2009-02-15/16 Sun & Mon
There are probably four ways to transfer from the Chek Lap Kok Hong Kong International Airport to a hotel in Kowloon. The most expensive would be by taxi $290 plus tip, about £35. The second would be to use the hotel shuttle bus @ $115 each, about £23. The third option was by train @ $90 each about £20, and last but not least, the A21 bus @ $33 each so about £7 for the two of us. We decided to go for the hotel shuttle as that was the least expensive ‘door to door’ service, and we didn’t really want too much hassle after such a long and, no doubt, tedious journey.
So I suppose the adventure started when Paul collected the last lot of emails just before we left home for Heathrow. An email from the hotel shuttle company told us that our seat reservations had been cancelled!*!*?
We landed at 21:50 and transit through the airport was both quick and efficient so, being parsimonious travellers, we decided to be brave and catch the public transport bus. We knew that we had to buy the tickets from the kiosk because if we bought them on the bus we had to have the right change. Paul dumped me and the luggage by the bus stop and a young and helpful local informed him where to buy the tickets, whilst the young man with her told him where he would have to get off, Jordan station, and how long he would have to walk to get to the hotel, about 10 minutes.
For some reason, we expected the locals to speak almost perfect English; however, most people spoke enough to help or could call on someone else, whenever we needed help.
We boarded the A21 with just a little apprehension. First impressions were of the density of high rise apartment blocks, some quite smart and some more than a tad on the shabby side. As we came into Kowloon, now nearer 23:30, we noticed how alive the centre still was, considering it was Monday night, with many of the shops and eating houses still open and looking for business.
Luckily, we had no trouble alighting at the correct stop and the walk to the hotel was probably no more than 5 minutes. And so, at about 23:45 on Monday the 16th February, two very weary and somewhat tatty (after having been awake for 30 odd hours and travelling, or waiting around, for over 20 of those hours) each carrying a large rucksack on our backs and a small rucksack on our fronts, walked into the marble floored foyer of the BP International (Baden Powell) four star hotel that Paul found a special deal for and where we were staying for four nights.
With a room on the 19th floor, we have a view across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island and the amazingly lit high rise buildings of her North Shore. Oddly, sleep seemed to take a long time coming, but when it did, we both slept like the dead.
There are probably four ways to transfer from the Chek Lap Kok Hong Kong International Airport to a hotel in Kowloon. The most expensive would be by taxi $290 plus tip, about £35. The second would be to use the hotel shuttle bus @ $115 each, about £23. The third option was by train @ $90 each about £20, and last but not least, the A21 bus @ $33 each so about £7 for the two of us. We decided to go for the hotel shuttle as that was the least expensive ‘door to door’ service, and we didn’t really want too much hassle after such a long and, no doubt, tedious journey.
So I suppose the adventure started when Paul collected the last lot of emails just before we left home for Heathrow. An email from the hotel shuttle company told us that our seat reservations had been cancelled!*!*?
We landed at 21:50 and transit through the airport was both quick and efficient so, being parsimonious travellers, we decided to be brave and catch the public transport bus. We knew that we had to buy the tickets from the kiosk because if we bought them on the bus we had to have the right change. Paul dumped me and the luggage by the bus stop and a young and helpful local informed him where to buy the tickets, whilst the young man with her told him where he would have to get off, Jordan station, and how long he would have to walk to get to the hotel, about 10 minutes.
For some reason, we expected the locals to speak almost perfect English; however, most people spoke enough to help or could call on someone else, whenever we needed help.
We boarded the A21 with just a little apprehension. First impressions were of the density of high rise apartment blocks, some quite smart and some more than a tad on the shabby side. As we came into Kowloon, now nearer 23:30, we noticed how alive the centre still was, considering it was Monday night, with many of the shops and eating houses still open and looking for business.
Luckily, we had no trouble alighting at the correct stop and the walk to the hotel was probably no more than 5 minutes. And so, at about 23:45 on Monday the 16th February, two very weary and somewhat tatty (after having been awake for 30 odd hours and travelling, or waiting around, for over 20 of those hours) each carrying a large rucksack on our backs and a small rucksack on our fronts, walked into the marble floored foyer of the BP International (Baden Powell) four star hotel that Paul found a special deal for and where we were staying for four nights.
