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.

Friday

Today we took a minibus the 20+ miles to Yuen Long, on the far west side of the Kowloon Peninsula. The journey took about 45 minutes and cost £1! Yuen Long is a bit of a step back in time, not tainted by westerners in any way. We only saw 1 other Gweilo (Foreign Devil!!) there. N_M tells me that a lot of the people who live there have never left the town, everything they need is there.


There were 3 branches of McDonalds there, so that is where we had our lunch. And before anyone says tsk again, here is a photo of my food - nothing like you get in the UK! And all for less then £2 as well. We also went to a fruit market and I bought a bag of satsumas and 10 bananas for £1!




Tonight we took the hotel shuttle bus into the Victoria Waterfront to watch the Symphony of Lights. N_M took a great video of it on our camera, which I have spent about 2 hours trying to upload for you to enjoy as well. Sadly I haven't been successful, so I'll try youtube again tomorrow and add it if I can.

There are lots of tiny Japanese shops around Mongkok, and we keep looking at these Blythe dolls. Does anyone remember them from the 1970's? http://www.thisisblythe.com/blythe_history.php

Some of them are fetching huge prices, and there's a massive market for customising them too. I may just treat myself to one before I go home.....

Thursday

It's now a week since we left home, and what a lot we've done so far!

We stayed locally for most of the day today and got our laundry done too! We took a bag of a week's washing to a little laundry across the street from the hotel, the very helpful lady weighed it and charged us $24, about £1.50. It was washed and dried (and smells beautiful) and returned to the hotel reception about 5 hours later!! All I had to do was put it all away - I could get used to this lifestyle!!! I now intend to take everything else in next week and take no laundry home to do - what luxury!


In our hotel we found a gift shop today - great I thought, I shall buy a panda or two to take home. When we got there we found a half curtain hanging just inside the doorway, it is an "Adult Entertainment" Empire!!! Over 3000 gifts for him and her the notice says.








Late this afternoon we went across to Discovery Bay where N_M's brother and sister-in-law live. We had a delicious meal and a good catch up with them. Discovery Bay is very different to the other parts of Hong Kong I have seen so far. It's very Westernised and somehow "sanitised" if that makes any sense. I do prefer the authentic hustle and bustle of Temple Street and Jordan Road.

For tonight's dessert we opted for Toblerone in filo pastry parcels, served hot, with ice cream and hot chocolate sauce, mmmmmmm. It was scrumptious.


It was somewhat more exotic than the other evening's tea in a Japanese tearoom, which consisted of doorstops of white toast with peanut butter!


No plans yet for tomorrow, so we'll see what the day brings.....

Latest News!

Yesterday was a quieter day - lots of shopping and looking round.

Today we got up a bit earlier and went to Ocean Park. It is a great place to visit, they have some giant pandas there as well as a fantastic Atoll Reef exhibition.

We took the MTR to Admiralty, then a bus to the Park. N_M told me there was an escalator up to the top, but I had no idea it would be so scary! There were actually 6 very long escalators going straight up the side of the mountain and I hated it!

There are some great aviaries to walk around, with some beautiful and interesting birds inside.



At the top we visited the Atoll Reef, it knocks the Blue Planet into a cocked hat as the saying goes. The Atoll is divided into 4 levels of the underwater strata, starting from the reef fish at the top, down to the sea floor where the turtles and rays etc are to be found.



The public are able to walk around all 4 levels, and while we were there, a diver went in to do the feeding. He had a big basket of fish which he threw into the water, or the rays came right up to him to be fed by hand, it was an amazing sight.


We had a ride up the Ocean Park Tower, a ride which carries you 200m above the ground and turns around 360 degrees so that you can take photos of all directions.


Then we went to see the Sea Jelly Spectacular. What a splendid place that is, all in darkness,
with floor to ceiling aquaria filled with jellyfish, all lit in different colours with mirrors all around. You really feel as though you are swimming with them.






