We're home

so this is the last post for now from this trip. We had good flights back and have been unpacking cases and visiting relatives since.

And to give a happy ending to this tale, we have some excellent news, which I couldn't divulge until we got home as we wanted to tell our families face to face not on the phone. N_M proposed to me on the 10th October and I happily accepted!

I have really enjoyed writing this blog, so will continue from time to time as interesting things occur!

Our last full day

When we woke up today, we started the awful job of trying to pack up! Squeezing a quart into a pint pot springs to mind, boxes had to be unpacked and items carried without packaging to be able to fit them in. Even now I've had to buy a wheely cabin bag of exactly the right size to give us some more room.

After the packing trauma we had lunch from a nearby bakery - cheese topped roll, garlic bread, mini cheese and ham bun and mini cakes, and all for the princely sum of 80p!

After lunch we set off for Kowloon City, which meant a trip on the MTR and then a bus. We were going to visit the Kowloon Walled City Park, which is all that is now left of a very old historical centre.

The site was originally used in the 15th century by Imperial officials and fortified in 1668. During the Japanese occupation of 1941-45 the wall was torn down and the stone used to extend the nearby Kai Tak airfield (this has also now disappeared to be replaced by the new airport at Chep Lap Kok).

After the war, high-rise tenements built without authority and completely lacking proper foundations mushroomed cheek by jowl over almost the whole site, and the Walled City with its dank alleyways became a notorious nest of drug divans, criminal hide-outs, vice dens and even cheap, unlicensed dentists.

N_M remembers going to the Walled City in 1990 and it was a massive community of dingy intertwining factories, shops and dwellings with a human rabbit warren of corridors and alleys. It was all artifically lit, damp and scary! Whole communities lived in there without ever coming out. Flats in the centre had no windows or access to natural light.


Well, in 1994 it was all demolished to make way for this park, which is actually a very calming and relaxing place to be - quite the opposite of its predecessor.









We walked round until it got quite dark, then set back off for Jordan and Mongkok.

In Jordan I was taken to the Yee Shun Dairy Company, a Hong Kong tradition. They serve large cups of steamed milk mixed with egg whites or yolks, either hot or cold. I had a cold steamed milk with coffee and it was absolutely delicious, just like a coffee blancmange! N_M had the traditional hot white milk dessert which was also very tasty. The cafe was full of locals, always a good sign.


Well soon I am off to bed for the final time here, so I shall try to sum up my experiences. Hong Kong is bustling and busy, to the point of being frenetic sometimes. It is an incredibly clean country. The local people are lovely, kind and helpful. Sadly the same can't be said of the Mainland Chinese, who in every experience I've had with them here have been rude and quite unpleasant and totally lacking in manners. 150 years of British colonisation has clearly influenced the locals here!

The country is fascinating, there is so much to see and do we will definitely be coming back! It has been made extra special by being here with a "local" as I have seen and done things that normal tourists just wouldn't find.

My favourite bits have been the Peak and seeing N_M's secret place; Ocean Park (despite the place being full of Mainlanders pushing and shoving and queue-jumping!); Po Lin Monastery; Kowloon Walled City Park today; and of course the Temple Street Night Market! The public transport is cheap and very efficient and your spending money goes a long way.

I can't wait until we come back again, which will hopefully be very soon! Thank you to everyone who has read our tales and left comments, I have really enjoyed writing it too.

Wednesday

Sorry, I couldn't publish last night as Blogger had some problems. So here we are this morning!

We've been all around today finishing our shopping, as we may have to go out and buy another suitcase to bring it all back. Tomorrow is our last full day here, as we have to check out on Friday at 2pm.

We went to Tung Chung first on the MTR.
There are so many flats there it has to be seen to be believed! A lot of the airport staff seem to live there as it is so much cheaper than living in town. But so much humanity all crowded into these massive blocks of flats, 36 floors high, with probably 6-8 flats per floor, and 8 blocks per unit is almost unimaginable. Especially when the blocks are repeated about 30 times over in a very small area!! The land area here is pretty small, so they have to build upwards.

Tung Chung is where you go to catch the bus to go to the Buddha and the Monastery, so there are always lots of visiting monks around. Their appearance is so distinctive - they have shaved heads, grey robes, golden coloured pantaloons, grey socks and little brown slippers. The men and women are both dressed the same and are very difficult to tell apart. They are very peaceful, and are amongst the only people on public transport who aren't playing on Playstations, Nintendos or mobile phones!

Tonight we mosied on back to Mongkok and Temple Street and had our tea in the Strawberry Forever cafe. They literally put strawberries on everything - there are strawberry pizzas (on the right of this pic <<) and strawberry Caesar salad, as well as strawberry smoothies and cakes. It was all extremely delicious though.



And now, sadly, we're moving into our final full day here. More later!

