Hong Kong

Hong Kong Day 1

Our first day of proper travel can be summed up as;

• no I don’t want copy watch/copy bag
• walking
• really, I promise I still don’t want copy watch/copy bag
• amazing delicious food
• hiking
• out of breath, wondering why we decided to walk up the mountain not catch the tram like normal people
• get to the top and decide it wasn’t that difficult after all
• no, I don’t want a tailor
• walking
• still not interested in copy watch/copy bag or a tailor

There’s more to it than that, of course.  We arrived tired and sore on the first night, getting to our hotel around 8pm.  Although calling it a hotel is optimistic.  It was in this run down ramshackle building, which seemed to contain an assortment of businesses, private flats, and hotels.  There was a... well not sure what he was supposed to be (bouncer? concierge?) at the bottom of the lift, who seemed eager to use his English to talk to us and helped us work out which lift would take us where we needed to go.  Our hotel was on the 14th floor and was really two flats that had been divided to create approximately 4 rooms.  It was run by this little old lady who spoke no English, but conveyed everything that was needed with tone of voice and gestures.  “This switch turns on the hot water so you can shower, please turn it off when not in use.” was conveyed with lots of Chinese, pointing at the switch and miming showering.  

Hong Kong was busy, crazy, full of sights and smells.   We explored Kowloon park, filled with statues, maze gardens and I was disproportionately excited to find adult sized monkey bars!  Most of the day though we spent over on Hong Kong Island.  Wandering around the streets, and then taking the mid level escalators before continuing on foot to the Peak.  We've never been good walking uphill and we were soon out of breath and questioning our folly in not taking the tram or the bus to the top.  If we'd known how far it was I think we would have been ok, but we were mentally preparing ourselves for 2 hours of uphill slogging.  Instead the walk was over, just as we were finding our rhythm.  We enjoyed the view over Hong Kong, before allowing ourselves to get lost making it back down the hill.  

Hong Kong Day 2

Our day two wrap up was more along the lines of;

-queue

-walk

-queue

-amazing view

-queue

-beautiful

-dance like nobody’s watching, even though they are.  It gives them something to talk about.

-queue, queue, queue (one hour of queuing to get on the bus, despite a near constant stream of buses!)

-yum!

-how did it get this late?  Oh, the queuing.

The photos probably tell the rest.