Hong Kong

Still hoping for a good view of the city, the fog had cleared by the time we woke up but was still very hazy. Hoping that the sun would burn the haze up, we took the MTR to Tung Shung station on Lantau Island to visit the Big Buddha statue.

To reach the Buddha statue, we took the cable car.

The cable car took around fifteen minutes from the station to the village at the base of the statue, and the views were simply breathtaking.

During the cable car ride, the sun had come into full effect and burned the last of the mist away, so when we arrived at the other end the temperature had reached 26 degrees. In order to reach the Buddha statue, we then had 200 steep stairs to navigate in burning heat!

The effort was worth it, as the Buddha statue itself and the surrounding statues set against the hills were extremely photogenic.

We did, however, decide against a can of the local beverage!

From the Buddha statue, we descended the stairs and visited a nearby Buddhist Monastery.

Tourists were not allowed inside the monastery building but were permitted to view from the doorway. This struck me as odd for a couple of reasons. Firstly, how do they deal with Buddhist tourists? Secondly, why were they trying to sell named bricks in a new extension to the monastery to the very same tourists they were preventing access to?

We then headed back by cable car to the station, by now completely sunburnt (we had started our anti-malarial tablets in preparation for Cambodia which we are now stuck with for the next 32 days – a lovely side effect is photosensitivity which is extremely helpful in hot countries!).

Reaching Central Station, we crossed to Kowloon using the Star Ferry before sunset.

We spent the next hour waiting for the sun to go down, and were rewarded with an amazing sunset and finally the view of Hong Kong Harbour we had been waiting for.

Phew!!!

We then set off back to the hotel to pack for our flight to Vietnam tomorrow.

We thought Hong Kong was a great place, but we had too little time here to do it full justice. It was also quite an expensive place to do on a budget. We think it would be a great place to go on a normal holiday, where cash and luggage restraints are not as much a priority as on a round the world trip, and the harbour is one of the best we’ve seen.

And the final word goes to Mr Li Wai Kong – what are you doing in England when you could be living here!!!!

The sunny weather of yesterday was a distant memory as we woke to a day of fog. Undeterred by this and the major effect it had on the visibility of the skyline, we headed down to the ferry docks to check out the harbour.

From here, we went up the mid-level escalator. This, as the name suggests, is a series of escalators running from the waterfront to mid-way up the hills on Hong Kong Island.

The street life as we continued up the escalator was both manic and interesting to see.

We even found a “taste of home” at the top of one of the escalator sections!

Tempting though it was to eat here, we already had plans to eat in Bubba Gump’s (a shrimp and steak restaurant we’ve eaten at in Santa Monica a couple of years ago) at the top of Victoria’s Peak, and it was to here we now continued. Leaving the escalator at the top, we headed towards the Peak Tram, a funicular which runs up to Victoria’s Peak.

En-route to the tram terminal, we passed through the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens. It was quite peaceful in contrast to the streets of Hong Kong, and even had a few monkeys in one of the sections.

We reached the Peak Tram terminal, and set off on the ten minutes journey to the top.

The higher we got, the worse the fog increased. By the time we reached the Peak, visibility was down to a few metres.

So, what should have been a fantastic view of the whole island turned out to be just a blanket of white! The meal though was amazing, and well worth blowing over a full days budget on!

From Victoria’s Peak we headed down to the Star Ferry Terminal, passing the now lit skyscrapers on the way.

We took the ferry across to Kowloon to watch the light show; every night there is a light, sound and laser show with buildings on both sides of the harbour lit up in time to music. Unfortunately, the weather got the better of us again, and the tops of the skyscrapers were hidden under a veil of fog.

By this stage we were pretty exhausted, so headed back to the hotel!

We arrived in Hong Kong after a tiring journey from Shanghai to a complete change in the weather. From 4 degrees and raining in Shanghai, to 24 degrees and sunny in Hong Kong was very strange!

So we were finally in the place that Mr Li Wai Kong, aka Jimmy Lee, aka the guy in the Village People Cop outfit above, had been selling to me for years.

After checking into our hotel, we set off to Happy Valley Racecourse. Whilst on one of the “rainy days” in Shanghai, we’d discovered that there was a floodlit horse race meeting happening on our first night in Hong Kong. We’d been aware of these race meetings for years, but never thought we’d get the chance to go ourselves, so grasped the opportunity with both hands.

It was very cheap to get in, being 10 HK$ each (less than £1), and was a good experience to do.

I’d also love to report that we made a fortune on the bets we placed.

I’d love to do this, but unfortunately we lost on every race we placed a bet on! Oh well!