Tuesday 16th

Today we went to the Peninsula Hotel for afternoon tea. It's very similar to tea at the Ritz in London, very opulent and olde worlde, with teadance music playing quietly in the background. The cutlery is all solid silver, as is the teapot and cake stand, and the crockery all made exclusively for the Peninsula by Tiffany's of New York. The staff are perfectly trained, just passing by to refill the teapot or remove empty plates.

I could really take to that sort of lifestyle!

After our very filling tea, we went to Wan Chai and Causeway Bay just for a look. We also went into the building where N_M's brother manages the gym and went up to the 46th floor for a look, but it was pretty cloudy today. We had a quick catch up with bro. before returning to Kowloon.

With N_M back in Fish Shop Street buying more bits and pieces, I had another wander round the market, picking up bits for Christmas presents. Then we found a market stall selling nail polishes and false nails, and I had a manicure with gorgeous scarlet nail polish, for $60 - less than £4!!

The lady had a great chat with N_M, whose knowledge of the spoken Chinese language never ceases to amaze me. He was doing all the translation bits so that I could have a chat with the lady too. We talked about life in Hong Kong, and how the trend is for girls here to be permanently on diets. We'd already noticed that you see very few tubby girls or women.

She told us that most couples are choosing to have just one child, or in many cases none at all. It is so expensive that both the couple need to work, so the child would have to go into daycare, or have a maid, and they just can't afford it. She and her husband have already decided to have no children, and she works until 11pm each night! In the West, the average number of kids per family is 2.2, in Hong Kong it is 0.7.

And all this from N_M's translating skills - very impressive!

2nd Monday

Today was a more chilled day after the rushing round of the last 10 days. A good lay-in was much appreciated, here's a pic from our hotel window.

We paid another visit to the Computer Plaza and bought items as requested. Yes, fishsitter, it's ready to return home with us!


This evening N_M went back to fish shop street to ooh and aah over all the unusual fish and aquarium equipment. I took the MTR and had a good wander about on my own in Sham Shui Po. I have to say that I can wander around here in complete safety, I haven't felt in any way intimidated which is lovely. We met up a bit later on, both carrying several shopping bags!

I bought 2 more pairs of shoes as well (where's the shamefaced smilie when you need it?) My excuse is that they are so cheap, it would be rude not to!

We haven't managed to upload the video from the Symphony of Lights in the harbour as our connection here is really bad - 1MBPS dropping in and out, but here's a screenshot of the video for now.

Our 2nd Sunday

I loved Lantau Island so much, we went back there today to visit Tai O.

Another white knuckle bus ride later and we arrived at this totally un-westernised fishing village. They have a museum tracing the history of this little village, but what really made us smile were these mannequins - blue eyed, white skinned Caucasians wearing traditional Chinese clothes!



The people mainly live in tiny tin huts built on bamboo stilts over the water, or in squatters huts on landslip areas. What I found very ironic was that despite the size of these tiny homes, and the apparent poverty of their occupants, they nearly all had wide screen tellys bigger than we have at home!!



They have a small market selling everything fishy - raw fish, dried fish, fish paste, fish skins, you name it and it was there! We also managed to buy a couple of carved Chinese wooden jewellery boxes for a couple of pounds each.






After Lantau Island we went back to Discovery Bay to spend some time with N_M's brother and sister-in-law. We looked around their flat on the 21st floor overlooking the Bay and Disneyland. Then we took the minibus down to the Plaza for dinner, and I ate until I was full for only about the third time since we arrived! Delicious food and a very nice evening was had by all.

On the way back to the hotel we went to the Night Market in Temple Street and bought cheap socks, Calvin Klein undies and silly toys to take home. I shall miss all this late-night shopping back in the UK!

Saturday

We've had a brilliant day today - we went to the Po Lin Monastery and the Big Buddha on Lantau Island.

The MTR took us to Tung Chung, then we had what is probably the scariest bus ride I have ever had! There are roadworks all the way up, but the roads are all single track with passing places anyway, up and down the mountains. The trip takes almost an hour of white knuckle adventure!

Then you arrive at the monastery, a peaceful and tranquil place with chanting monks and huge vats of incense being burned.



We wandered all through the temple where people were praying, looking at the statues of the Gods.


N_M had a lovely vegetarian meal at the monastery, I couldn't take the chance as there were so many mushrooms in everything.



Then we went up the 268 steps to the Big Buddha. That was a good workout for the knees and thighs!!




The views from the top were fantastic and well worth the trek. It is such an unspoilt and mountainous island, which is still mainly covered in thick vegetation and trees.


Then it was time to go back down all those steps to get the bus back to the station.

Once again we stopped off in Mongkok to shop; it is made so easy over here as nowhere closes before 11:30 and some shops are 24 hour! This time next week we will be back home, so we have to make the most of the time that is left.