Oh, and the cemetery! We’d seen this from the bus the first day and I was like I HAVE TO GO THERE, and the last day I found it by chance. 🙂 Then once Joanne was off we went for some final shopping, and to see an interesting exhib of photos of HK 100 years ago (very different!), and for dinner at a restaurant which had just had a Michelin star (we didn’t know, pure chance), and then it was time to leave. :((

Flight back was also ok, again slept through most of it, but also watched Salt (hmmm Angelina. Was actually a great action film, I love stuff like that with crazy unrealistic chases etc) and Eclipse: Twilight (shut it). And then I was back in the freezing cold UK, and took another four hours to get home from Heathrow (I should’ve just caught the friggin’ National Express, but I’m sorta boycotting them for being twats).

Aaaand that was it. Hong Kong, I will be back for sure!!! 😡 My mum and I have scheduled November 2012 already. :))