Macau

Now, I didn’t really know what or where Macau was. I knew that you could fly on my favourite, bargin airline AirAsia there from Chiang Mai. I knew they had casinos.
I didn’t know it was a hop skip and a jump from Hong Kong. I didn’t know it is a former Portugese colony and is a SAR in the same way Hong Kong is to the UK.
I know both of these things now and I am also rather taken with it.

Hong Kong was a must on my travel list. My mum lived there when she was v little and it’s just somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. Once I realised we could get to Hong Kong so easily and cheaply it was a no brainer. We could also do our latest Thai visa extension there.

So Macau tickets were booked for New Years eve for just over a week. Yes, I realised after I booked them that it possibly wasn’t my brightest plan to book a trip on one of the most popular night of the year. We ended up booking just the one night in Macau in the end, which I kind of regret now but I found it difficult to find accommodation and just couldn’t get my head around what exactly the place was!!

Flying in, it instantly felt strange to see things written in Portugese. We arrived quite late at night, got whisked off by a banshee of a taxi driver who scared me rather a lot (and I am used to south east asian driving bare in mind). We went past some big vegas-esque resorts and headed for the old city which is where we were staying it was whe

n we kept going i got concerned and when he indicated he would need to drop us off and we’d have to walk to the hotel, i got further concerned. It was dark and the area looked deserted. Luckily, he turned the corner and we were presented with a prettily lit street which lead for miles down. This is why I hate and mostly try to avoid arriving anywhere in the dark. I don’t care if it’s dark at 5pm or 2am – the dark makes everything always look worse than it is.

So we found the hotel. Luckily I had been warned about the abrupt staff and the big key deposit you need to pay due to reading reviews (knowledge is always power). It was a funny little place but we were only there the night and it did the job. It was a normal, respectable hotel but was designed rather interestingly. The mirror tiles on the walls and ceiling were clearly there to make the room look bigger but eeewwww – nobody wants that!! We quickly ditched our stuff and shuffled out to see what we could catch of New Years eve.

I was instantly charmed as we walked down to the central area of the old city, past chinese medicine, meat, jewellry and allsorts shops.

There was a big square area and the whole place was lit up beautifully it really gave me that christmas magic feeling I’d been missing. We had a bit of a potter about and you could, even in the dim light, see the huge european influence here. Obviously in Vietnam etc there are grand french style old buildings etc but this place was something else – it was so like being in an old european town but yet different and both sides to it were appealing. There was even a man selling chestnuts and a nativity.

We headed up the road further and were nearing the Lisboa, a grand hotel casino and the shops got a little plusher and there was a bit more billboards and flashing lights. It was weird. So we have old europe, chinese and now vegas. Why not eh?

The hotel was, as they so often are, all plushness but not wildly interesting. They did have some amazing carvings in there if that kind of thing floats your boat – jade, some kind of gold and a mammoths tusk (I kid you not).

I liked the funny little mirrors and lamps they had in the lobby though:

We tunneled our way under the road to the attached casino and it really reminded me of vegas where you spend half your time walking in or between casinos not quite sure if you’re going in the right direction. The casino flummoxed us a bit. We think it was mainly majong. There wasn’t anything we recognised – don’t know if they had any other kinds anywhere else. We ditched the idea of grabbing a bite to eat in this over-priced oddity and headed back towards our hotel.

We ended up in this bizarre little cafe off the side of a kind of betting shop. But my god the food was good. I had wanton soup and Mark had a beef aniseed brisket thing (sounds awful, looked awful but was actually lovely) – cheap as chips too. We also had super long chopsticks. We found these odd but later had them everywhere so realised they were the norm but they looked kinda freaky to us.