We had lunch in a fabby Chinese Restaurant there, where they happily prepared my lunch especially because of my mushroom allergy. That was the best meal we've had so far.

Then it was time to catch the cable car all the way back down to the bottom to see the pandas. Honestly, they're the laziest animals around! It was very late in the day when we got in to their enclosure, but normally there are massive queues to get in there, and all you get to see is a tv screen of the 2 giant pandas sleeping in their quarters!



The two babies were a gift to Hong Kong from China, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Takeover, and they only arrived in July. They were laying outside to be oohed and aahed at, but they slept soundly all through!


Then it was time for the park to close and us to return to the city. I think you could walk around here for weeks and never see the same shops or stalls twice. You can quite literally shop until you drop, and we often do.

Tomorrow we're spending time with N_M's brother and sis-in-law in a different part of Hong Kong, so more to follow tomorrow night.

Monday

Today we intended to rest a bit and walk less. Ha! We've travelled miles again today.

What is really hard to believe here is the number of the same shops in one place. There is Shoe Street, with probably 100 shops all selling the same shoes and trainers! Fish Shop Street has 50 or so shops with fish and equipment and Lady Street has clothes shops, and they all stay in business! We passed through the textile district today, and I have never seen so many shops just selling buttons!!

Sham Shui Po has the Golden Computer Plaza, where if we took my eldest son I'm sure he'd never ever come out! They are selling Intel Motherboards for about £70, complete with water cooled fans; keyboards; cases; webcams; software; in fact anything and everything you could ever want or need. And a hundred times over in all the different shops, quite unbelievable, and incredibly cheap!

We use the MTR a lot, it is extremely efficient, cheap and safe public transport. Today we also took a minibus, where a 15 minute ride cost HK$4.5 (about 30p). We are staying just out of the main tourist area, but the MTR is only a 5 minute walk and goes directly into all the main areas.
Here is our hotel; we're not staying here just because it's Panda, but that is a happy co-incidence!

We paid a visit to the tattoo shop where N_M had all his tattooes done when he lived here. The tattoo artist is the son of the guy who did his first tattoo aged 16. They had a big discussion about where he should be "decorated" next - I shall not be attending that event, it made me feel quite ill.

We also went to Wampoa Gardens. When N_M left, the sea went up to that point, but with all the land reclamation it is now about 1/2 a mile inland! Here is the boat that got left behind!


Tomorrow we may go up to Ocean Park for the day, but that is all dependent on what time we wake up, so we'll wait and see in the morning.

Sunday

Brilliant day today! We went across to Hong Kong Island on the Star Ferry and took the Peak Tram up to the Peak. We spent about 3 hours walking round, including a diversion to see N_M's "secret place." It is so lush and green up there, full of ferns and palms and banyan trees. It was incredibly hot and muggy, although slightly cooler in the jungly parts. The views are fabulous, as the weather cleared we could see right across Kowloon.

In Hong Kong there are loads of Filipino maids, and the only day off they get is on Sunday. So they all get together and sit en masse under buildings where there is some shade. They chat and do each other's hair and nails - here is a picture of them under the HSBC Headquarters. It was just a cacophany of noise!

We had our hands moulded in wax - something we've never seen done before! They dip your entwined hands first in ice water, then in hot wax, then back in cold, then wax, over and over to build up a shell. Then our hands were "relaxed" out of the mould, which was dipped in colours and set on a base. It's a great souvenir.

As we made our way back to our hotel, we came across this little chap trying to make his escape from Hong Kong Park!

N_M picked him up and carried him back to the pond in the park, rather than him get squashed in the road!

We had a McDonald's tonight, blimey it's cheap over here! A Big Mac meal, together with a large salad (no salad cream, thank god!) a cup of sweetcorn and butter, and a milkshake cost less than £5!! The rents over here are sky high and they must still be making a profit, so it makes one wonder just how much money they are making in the UK!

We've been buying things at the Night Market as well tonight, everything is such good value that your money seems to go a long way. Our pet sitter will be pleased to know there are already 2 bags for him!!