With a room on the 19th floor, we have a view across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island and the amazingly lit high rise buildings of her North Shore. Oddly, sleep seemed to take a long time coming, but when it did, we both slept like the dead.
These were taken through smoked glass through the window on the 19th floor BP International
2009-02-17 Tuesday
Today we explored the local area, of Tsim Sha Tsui in the District of Kowloon, just acro
ss the harbour to Hong Kong Island. We visited the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong’s version of Hollywood, where they pay tribute to the HK film industry and the ‘stars’ do the handprint thing in the wet concrete. There are lots of ‘cast’ memorabilia like ‘film camera, director chair and clapperboard. There is also a very fine Bruce Lee bronze cast there as well, perhaps a little larger than life. At 8pm every evening there is the ‘symphony of lights’ at Victoria Harbour where the buildings on both sides light up with LED together with laser’s and spotlights on the tops and then ‘dance’ to the music being played, the lights that is not the buildings.
We have also arranged the China visas, about £60 each, and the sleeper bus ride to Guilin and the ‘architect’s tour’ for later in the week.
The parts of China that we are intending to visit are, we were led to believe, Mandarin speaking areas, and being the sort of people who like to be prepared, we found out some of the more frequently used words like, hello, goodbye and thank you. We used these phrases on several of people, for example; the bakery where we bought breakfast, and although giving us some funny looks, they said something back (!), usually with a smile. We later found out that in HK they don’t speak Mandarin, they speak Cantonese. So now we have forgotten our Mandarin and at least know the sounds to make for ‘thank you’ – pronounced “m’goi”.
The main shopping street is worse than Sharm el Sheikh for people hassling you to buy their wares. Although the cost of a man’s tailor-made two piece suit, matching (or a second) pair of trousers and two silk shirts and all for about £140 - wouldn't that fit nicely into a ruck sack.
Across the road from our hotel we noticed a very convenient 7 11 store, perfect for picking up a couple of beers on the way home at night. After our first purchase, on leaving the store we noticed that next door there was a proper supermarket but while we were confirming this to ourselves a very little Chinese lady ‘picked on us’! After confirming, in highly accented and pigeon English, she started to tell us all about herself, continuing on with the problems in her marriage! She told us several times that she gave up smoking 26 years ago. She told us how bad smoking was for her. Apparently she was coughing up ….. – you don’t really want to hear about that do you? Then she went on to tell us that her husband wanted a divorce butshe won’t sign the paper. “'Why you want divorce' I ask him” she said. Anyway to cut a long story short, she went on and on about it and finally she ended up calling him over, we weren’t expecting that, he was waiting for her at the corner of the road. His name is Jan, he is Dutch and looked kind of ‘resigned, oh, and he was at least twice her height. We all shock hands and Paul and I made our escape as politely and quickly as possible. What a crazy lady!
Today we explored the local area, of Tsim Sha Tsui in the District of Kowloon, just acro
ss the harbour to Hong Kong Island. We visited the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong’s version of Hollywood, where they pay tribute to the HK film industry and the ‘stars’ do the handprint thing in the wet concrete. There are lots of ‘cast’ memorabilia like ‘film camera, director chair and clapperboard. There is also a very fine Bruce Lee bronze cast there as well, perhaps a little larger than life. At 8pm every evening there is the ‘symphony of lights’ at Victoria Harbour where the buildings on both sides light up with LED together with laser’s and spotlights on the tops and then ‘dance’ to the music being played, the lights that is not the buildings.We have also arranged the China visas, about £60 each, and the sleeper bus ride to Guilin and the ‘architect’s tour’ for later in the week.
The parts of China that we are intending to visit are, we were led to believe, Mandarin speaking areas, and being the sort of people who like to be prepared, we found out some of the more frequently used words like, hello, goodbye and thank you. We used these phrases on several of people, for example; the bakery where we bought breakfast, and although giving us some funny looks, they said something back (!), usually with a smile. We later found out that in HK they don’t speak Mandarin, they speak Cantonese. So now we have forgotten our Mandarin and at least know the sounds to make for ‘thank you’ – pronounced “m’goi”.