We were still not planning on drinking so after we’d finished our meal, we were a bit lost as what to do. There wasn’t really anything in way of cafes for drinking, even when we walked about more then next day, apart from a couple of starbucks, there weren’t places to sit drink anywhere in the old city which slightly knocked off the european edge of course.
So we didn’t know what to do with ourselves really. It didn’t help that we were rather cold. We knew it was going to be much cooler in this part of the world and had bought shoes and jackets accordingly but had thought it to be a bit warmer than it was. A cold snap had hit it and we were not used to being cold. Mark was not at all happy about this. I quite enjoyed the novelty but wished I had something warmer to wear.

We eventually headed back towards our hotel and then followed the booming noise coming from round the corner. Once we got up there we discovered an outside concert going on at the front of the sofitel hotel at such enormous volumes I could barely stand it. They were quite a good band actually but we were a little puzzled that the band they’d used for this new years eve, outside, loud gig had tracks such as ‘dirty $%@& prostitute’. We probably would have hung about longer if it wasn’t for the brass monkeys and so nipped into the 7 11 down the road and picked up some new years eve treats. I had some ferrero roche and grapefruit juice. Wild i know. We just gave up at this point and though it was gone 11 we decided we couldn’t be bothered to stay up so we went back to the hotel. The room was utterly, painfully freezing and I knew we were going to have major fights over the ‘slightly too small for the bed’ duvet. There was nothing new years eve’y on the tv, it had lots of financial reports,some strange jazz harp thing and an even stranger show where they interviewed a load of beauty queens one by one who answered in a variety of languages, some english but nothing was subtitled either way. We shivered, barely acknowledged the new year or the many reflections of us coiling round the room and went to sleep not long after it turned 2013.

Next morning, we checked out and headed to explore Macau a bit before we caught our afternoon ferry to Hong Kong.
It was fresh but a bit warmer and had clear blue skies for a bit. The city streets were equally as delightful in the daylight.

We passed the Pawn Shop museum on our way. This is a big building, still practising as a pawn shop, which holds onto people’s goods for 3 years if needs be. Bit of an odd one, but maybe pawning and gambling are how Macau came to be the vegas-esque casino destination it now is.

I am pleased to report though that it is a nice destination in itself. As I said, there’s european and asian styles mixed up.

It was really weird to see the church in the middle of town – it’s been so long since I’ve seen all the christian paraphernalia. I’m not a big church fan, but the novelty and the fact that it was unusually bright lured me in and it was a rather stunning place.

I know that my brain has become warped by recent times, as when I looked at this guy, his body position made me think he was looking at an ipad.

Macau is a pleasant little place to hang out – lacking in those damned cafes though – we struggled to find breakfast and out of desperation ended up in starbuck. I know, starbucks – awful, but it was cold and we needed something to eat and wifi to work out where on earth we were and where we were going.

The place was heaving with people – new years day is clearly shopping crazy. We accidentally found the ruins of the St Paul’s Cathedral which were actually quite stunning when the sky went beautifully blue for us.

We headed off in the hope of finding a portuguese tart (I’ve never been to portugal believe it or not) but as we got a bit lost and then were worried about being late to the ferry, it never happened. What I did get, however, was a very interesting walk up to the ferry. We passed the some big hotels, like the Wynn which looks like a mini version of the vegas one – ie brown and uninteresting. Then, as we were nearing the end of our walk, we passed a volcano and some ruins. The Sands hotel was beautifully, old school vegas kitsch. As the one in vegas had been wiped out ages ago it was cool to see a big sign with the so well known logo. Well we thought so anyhow.

