The first couple of days

We've had a fairly quiet couple of days, with lots of mooching!

Day 1, we had a walk through Kowloon Park. Hong Kong is very excitedly getting ready to host the Asian Games ( a mini Olympics for Asian athletes) from 5th December. The swimming and diving events are to be held in the park, but before that we were amused to see the following upcoming event....



The "Oldies Games" - any volunteers to represent the UK? Haha

In the evening we went over to Discovery Bay to meet N_M's parents (who are here for a month) and his brother and sister-in-law for dinner. A good time was had by all, but we were still quite knackered and headed back to the hotel to bed before midnight!

Yesterday we had a picnic lunch from the local bakers and headed off to meet N_M's parents at Central. From there we went up to the Mid Levels, via a myriad of escalators (yuck!) We exited the escalators at Hollywood Road and made our way to the Man Mo Temple.



From there we visited Possession Point, where the British first landed to colonise Hong Kong. On 26th January 1841, a Royal Navy ship docked close by and the officers came up the hill, erected a flag and British Rule began! They have now made a park close by, a haven of peace amongst all the noise and bustle.



The ponds are full of fish that should be living in someone's tank at home, but have obviously got too big and been released there. We saw giant cat fish, arrowanas and angel fish living alongside terrapins and koi carp. Bizarre!



Last night took us to the night market for some pressie shopping. I've really missed these markets that stay open for shopping until midnight.

Now it's Monday morning, the sun is shining and we're just deciding what to do today. Laters dear readers!

The journey 2009!

We flew with Emirates this time (30kg baggage allowance in Economy swung it!). The flights were good, food plentiful, the staff lovely, but pity the same can't be said for the other psssengers! Well one other passenger whom we shall call Mr Mad for the purposes of this story....

This very large Nigerian guy sat beside me on the Dubai/Hong Kong leg, and the fact he arrived singing loudly was a bit of a good indictor of what was to follow. The loud praying that followed it unnerved me immensely, but he quietened down after take off. For a bit.

Despite his size he was obviously a waif, as he demanded food and liquor constantly. After his substantial chicken dinner, it was I NEED Beef, and abuse for the poor stewardess who told him there were no spare meals. He drank wine and lager until the purser intervened, and elbowed and kneed me constantly. That felt like a long 7 hours!

Everyone now has to fill in a health questionnaire to enter Hong Kong, and they're checking everybody's temperatures as you get off the plane and into the airport building. I felt boiling hot but obviously my core temperature must have been ok as we weren't stopped. As we collected our baggage Mr Mad was nowhere to be seen, so I'm hoping the shambles he made of his health and border control forms had caused him a little delay!!

The hotel feels just like we're coming home, except it has had a huge facelift since last year. It's very smart and we're in a newly refurbished room with a very cool carpet just like we had our eye on at home!

And when we woke up a little while ago the warm sun was streaming in, so I'm signing off now to go out into the hustle and bustle of HK life. Laters Taters!!

Our 2009 Trip

Well, almost a year has gone by since my last post. I'm just getting prepared for another visit though!

We decided to travel a little later this year to get the full benefit of the Christmas lights and celebrations, which had been put up but not switched on last year. So watch this space towards the end of November....