The main shopping street is worse than Sharm el Sheikh for people hassling you to buy their wares. Although the cost of a man’s tailor-made two piece suit, matching (or a second) pair of trousers and two silk shirts and all for about £140 - wouldn't that fit nicely into a ruck sack.
Across the road from our hotel we noticed a very convenient 7 11 store, perfect for picking up a couple of beers on the way home at night. After our first purchase, on leaving the store we noticed that next door there was a proper supermarket but while we were confirming this to ourselves a very little Chinese lady ‘picked on us’! After confirming, in highly accented and pigeon English, she started to tell us all about herself, continuing on with the problems in her marriage! She told us several times that she gave up smoking 26 years ago. She told us how bad smoking was for her. Apparently she was coughing up ….. – you don’t really want to hear about that do you? Then she went on to tell us that her husband wanted a divorce butshe won’t sign the paper. “'Why you want divorce' I ask him” she said. Anyway to cut a long story short, she went on and on about it and finally she ended up calling him over, we weren’t expecting that, he was waiting for her at the corner of the road. His name is Jan, he is Dutch and looked kind of ‘resigned, oh, and he was at least twice her height. We all shock hands and Paul and I made our escape as politely and quickly as possible. What a crazy lady!
2009-02-18 Wed
Today we visited Lamma Island, a largely unspoiled island and about a 40 minute ferry ride leaving from Victoria Harbour. We had a bit of a late start so didn’t actually get to the island till about 12:40. Yung Shue Wan is a small village but seems to be the only place on Lamma where there are any shops.
I don’t mean souvenir shops, although there were certainly some of those. The main point of interest on arrival, however, were the local restaurants serving fish so fresh that you actually choose 
whose life you wish to end and then devour. Actually, it did seem very cruel as some of the tanks were barely larger than the deep sea fish it was supposed to be keeping alive. One of the hawkers was telling us where some of his catch originated – and it wasn’t remotely local, much to our surprise.
whose life you wish to end and then devour. Actually, it did seem very cruel as some of the tanks were barely larger than the deep sea fish it was supposed to be keeping alive. One of the hawkers was telling us where some of his catch originated – and it wasn’t remotely local, much to our surprise.The weather was somewhat better today and both of us managed to catch a bit of sun during our 6 hour exploration. When I say exploration, what I really mean is walk. We did the ‘route 1’ walk, stopping every now and then to take some pictures and have lunch etc and we arrived in Sok Kwu Wan at just after 4pm. Paul wanted to have dinner at one of the seafront restaurants (also with tanks of fresh fish outside) but not that early, so we decided to try another of the routes (all concrete paths everywhere) and so we started to walk up the hill. And we walked up and up and up. We were climbing this bl….. hill for nearly 45 mins and reached 250 meters. It doesn’t sound a lot, but my feet and legs can testify that it’s a very long way up. We were rewarded with some very impressive views which would, we guessed, be spectacular on a good day. With the sea mist starting to roll in and the strong winds making the temperature less than ideal, we continued the circular walk downwards. The walk up was punishing, I had to stop every now and then to rest. The higher/further we went the more frequent the stops became. But the way down – well – the legs were literally shaking and the knees were definitely weak. In fact, we could barely stand on our own two feet – sorry! I got a bit carried away there.
Anyway, over two hours after we started our little detour we finally got back to Sok Kwu Wan. There are about ten waterfront restaurants – in a terrace. It soon became clear at this point why the fish are kept alive for as long as possible after being caught. We began to walk the gauntlet. Every restaurant needs our custom. The first guy introduced his restaurants; there are two Rainbow eating houses in the terrace, by saying that any meal purchased in either of his establishments gets a free ferry ride back. He then introduced us to the contents of his tanks. He showed us Tiger Prawns, abalones, lobsters without claws, and some other huge prawn like creature that I can’t remember the name of. He lifted them up out of the water to show us how fine they were. Anything from the prawn or crab families were charged for each and the ‘fish’ you chose was weighed and then you were charged by the weight.