The ferry went smoothly until we’d been sat ready to ‘take off’ and they announced there was a problem and we had to go and get on another boat. It only knocked about 45 mins off our journey so no biggie. I’d accidentally bought a more expensive ticket than we’d realised so we were upstairs in super class and got a free meal. This was a strange kind of spaghetti bolognese which tasted like a ready meal from the 1980s. Mark ate mine!
When we landed we couldn’t be bothered with all the long queue shuffling so we hung about upstairs before going down, only to realise when we go down there, that all the people in normal class were being held back from getting off until everyone was out of superclass. We felt very guilty. We aren’t used to this kind of fancy travelling 

Hong Kong

Quite frankly, after the surprisingly delightful Macau, Hong Kong, on first site, looked impressive but a bit grim. I think the fact the weather had got very merky didn’t help and it just looked like it was going to be jam packed and industrial, almost. Then we ended up on the never ending walkway. We were literally on a walkway for a mile and you’re trying to work out how and when to get down. Most bizarrely the walkway was full of ladies sitting in cardboard boxes. Homeless we first thought, surprised, then we noticed they left there shoes outside the cardboard box ‘rooms’ they created and had bottles of wine and laptops and were happy as larry. After a while I remembered I’d heard about the maids on a sunday, their day off, all congregate in the parks to hang out together. It was new years day, so a day off, so that’s who they were. It’s a freaky sight when you first come across it and there was just so many of them. We saw the fuller extent of it the following sunday as we were all over town and saw them all around the parks (Victoria Park is the particular hangout for the Indonesian/muslim maids). They setup on the walkways and down the middle of some of the shopping streets. It’s proper mental but is just part of Hong Kong culture and in a funny way is a tourist attraction in itself.

The first hour or so in Hong Kong we were confronted with what I would say I like least about the place. All roads lead to a shopping centre. Seriously, it’s crazy – there are so many of them and wherever you walk, you end up in one. You’d think this would help when you’re trying to find your way around but it doesn’t. It doesn’t because the evil empire want to keep you in the shopping centre so you can never find your way out of the bloody places.
We walked along a lot of walkways and I later learned added a good 15/20 mins to the journey just by getting a bit lost. We then locate our road and realised we had a steep hill to climb. So glad we brought light luggage. We later learned that said hill could easily be avoided by taking a shortcut – oh good.

Our hotel, Mini Central, did what it said on the tin and was mini, but was also a great price for Hong Kong and was really nice with it. The rooms were incy – everything designed brilliantly for maximum space. Perfect for us as we had only hand luggage – can imagine more interesting with bigger luggage but you wouldn’t book it then if you had any common sense. The downstairs lounge area was really big and cool and cozy so if you wanted somewhere to hang out with a bit of space was perfect. It was also still nice and christmassy while we were there. The one challenge was that there was clear glass separating the room and the bathroom. I’d seen pictures of the room so I should have expected it, but I’d kind of thought they were shown clear on the sites to show what the rooms looked like. Well, it’s not ideal for a romantic get away but not the end of the world for a couple of nights. Why they didn’t use frosted glass, at least on the bottom half is beyond me. Mark found it hilarious…. at first 

We found we were next to some good food streets, Wellington Street in particular, but had that ‘just arrived’ dopeyness and indecision going on so didn’t quite know what to go for. It was also dark, and we didn’t know how far we could walk before the area got dodgy (it turns out it pretty much doesn’t). We ended up settling on dumplings, a cream puff and an early night. These are not euphemisms 

Next day (Wednesday), we had a nice early start to head to the Thai consulate for day 1 of sorting out our next visa. We expected this to be painful and timely, but in true Hong Kong style, it was simple and quick. Although, it did falter at one point as they said we had nearly over stayed our allowed number of visas and were sent off to get proof that we had tickets booked out of Thailand after the 2 months. Luckily we had our tickets to Japan booked and they just sent us off somewhere nearby to print. This was a bit of a shock as, as far as we knew there is no limit on number of times you can go in and out of Thailand as long as you pay for you visa. We’ve always done at least a week everywhere we’ve renewed and never done a border run in a day like so many people do. We are 99% sure that this would not have been brought up if we’d got this latest visa in Laos, Cambodia or Malaysia. Anyhow it was sorted thank goodness. Always worrying when you’ve left nearly all your worldly goods in a country that you’ll actually be allowed back in.

During this trip to the Thai consulate we realised that a – their city rail (MTR) system is amazing and that using notable buildings is the best way to work out your routes. In fact most train stations exits directed you out to the various buildings too.