Right signing out now, it's gone 1am and I'm getting tired. At home, N_M never walks anywhere; here we walk miles so bed is calling!

The first day

Well, the jet lag hasn't been too bad, apart from a 4am awakening, but we soon went back off to sleep.

It's been absolutely boiling here today, the aftermath of Typhoon Kasko which is stuck over Taipei. We've done loads of walking again, having a good old explore. We went to see where N_M used to live, and the same old security guard was still at the gate, so he got a cheery wave! We've also seen the gym where he used to work.

We had a brilliant walk around "Fish Shop Street" where almost every shop sells tropical fish, plants, tanks and equipment. The prices are unbelievable compared to the UK. Mal if you're reading this it will make sense - 100 neons for $15 (£1.00)!!! They cost about £1.25 each at home! We saw some beautiful and unusual discus fish, two for about a fiver, we pay between £20 and £50 each at home! Guess who wants to import some??!!


I am struggling to eat I must admit. Being veggie is OK, but having a violent allergy to mushrooms isn't helpful as they seem to be in everything. Even though N_M can explain it in Cantonese, I still don't trust them not to have cooked my food with the mushrooms, then taken mine out. So tonight I thought I'd play safe with an egg salad. Haha! Here it is

At least half a jar of salad cream with some salad underneath, and I hate salad cream!

Anyway everything is good, we're enjoying ourselves and making plans for the coming days...

We're here!

Well, after all yesterday's problems, the flight went very well!

I would recommend Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, the flight was excellent and the staff couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. The food was pretty tasty too.

Of course there had to be one seat back entertainment system not working on the plane, and guess who it belonged to? Well, with the day he was having you're not surprised, are you??!! Anyway, he ended up with the better deal as he was given a personal DVD player and headphones for the flight, and a little light to clip onto his seat to read by. When the whole plane system then failed for a while, he was the only person left watching his movie!


So we arrived this afternoon, the hotel is excellent, again I can't fault the levels of customer service here. Everybody is so friendly and helpful. It's bloody boiling hot though and very muggy. We walked miles tonight and went to see Night_Market's namesake - the Temple Street Night Market!

Now it's almost midnight, so to adjust quickly to the time changes, we're off to bed.

More tomorrow...

The Journey Begins...

Well, it began with an email from British Airways at 08:30 saying our flight from Manchester down to Gatwick at 12:20 had been cancelled! The next one wasn't until 5pm, cutting it way too fine for the connection, so we ended up flying to Heathrow and getting the shuttle bus down to Gatwick.

When we arrived in Manchester Airport to check in our bags, N_M suddenly realised he hadn't got his briefcase. We looked out of the terminal to see it being carried into a building across the road. I ran, (and I don't do that often), and found it was in the car rental area, together with 2 security guards. I had to describe the contents, and explain how it ended up being left on the pavement! The daft sod forgot to pick it up when his dad got it out of the car boot!

So onto Heathrow, then Gatwick on the coach, to check into our Yotel. What a fabby place! www.yotel.com Very futuristic, with lots of buttons to press! Internet access, a wide screen telly, food, a comfy bed, everything we could ask for.

So then himself decides to go out for a smoke and he's gone ages. He comes back having been stopped by the Police for a Stop & Search!! They're stopping all single blokes walking around the airport. So that's our 3 things which have gone wrong, hopefully all over with today!

We fly just after 8pm and arrive tomorrow afternoon, so here's signing off for now. :)

How it all began!

18 months ago, Gillypanda met Night_Market on a UK discussion forum, www.digitalspy.co.uk. We hit it off straight away, met up 2 weeks after our first encounter and the rest is history! We'd never have met otherwise; we lived in opposite parts of the country and shared different interests. Thanks DS!

Now we're going on an adventure to discover N_M's mis-spent youth! It would have been so much easier to start with my childhood home which is in London, but no, we are travelling 8500 miles instead!

I'm very excited to be going as a tourist with the bonus of travelling with a local. This blog will follow our travels...