The tiny kitchens are a little shabby but clean, nonetheless. There is far more fish in the tanks outside these establishments then is going to be needed tonight, and mid week in February is probably not their busiest time.
We finally settled on Sharks Fin restaurant (no shark on the menu though) mainly because they had a reasonably priced set meal for 2 including a beer and not only did that make life a lot simpler, the two female waitresses were very good sales people. They said, at least twice, “you no like – you no pay”
The two evening dinners that we have had here so far have both come with as much free tea as you can drink. It looks and tastes a lot like hot water although as the brew has a little time, its colour and flavour do increase. Last night we both seemed to do alright with the chop sticks, but tonight’s, I have to say, didn’t work too well! Our waitress, the one who talked us into dining there, was aware that we needed to catch the ferry at 19:35 and at 19:30 told someone else to bring our fruit out (part of the package) which turned out to be half an orange between us then we had to pay her as we were running out to catch the ferry.
The tiny kitchens are a little shabby but clean, nonetheless. There is far more fish in the tanks outside these establishments then is going to be needed tonight, and mid week in February is probably not their busiest time.
We finally settled on Sharks Fin restaurant (no shark on the menu though) mainly because they had a reasonably priced set meal for 2 including a beer and not only did that make life a lot simpler, the two female waitresses were very good sales people. They said, at least twice, “you no like – you no pay”The two evening dinners that we have had here so far have both come with as much free tea as you can drink. It looks and tastes a lot like hot water although as the brew has a little time, its colour and flavour do increase. Last night we both seemed to do alright with the chop sticks, but tonight’s, I have to say, didn’t work too well! Our waitress, the one who talked us into dining there, was aware that we needed to catch the ferry at 19:35 and at 19:30 told someone else to bring our fruit out (part of the package) which turned out to be half an orange between us then we had to pay her as we were running out to catch the ferry.
The coal fired power station situated on Lamma Island to power Hong KongAnd so another exhausting but entertaining day draws to a close.
2009-02-19 Thursday 
We were threatened with rain today but by the time we got out and about, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Perfect weather, it was just a little too warm to be wearing jeans and trainers.
Today we took a tour around the harbour on a Chinese Junk Boat the Duk Ling.
When it leaves the jetty, it goes into full sail but because it has to follow a certain route there will only be a certain amount of time the sails can use the wind and really ‘sail’ and so the boat was using diesel power until we finally started ‘sailing’ just before we got to the drop off jetty on HK Island. Suddenly, we were moving slightly faster than before, but there was no wind and no noise and we had the sun in our faces .
We were threatened with rain today but by the time we got out and about, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Perfect weather, it was just a little too warm to be wearing jeans and trainers.
Today we took a tour around the harbour on a Chinese Junk Boat the Duk Ling.
When it leaves the jetty, it goes into full sail but because it has to follow a certain route there will only be a certain amount of time the sails can use the wind and really ‘sail’ and so the boat was using diesel power until we finally started ‘sailing’ just before we got to the drop off jetty on HK Island. Suddenly, we were moving slightly faster than before, but there was no wind and no noise and we had the sun in our faces .
Please see the attached Hong Kong slideshow for the buildings that line Victoria Harbour.
After our allotted hour we were dropped off onto HK Island. There is an 800 metre escalator which takes the foot passenger from ‘Central’ HK (the area where we were dropped off) to ‘Mid level’ or 800 metre up the steep hill (Could have done with one of those yesterday). We were both surprised at how hilly the area is.
Then walking back down we walked through the botanical gardens with various caged limas and a reptile house. Further down the hill we stopped to look at a small street map when a very chatty gentleman stopped and offered us his help. They chat away, these friendly locals, but we are lucky to catch a couple of words in any sentence and they seem to have as much trouble understanding us. Paul had the name of a street where they have lots of antique shops so the local directed us there then told us not to eat in these fancy restaurants around the escalator but to get on a tram and go to Wan Chai. This is where we will find the locals' eating houses serving proper food at set prices, which is exactly what we were intending to do.