Hong Kong Park
We were pretty much opposite the park so we headed over there as a park in Asia is always an interesting perspective on life and somewhere for a nice sit down after all the walking. Yes, I am old enough to these days appreciate a nice sit down. Especially good if it’s accompanied by a good cup of tea.
Anyhow, I hadn’t realised the park was going to be so freaking steep. Killed us just getting up there and it’s steepness meant it wasn’t the expanse I was expecting, but cut up into various segments.

They had a big old pond with great fish ad terrapins as well as a big, walk-through aviary.

We had had no breakfast and were starving by this point so I looked at my list of potential eateries and decided stodge was the way forward.
I’d read about these ‘Cha chaan teng’ places which essentially are tea cafes that serve cheap and cheerful food and thought had to try one. So I dragged Mark along – more about that on the Hong Kong food post. It refuelled us enough to have a good wander around the streets of Wan Chai. This was definitely a contrast to where we were staying which was slicker with big, expensive brand shops and was way more interesting. This was probably the point where I really started to fall for Hong Kong.

I was still rather peckish as what I’d ordered had been pretty small and it was all too complicated to try for something else, so when we got back to our hotel area, I decided, in a fit of excitement, to get some bits from Marks & Spencer food hall. It’s been well, well over a year since I ate anything from M&S and, well, oh my gosh… you’ve no idea.. i can’t explain. It’s amazing how it’s the simple things. Just walking around the familiar, yet long unseen aisles filled me with nostalgia (and just frankly almost crippled me with homesickness). We took our goodies back to our mini room and laze about for a bit as we were so knackered.

Star ferry & harbour Light show
We then headed out to catch the famous Star Ferry over the harbour and to watch the light show.

The ferry is amazing – cheap, quick and the views and lights at night are stunning. We were a little early for the light show so we wandered down the harbour front – past the avenue of the stars, which has famous chinese hands. It was pretty chilly and there wasn’t as much down there as I had expected. Puzzles me that they dont’ really make the most of the waterfront – seems to be the best place for restaurants and bars – but apart from a few big hotels there wasn’t much. We found a funny little bar next to a starbucks and gave in, despite our best intentions to go not drink in Hong Kong, and had a nice drink as we overlooked the harbour. Well you have to don’t you. And it was nice wine too (these days, for me, this means that it’s just not on the turn).

The light and sound show itself is a little lame but you’ve got to see it. My favourite thing, to be honest, was that it was barely after christmas and had just been new year, so all those lights were fabulous. I really felt like I’d gotten to experience christmas after all.

After the light show, we tried to find the ICC tower to go up to the bar in the Ritz Carlton for the views, but got stuck in a shopping mall for half an hour, trying to escape, so in the end we just gave up. These huge shopping centres are like black holes – hard to find your way out. The one plus side to this one though was it had the most amazing christmas display at the entrance.
There was a bunch of really, really, old folk having their photo taken so we had to get them too, they were too sweet.

We caught the ferry back over to Hong Kong island (lower deck this time – it’s cheaper). Then, spurred on by our first drink in nearly 4 months, we thought we’d find another. There didn’t really seem to be anywhere about to have a drink (I later learn that I have to think up – everythings up in tall buildings rather than on ground level). So we settled in a cheesy, touristy bar street that I had previously discounted – simply because you could get a drink and a seat. We stayed there a while but not too long for it to get messy luckily.

Thursday -up with a slightly fuzzy head, checking out and back off to the Thai visa office. Luckily, this was over in seconds. Amazed and grateful we headed off to find some sustenance.

We took the MTR down to Sheung Wan and headed up to Hollywood Road to find The Frying Pan – a supposedly great place to fill our dehydrated body’s needs.
This area gets really, really steep and the Frying Pan has to be on steepest hill there. Mark, of course, didn’t moan for a second about this. The place was utter fabulousness – again, see food post for further waffling.

