Hong Kong

I must apologise for falling behind on the blog - is not as easy to keep up with as one may think! So I have summarised Hong Kong into one big entry.

So, for the past five days we have experienced Hong Kong, which for me anyway was the place that I was most looking forward to, and due to my endless harping on about it had convinced Dom that he was too! It is always so worrying when you have high expectations of a place as most of the time you end up disappointed, especially when you start off on the wrong foot. However, even after a 22 hour journey getting here, being dumped at a pretty dingy hotel to say the least by our tour company then immediately been told 'good-bye, best of luck' before we had even seen anything - it hasn't seemed to have mattered, the city shines!

It is so different from mainland China, especially in terms of price. Everything from food, electrical items and accommodation is also dearer, so the budget went out the window a bit. On our first afternoon we stumbled across an Irish bar and thought sure, why not, one pint wont hurt - Believe me it hurt! Dom had a pint of Murphys (up cork!) and I had my usual pint of guiness (well the usual is a glass of Guiness but I decided to go all out with a pint), they were 4.80 Euros each...but here's the kicker, they were happy hour prices, they are usually 6.30 Euros each! We only had one pint.

We have been staying in a wonderful hotel called The Salisbury (Thanks Carmel & Tim!), which I would highly recommend, there are a couple of pools, jacuzzi, gym, sauna etc. plus all the rooms have all the mod-cons including...wait for this...A TV channel dedicated to the English Premiership - so Dom is in football heaven! (I have noticed though in between games they have nothing to show except the previous games over and over again which I think is actually annoying Dom as he is complaining about seeing the Newcastle/West Ham & Middlesborough/Bolton so much - this will come in handy as justification not to get sky sports when we get home which I think he has his eye on!)

HK is so amazing as it has so much to offer all within a close vicinity. It has everything from traditional temples (although these are more common in the outer territories rather than the centre), to modern attractions such as Ocean World and Disney Park (which we actually went to neither!). Where we did venture was on the 5.2 km sky rail on Lantau Island which gives absolutely phenomenal views leading up to see the largest outdoor Buddha in the world. You can see this sitting high on the mountain from such a distance. Before we went there we figured that this was an old monument built hundreds of years ago - but we were wrong. In fact it was only built beteen 1986-1989, so it shows HK is endeavouring to develop modern tradition as well.

Another absolutely breathtaking attraction is the 'Peak Lookout'. This is a lookout point where you can see the whole of the HK skyline. We went up there in the evening time when every building has a rainbow of neon lights! There was supposed to be a light show at 8pm which happens every night, the pictures of the light show are great, but to be honest, we didn't make much of it. The only unfortunate part about this view is that unless you have a good camera, you are unlikely to get a great picture to capture it. Even though my camera is less than two years old, we couldn't get a good picture...eventually we got one on someone elses. The lookout part is not the only experince at the peak, the journey to get there is in class of its own too. To ascend the peak there are two main methods: 1. Walk 2. The Peak Tram. We chose the tram - wow! Apparently, the HK people doubted the British when they wanted to build a tram to the peak because of the physics, well, the British proved them wrong! (BTW I heard that somewhere, its not fact, or opinion, its humour people!). The tram ascends 386 vertical metres in about 8 minutes - you literally feel like you are flat on your back, and if you look out the window the buildings are at 45 degree angles - it actually can feel quite sickening if you're not prepared for it. When the tram changed its angle of ascent, it was quite funny as everyone on the tram goes 'woohah' in a variety of languages.

Apart from the big attractions, we spent a lot of time just walking around the Kowloon peninsula and Hong Kong Island taking the city in. I found that it is so 'cosmo' with lots of swanky bars, restaurants, clubs, coffee shops etc. I thought Barcelona was filled with loads of designer shops, but it doesn't have a patch on HK. Here there is a Gucci and Louis Vitton on every corner and at least one Chanel, Cartier, Dior, Burberry, Tiffany and Co, Prada...etc in every mall, with at least one mall in every building!! At home I never go into these shops anyway as the people who work inside always vet you as you go in and if you dont look like you have money then they are rude to you (maybe I watched Pretty Woman too many times though!) But Dom was having none of this, he knew I really wanted to go in so he just strolled through one of the malls meaning I had no choice but to follow him though the most expensive shops in the world in a scruffy t-shirt and jeans - was great fun though! When I come here next time (when not if), I won't even bring a bag - I'll buy one here and fill it!!

There are still traditional market areas as well where you can find a lot of fakes and a lot of shite - we found a few good bargains, although bartering is different here to in China. In China the people chase after you if you aren't sure about an item and are definately willing to barter as they constantly bring down their price the more you walk away. On one occasion I was told to F-off because I didn't want to buy, even though I told the woman at the beginning I only wanted a price as we were just looking and not buying. Then on a second occasion I was looking at an item which again I said I only wanted a price for, the man said to me "Its 1000 HKD (approx) but for you 30% discount so 500 HKD" (I know the math doesnt add up), then he said that if I wanted to buy for 500 then I had to buy it now, I thanked him for the price then told him again that I was only looking I dont know yet if I want to buy, then he told me to get out of his shop and if I did want to buy to not buy from him! Out of all the prices I got his was actually the best, and I probably would have bought the item, but out of pure principle I didn't - his loss.

We also ventured out of the main city towards the south of HK island to Stanley bay. Being there was quite similar to Blackpool/Bournemouth beach. Basically the bay revolved around a beach (obviously!) then the beach road was lined with English bars and English chippers. It was nice to visit but it wasn't life changing.

Overall the whole of HK that we saw was so enjoyable and I will definately be here again - hopefully with Doms credit card as he'll be earning the big bucks by then!

Onto Thailand next...

Team Domro