They are a fun way to see this part of the city and are used extensively by the Hong Kongers. And yes we did find a very nice restaurant full of ordinary local people and the food was good and reasonably priced.2009-02-20 Friday
We have visited the Nan Lian Nunnery built in style of the Tang dynasty (circa 7th century) with elaborate woodwork supporting very heavy roofs without using any nails or screws. These structures are strong enough to stand for centuries and flexible enough to withstand earthquakes. In fact there is a pagoda built in the Tang dynasty with something like eleven floors that is still standing (in Beiging or Shanghi), unfortunately earthquakes have destabilised the ground beneath it - but the building is still sound. Paul read that there is a guided tour of the garden every day at 4pm and that although there is no charge, anyone wishing to take part needed to have booked a place through the tourist information office. We didn’t do that though, we just turned up. We asked at the information desk and were told that we couldn’t join the tour that was just about to start. Then, as we were looking at the exhibition building, the same man came running up to us to say that we could.
We were shown where to wait and gradually people started to arrive, those that had bothered to book their place. It was actually an Austrian lady that was leading the tour, but I think she was just learning because we were joined by a very jolly Chinese guy. As folks confirmed who they were and ‘headsets’ were handed out, the old Chinese guy told us that this was the only Tang dynasty garden in the whole world – built in 2003!
Apparently, the HK government have leased the garden area to the nunnery for 99 years for HK$1. With the help of many volunteers the nuns have designed the garden on a documented plan of an original Tang dynasty garden. The garden consisted of trees and some very beautiful stones that have been cut from a river bed. The largest of which weighed some 94 tons (or tonnes, I’m not sure which) but very impressive, nonetheless. There are also some wooden structures, lots of water and a gold painted pagoda in the centre. It is such a peaceful place which is odd when you consider that it is surrounded by three major and incredibly busy roads and wherever you look up all you see is high rise apartment blocks or MDU’s (multiple dw
elling units) as Paul calls them.Arial view of the nunnery
.. and gardens with surrounding motorways
It just so happened that this place was very close to what amounted to, a series of markets starting with the bird market where they sell anything and everything you would ever need for a caged bird, including a great variety of birds, followed by three streets where they just sell flowers. It’s odd really, every shop was selling virtually the same flowers and a few of them were selling some very beautiful vessels in which to display them. We wondered what drew customers to any one shop. After that came the ‘clothes’ streets and then general markets and there just seemed to get the same products displayed again and again and again. In any one street you will find 3 or 4 stalls all selling the same tee-shirts and that is repeated for jewellery, hair clips, watches, handbags, sunglasses, pashmina's…..and on – street after street. Paul couldn’t find his sunglasses so we decided to stop at one of the stalls. According to the assistant every pair of glasses he picked up looked good. We finally chose a pair and he decided that we weren’t going to pay more than a fiver for them and her first price was $160 (£16) and for some reason Paul said $80 she gave him two more prices but Paul stuck to $80 and she finally gave in. So then we kicked ourselves for not saying $50.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, we moved from the BP International to a budget Guest House, Toms Guest House is a Bijou affair with en-suite wet room including wc and basin! With a view of the courtyard, away from the main road.
2009-02-21 Saturday
We signed up for the Architect tour of Hong Kong Island. A very tiring two and a half hours, but well worth the effort. They told us about some of the things we already knew and had visited and they showed us some of the places that we would have gone and seen anyway but we got lots more information than we would have got had we gone on our own. The highlights for us though were to go into the banking hall of the HSBC headquarters and 43 floors up the Bank of China Tower. Now I can see why their charges are so high. A beautiful industrial type building in the style of Lloyd of London and designed by the Norman Foster team, although old Norm’ gets all the credit.
This end is the HSBC banking hall floor -looking up through the building. Inside the very large banking hall, as you look up, you can see up through the structure with the office floors being open and the guide explained that the inside of the structure is open because the western bank likes to see itself open to scrutiny.