Once filled, we headed off to Kowloon to find our airbnb residence, where we’d be for the next 5 nights.

Mongkok
Wow, Kowloon is way busier than Hong Kong island and crazier and brighter!! There’s lots of walkways around Mongkok station so you can have a great nose about and get an interesting perspective of the place. I was very excited to find our place right in the middle of all the action.

Our airbnb host wasn’t about but we had instructions how to get in etc so sorted ourselves out in our interesting little abode. It was a v basic flat and there was a kind of hall with a mini kitchen – all the rest were bedrooms. Great idea to rent them out and make some money considering how expensive Hong Kong is. We were paying way, way over double what we would pay in Thailand for a quite fancy room per night. But I quite like that about airbnb, that you have experiences be they good or be they interesting – it’s a little bit of an insider view to life somewhere.
The biggest problem we had was that the place was freezing. It always seemed to be colder inside than it was out and no heating – i guess they don’t need it most of the year. So mostly when we were in the room we were under the duvet trying to keep warm. The shared bathroom was also interesting. The drainage was a bit odd. the floor was usually wet so there was matting to keep your feet off the floor and there were flip flops you could borrow.

So this pic sums up our time in this apartment – I had to buy thick socks to keep warm and so looked stunning in them and the flip flop combo:

It wasn’t an especially welcoming place to go back to which got a bit tiring, but it was the most amazing location. I didn’t particularly plan it that way, I was trying to find something affordable – but it turned out to be on the doorstep of some of the most interesting parts of Kowloon – the various markets and incredible eating.

Goldfish street
This was literally 2 streets away from us. I was a street that sold fish and the general area also had a fair few reptile and pet shops.

Choosing where to eat around Kowloon is tricky because there is so much to choose from on and it’s all a bit overwhelming. It really is one of those places where you can use the expression ‘the sights, sounds and smells’. You can definitely get great priced food round there. Lot’s of the cafes are simple – a bit confusing but worth just going for it – it’s such an english speaking place that it’s usually easy to sort things out.
We had some really simple food, Mark had some pork and I had a kind of prawn omelette type thing – simple, basic but beautiful.

Friday was the day that turned into a bit of a fiasco. There is a very famous place in Hong Kong, which turned out to be a short walk from where we were staying, that has a Michelin star but at super cheap prices. I knew you had to turn up and get a number and then come back again and that a lot of queueing was involved but I had been led to believe that it was worth it. It wasn’t and it took up a good 4 hours of our day – more on this at the food blog post.

I really wanted to go to the Shamrock hotel, on Nathan Road, near Kowloon Park, as when my mum had first come to Hong Kong as a child – that is where they stayed and I knew it was still there. So we went down there – it was kind of difficult to see the place properly as the whole area is a built up, busy, shopping area. So we headed down for some peace and quiet at the park.

Kowloon Park
Another reason to head for a park in Hong Kong, that I must mention, is that you can always get the government wifi so if you need to look things up, get your bearings – head for the greenery!

There was some animation sculptures in there which were rather impressive.

There was a rather cute looking, and I hate to say this without spitting, but maccy d’s in the park:

I was most delighted, however, at the flamingos. I love flamingos!!

Mark went into the aviary while I had, yep you guessed it.. a sit down. On his way out he found a bunch of old geezer’s playing chess:

Now I think an example of the efficiency of hong kong is that they even number their slopes:

The temple of a ten thousand buddhas 
Saturday and we ventured out into the New Territories – somewhere that didn’t used to be part of Hong Kong but the British bough some extra land off the Chinese to extend it at some point. The train ride became overland so was great to see the scenery change and become less urban.
We were heading out there to go to the temple of a thousand buddhas. There really isn’t much around this are apart from a shopping centre (of course) with a sprinkling of not very inspring restaurants, some lovely home shops and ikea of all things.
First problem was we couldn’t find the blinkin temple. We first walked into a private temple where we got politely sent on our way. Then we headed off up some slopes (this temple is up in the hills) following a sign to a temple we presumed was it. It was a zig zaggy path passing quite rickety buildings and we were a bit unsure as there were no signs or other people. I had literally just said to Mark how it was good coz if we were in Thailand we would have seen a bunch of ropey looking dogs by now. Upon that I spied in front of me a huge, dog, the like I have never seen before, standing, un-tethered about 3 feet away from me on the left. I quietly moved to the right as far as I could without falling down the slope and walked past ignoring it while dying inside. As usual Mark was taking no notice of what might be going on with me so hadn’t noticed I’d shut up. I turned behind me to notice him dawdling up the hill on the left side of the path and his face was less than a foot from this dog that was staring right at him. I kept walking and took the fact that I hadn’t heard ripping jugulars as a good sign and when Mark caught up with me he said he’s seen it at the last minute and it had not growled but ‘puffed’ at him and stamped it’s feet. I’m sure it was more freaked out than he was by Marks dopey challenge on his territory and he is unlikely to be on the loose if he was a murderous, blood thirsty beast but still, we we both had heart in throats. He has henceforth been known as ‘horse dog’ due to his unprecedented size. I have no idea what breed it was, I really have never seen anything quite like it. It was quite asian looking but I would think some mongrelling going on there too but a bit fighting dog looking too. Jesus that dog was big!

After all that it turned out we were in completely the wrong place – it was a chinese cemetery we were heading up towards. A lovely girl with her family got us to follow her out and directed us to the right place. When we found it, the entrance was so unmistakeable we couldn’t believe we’d been so stupid as to risk life and limb with horse-dog.

Quite frankly, the path up to this temple is undeniable kitsch and cheerful. Each statue is different with it’s own style and personality.

The ten-thousand buddhas actually refers to the temple building at the top which has it’s walls covered by shelves of tiny buddha statues – each one with a light beneath it. You can’t take photos but take me word of it – it’s worth the steep hike up there. It was beautiful.

Outside there were more interesting figures. Checkout these fantastic fellas….

If you’re going up there, save eating for the little cafe they have. Best spring roll of my life I am sure. The view is spectacular also.

Sham Shui Po
After the temple we went to another area of Hong Kong known for it’s crazy markets. Lot’s of odd electronics – old video records, remote controls, lights and things like that.

We were pretty knackered after lots of walking so didn’t really have the energy for it but was cool to see.

We ended the day, I would say quite pitifully but it was jolly good thank you very much. We went to an irish pub we’d spotted down by Tsim Sha Tsui. It was in a basement and we thought it would be small, vibeless and heaving. It turned out to be cosy, friendly and practically empty – result!!! So we had a few drinks there before popping over the road to another M&S to pick up some bits and pieces for our tea. The first decent cheese straws I’ve had in 10 months – happy days. We got odds and sods and it cost a fortune but so worth it. A nice mix of a day I thought.

Soho/Sheung Wan
So, sunday, I was after having a roast. Now I know it sounds like I’m obsessed about getting british things but we were mostly trying all kinds of chinese things but when you’ve been away from home so long, these things are exciting. So we headed into Sheung Wan, Soho area again as I wanted to explore this more anyhow.

We had a roast – I talk about the highs and lows of this in the food post. Then we went about having an explore.
This area was amazing for shops and restaurants. The eclectic, arty and 2nd hand shopping was great – I was only gutted I couldn’t snap up some of the fantastic oddities I encountered. I loved this area – I would happily live there for a few months but I imagine the monthly rent is what we live of for 6 months.. at least. Ideally it would be in one of the little restored Wing Lee Street houses.

Wing Lee Street

I’d read about this street and dragged Mark up the steep old steps to take a look. It was some 60s buildings which were run down, dodgy to hang around at night and were going to be torn down, but there role in a famous film has ended with them being saved and restored.

This place, next to Wing Lee street was a kind of indoor kids park. It was simultaneously curious and sinister. I guess mainly it was designed for practicality though.