This building cost US$1 billion and is completely pre-fabricated. When HSBC were deciding to build their new head quarter the Chinese and British governments were still in negotiation regarding the handing back of HK and nobody really new whether the Chinese were going to go in and kick the foreigners out. So they decided that if it was pre-fabricated they could take it apart and move it if they needed to. As things turned out they didn’t need to worry. They have even leased the area in front of the building from the government so that nothing could be built there for 99 years. So next time you get charged for withdrawing your own money, you will know its going to a good cause.
The other building we were pleased to go in was the Bank of China. Again, a very beautiful building and very different from HSBC. The outside is a curtain of glass that you can’t see into and all the public areas, and presumably the private areas, are marble with, what I would describe as, ‘deco’ style lighting. The guide said that this reflected the attitude of the management, the real treat here though is that you can ride the elevator up to the 43rd floor and appreciate the cityscape from the viewing platform.
Other things we did today were - ride the funicular railway up Victoria Peak, Hong Kong Island. Up to the viewing platform, where it was particularly chilly. Then did a circular walk around the top of the peak and then we walked back down. We had incredible views but these would have been even better on a clear day. Apparently, clear days are becoming fewer!
Oh, and I forgot to mention, we moved from the BP International to a budget Guest House, Toms Guest House is a Bijou affair with en-suite wet room including wc and basin! With a view of the courtyard, away from the main road.
2009-02-21 Saturday
We signed up for the Architect tour of Hong Kong Island. A very tiring two and a half hours, but well worth the effort. They told us about some of the things we already knew and had visited and they showed us some of the places that we would have gone and seen anyway but we got lots more information than we would have got had we gone on our own. The highlights for us though were to go into the banking hall of the HSBC headquarters and 43 floors up the Bank of China Tower. Now I can see why their charges are so high. A beautiful industrial type building in the style of Lloyd of London and designed by the Norman Foster team, although old Norm’ gets all the credit.
This end is the HSBC banking hall floor -looking up through the building. Inside the very large banking hall, as you look up, you can see up through the structure with the office floors being open and the guide explained that the inside of the structure is open because the western bank likes to see itself open to scrutiny.This building cost US$1 billion and is completely pre-fabricated. When HSBC were deciding to build their new head quarter the Chinese and British governments were still in negotiation regarding the handing back of HK and nobody really new whether the Chinese were going to go in and kick the foreigners out. So they decided that if it was pre-fabricated they could take it apart and move it if they needed to. As things turned out they didn’t need to worry. They have even leased the area in front of the building from the government so that nothing could be built there for 99 years. So next time you get charged for withdrawing your own money, you will know its going to a good cause.
The other building we were pleased to go in was the Bank of China. Again, a very beautiful building and very different from HSBC. The outside is a curtain of glass that you can’t see into and all the public areas, and presumably the private areas, are marble with, what I would describe as, ‘deco’ style lighting. The guide said that this reflected the attitude of the management, the real treat here though is that you can ride the elevator up to the 43rd floor and appreciate the cityscape from the viewing platform.
Other things we did today were - ride the funicular railway up Victoria Peak, Hong Kong Island. Up to the viewing platform, where it was particularly chilly. Then did a circular walk around the top of the peak and then we walked back down. We had incredible views but these would have been even better on a clear day. Apparently, clear days are becoming fewer!
2009-02-23 Monday
We did a bit of island hoping today. We meant to go to the island of Lanatau but got on the wrong
ferry! We went to see the giant Buddha at Po Lin Monastery. We finally arrived at Silver Bay on Lanatau and cought the bus to the monastery, a 30 min ride up another very high hill. The Buddha was cast in many different pieces, five times larger than life, and then assembled, bolted and finally welded into place. There is actually an exhibition area inside of the Buddha explaining the planning and construction.
We had lunch in the Monastery restaurant, a set meal including soup followed by rice and three other veggie dishes. It was surprisingly tasty, particularly if you are into tofu.
We decided to go for another long walk, along the Lanatau trail. We wanted to climb to the top of one of the surrounding hills, sadly due to landslide, we were unable to so ended up doing a circular walk but managed to get a nice long shot of the Buddha and steps up to him. Unfortunately, although we enjoyed the walk, we missed the last bus to catch the ferry back to HK Island so had to take the last bus to the other end of the island and catch the MTR which took us from Lanatau all the way back to Kowloon.