I love communist imagery, especially vintage but with no budget and no home I just couldn’t justify getting anything.
All I got in the end was a few vintage Hong Kong postcards and a modern, kitschy Mao waving hand watch.

Man Mo temple
This, I think I’m right in saying is the oldest temple in the city which we stumbled upon by accident. There were huge coils of burning incense hanging from the ceiling.

Tram-mendous

We were knackered (again) so, as I’d heard the tram was a great way to see the top stretch of Hong Kong Island, we hopped on one to have a rest. It really is a great view point. Best of all you only swipe your Octopus card once per trip, so if you want to go the whole way to the end and back, you pay once – and it’s only about 20p.

We went pretty far down the line – passed Victoria park where all the Indonesian maids hang out on a sunday. It moved past the busy shopping districts into slightly more residential areas and past some buildings built right into the steep slopes. It’s def the best cheap (and lazy) tourist tip there is!

On our way back there was a kerfuffle and looking out of the tram we saw this incredible flooding along one of the main shopping streets. It must have been a burst water main but the amount of water was insane – it was centimetres from reaching the shop doorways (which are high up from the paths which have high curbs anyhow). Was a strange thing to see in an urban environment with all the other streets around bone dry.

Buns, Birds & Flowers
Monday morning started with a pineapple bun for me (my new true love) at the Kam Wah cafe. We’d discovered this place round the corner from us a couple of days before and it turned out to be famous for it’s pineapple buns. See food post for more outpourings of love.

The flower and bird markets, also turned out to be a few streets away from us. The flower market sounded interesting, but frankly I don’t really like cut flowers, so other than a quick stroll through we didn’t hang about.

The Bird park/market is a place where old fellas take their pet birds out for a walk. They take them out in the cage and hang them on the trees that line the pathway, while they have a chat. There is also a bird market at the end which as you can imagine is a tad on the noisy side. Obviously caged bird of any kind are not the most ideal concept but judging on your travels doesn’t do and it is quite common in asia. Also, these are all very well looked after, treasured birds.

Stanley beach
It was a gorgeous, blue sky day, much warmer than it had been so we decided to head to the beach.

Stanley was a hop skip and jump on the metro then bus (well in all it prob took well over an hour, but when it’s efficient and easy, you don’t notice).
Had been ages since we’d been by the proper ‘seaside’. It had a lovely little seafront. It really looked very british and by the looks, a lot of ex pats live or at least hang out around there.
There was a cute little pub looking out to sea – we couldn’t resist going in for a quick one before we set about exploring.
Umteen hours, umpteen drinks and umpteen tunes on the jukebox (the can can?!? who could resists) later and things were very messy. We ate a pizza and got a taxi – neither or which I shamefully can remember much of. I obviously fell asleep in the taxi but woke up in kowloon and deftly, if I do say so myself, directed the taxi driver all the way back to where we staying – my homing pigeon instincts do always kick in when I need them!!!
Luckily, we’d started early so this was only mid evening so we got back and were asleep pretty early so we were not in a bad state for our last day of travel.

Last day – I sooooo didn’t want to go. I didn’t feel ready yet. If someone had offered me a home and a job there and then I think I would have taken them up on it.

For lunch, we met up with the lovely Maki, a good friend of a good friend, a family from the UK who are over staying with her on holiday and their friend who now lives in Hong Kong. Well that just succeeded in making me crazy homesick. Spending a few hours with lovely people really drives home to you what you’re missing from hanging out with friends.
It ended up being a nice lazy lunch, followed by coffee.

Highlights:

The main features of Hong Kong, I believe, are Food, Architecture & Art. These were both such a major love for me that I have created separate blog entries for anyone who wants to be hear about the very varied food experiences we had – Food blog post – or get bored (unless you’ve got exactly the same taste in buildings as me, by the architecture blog post – it is mainly pictures!.