2009-02-24 Tuesday
So here we are, our last day in HK and we are sitting in the same spot in Kowloon Park as we did on our first day. Hotel and Guest Hse check out time seems to be noon and so we managed to get all out belongings into four bags. Passports and China Visas have been collected and we are now killing time waiting to catch a train around 3:30 to take us to the border where we will pick up the night bus.
Hong Kong is a vibrant city with lots of energy and style. Not dissimilar to Singapore, just a little more lived in. Every time we even looked at a map, someone was there to see if they could help with directions. But then the direct opposite, if you are walking along the street, we generally found that we were expected to give way to the HK resident, the alternative was generally that you bumped into them.
Nearly everywhere you go there is someone wanting to sell you copy watches, copy handbags or tailor made suits. The other evening, we arrived at the Guest House we are currently staying at and an Indian/Pakistani Gentleman asked if we were looking for dinner. I made the mistake of saying yes and suddenly I was completely surrounded by about ten guys, all thrusting business cards or menu leaflets into my hand, all telling me that their food house was better or cheaper, and I just had to laugh and literally push my way through. I even heard one of them say to the others that they were wasting there time because she, meaning me, was going to his place. When we got up to got to the room Paul told me that he had more or less got pushed out of the way in the rush to get to me and that some guy told him that the Taj Mahal was the best, so we went there and had a very enjoyable meal with beer it came to about £20.
We seem to have got back to our hotel each night absolutely exhausted but have managed to see most of the things we wanted to.
We did a bit of island hoping today. We meant to go to the island of Lanatau but got on the wrong
ferry! We went to see the giant Buddha at Po Lin Monastery. We finally arrived at Silver Bay on Lanatau and cought the bus to the monastery, a 30 min ride up another very high hill. The Buddha was cast in many different pieces, five times larger than life, and then assembled, bolted and finally welded into place. There is actually an exhibition area inside of the Buddha explaining the planning and construction.
We had lunch in the Monastery restaurant, a set meal including soup followed by rice and three other veggie dishes. It was surprisingly tasty, particularly if you are into tofu.We decided to go for another long walk, along the Lanatau trail. We wanted to climb to the top of one of the surrounding hills, sadly due to landslide, we were unable to so ended up doing a circular walk but managed to get a nice long shot of the Buddha and steps up to him. Unfortunately, although we enjoyed the walk, we missed the last bus to catch the ferry back to HK Island so had to take the last bus to the other end of the island and catch the MTR which took us from Lanatau all the way back to Kowloon.
2009-02-24 Tuesday
So here we are, our last day in HK and we are sitting in the same spot in Kowloon Park as we did on our first day. Hotel and Guest Hse check out time seems to be noon and so we managed to get all out belongings into four bags. Passports and China Visas have been collected and we are now killing time waiting to catch a train around 3:30 to take us to the border where we will pick up the night bus.
Hong Kong is a vibrant city with lots of energy and style. Not dissimilar to Singapore, just a little more lived in. Every time we even looked at a map, someone was there to see if they could help with directions. But then the direct opposite, if you are walking along the street, we generally found that we were expected to give way to the HK resident, the alternative was generally that you bumped into them.
Nearly everywhere you go there is someone wanting to sell you copy watches, copy handbags or tailor made suits. The other evening, we arrived at the Guest House we are currently staying at and an Indian/Pakistani Gentleman asked if we were looking for dinner. I made the mistake of saying yes and suddenly I was completely surrounded by about ten guys, all thrusting business cards or menu leaflets into my hand, all telling me that their food house was better or cheaper, and I just had to laugh and literally push my way through. I even heard one of them say to the others that they were wasting there time because she, meaning me, was going to his place. When we got up to got to the room Paul told me that he had more or less got pushed out of the way in the rush to get to me and that some guy told him that the Taj Mahal was the best, so we went there and had a very enjoyable meal with beer it came to about £20.
We seem to have got back to our hotel each night absolutely exhausted but have managed to see most of the things we wanted to.
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