Transport
Such a boring thing to get excited about but it was the best I’d ever experienced. It really was so efficient and organised, didn’t take you long to work it out, on time, inexpensive. Exactly how it should be done.
I mean at peak times it was crazy busy but somehow that’s ok when everything is working well and it’s not costing you a fortune.
I loved for instance how the stations would be tiled in one block colour so you could easily recognise them without seeing the name.

Oh London, if only!

Vibe
I don’t know what it was about Hong Kong – it’s not the prettiest place, the most stylish, the most arty, the most edgy. It’s got too many shopping centres. It’s got too many people. But I just loved it. It was a feeling. I just felt happy and content there. Despite there being loads of people at times (though no where near as much as I’d expected), I never felt crowded and just kind of floated about feeling relaxed. I could imagine myself living there. Not forever, but for a little while. But then the reality of course is that it’s an expensive place to live. Not because of a lot of the costs which get me at home – the food and transport was great value. But it’s that square footage that is killer. For now, I will bare it in mind as an excellent city stop off if I ever need one. Now I wouldn’t be afraid to stay way further out of the centre. It’s a pretty safe feeling place (to be honest I’m yet to find anywhere as ‘crimey’ for want of a better word than home).
Mark, however, wasn’t quite so taken with it and said at times he may as well be in London (it’s nothing like London – which I don’t like – he’s talking rubbish)
He was un-expectedly unhappy when it was time to leave however. Fact is, I like some cities and the buzziness you get (definitely only certain ones though) and Mark doesn’t – he likes tropical islands with nothing to do but dive. I don’t. Any suggestions of somewhere between the two?
Anyhow, Hong Kong is going down as one of my favourite cities, alongside New York, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and of course Brighton (the bestest of all).

Weird and wonderful:

Hotels by the hour
All around Mongkok there were signs for these hotels available by the hour. These were places on the upper floors of buildings. They just seemed a bit odd and out of place in the middle of such busy streets – not the kind of place you can quietly sneak up to.

Darts
Because you often walk on walkways above the traffic, you often spy interesting things and around Mongkok we noticed a couple of places that were kind of darts centres. They were generally quite dark inside with the boards lit up in neon.

Cardboard shifters
Think this might be due to parking issues (and lack of cars anyhow) but everywhere you go are people dragging around cardboard boxes.

Crazy crossing
On the whole I never felt Hong Kong to be busy and overcrowded. I don’t know why because seemingly it is, but it just never felt stressful to me. The one place that made me notice the number of people was from up high on a tram, as we waited at a crossing. This was pretty impressive for numbers of people.

Balloon Man
He was just a children’s entertainer at some even that was going on in town one day but he was actually entertaining. And I normally hate clowns (due to obvious evilness).

You know me well
This was just on some sign that was built into a wall outside Hong Kong park.

Kenny
Mark was convinced someone had killed Kenny all over the city

Spitting
Didn’t come across it that much but I don’t think will ever get used to the chinese spitting thing. It’s the hacking noise that goes with that kills you!
It blows your mind that they have to have signs all over the MTR train stations asking people not to spit because it spreads germs. Eww. You get the odd bit of spitting all over asia (and more than I’d like in the UK for that matter) but who would think it’s ok to spit in the MTR station?

Apples sponsorship en masse
These simple yet effective Apple ads were everywhere. One of the main train hubs, central I think it was, had no other adverts in it’s massive main hall – kind of impressive yet scary – which is how I often feel about Apple actually.

Hidden Hollywood sell outs 
These massive pictures advertising a casino or Macau in general were hanging in the airport. It’s definitely true what they say about people not wanting to ruin their reputations at home but will do the tacky adverts in the east, eh Mr DeNiro?

Happy Valley
I just love that there is somewhere here called that.

Hanging clothes
See this a lot but it was the most intensive I’ve seen it, because there are so few balconies in Hong Kong

Macau street ads
Lot’s going on, on the shopping streets of Macau