As you might have noticed so far, I normally do 2 days together in each blog but I though for Hong Kong, as we were there for such a short period, I'd put them all in one. So enjoy our 4 days in my favourite place so far.
Day 11
I have finally managed to finish Gone with the Wind on the flight, which I started on the way to India but fell asleep to. My one line review? It's a bit of an epic. Other than film watching, I was mainly feel sick on this flight, which is a mix of it leaving at 2.30am and a lack of food, so I'm pretty glad to be getting off the plane and woohoo! Our bags are here.
Hong Kong airport is full of its mod cons and really easy to navigate, we get a bus from outside for £8 and it takes us through the beautiful water ways to huge buildings inside the city, in air conned luxury. After a short walk to our hostel at a nice 18C, we arrive at our room on the 10th floor. Thank god for lifts. The room is simple but it has a warm shower, a duvet and strong Wi-Fi so we are both pretty happy. We quickly shower and dress so we can in search of food in our sleepy state.
The first thing we find is a supermarket and the bright lights and packaged snacks lure us in, we buy two absolutely scrumptious but over priced egg sandwiches, that came with a foul soup resembling asparagus and totter over to Victoria Park to eat up and relax in the last of the days sun.
The lack of last nights sleep is setting in and all I want to do is curl under the duvet. But in my sleepy state, I decided that it was much more important that we go find a notebook. In IKEA, of all places. Unsurprising all we found was flat pack furniture and penny sweets, I got a bag of the later and we wandered back to where I could finally rest my head and I slept through to only be woken by the occasionally slamming door.
The lack of last nights sleep is setting in and all I want to do is curl under the duvet. But in my sleepy state, I decided that it was much more important that we go find a notebook. In IKEA, of all places. Unsurprising all we found was flat pack furniture and penny sweets, I got a bag of the later and we wandered back to where I could finally rest my head and I slept through to only be woken by the occasionally slamming door.
Day 12
The room has little natural light and with my lack of sleep from the day before (I'm blaming Gone With The Wind), I don't wake up till 10.30 with a very hungry looking Ben staring at me. We dress quickly and go off to fill up on street food. Before I fell into my slumber last night I found some cool free places to explore in HK so that's our plan for the day. We stop off at a 7/11 for some drinks where I pick up Mr Juicy who accompanies us on our adventure.
With no real need for speed, we wander through the busy streets and I'm struck by how European it feels, it is still very Asian with the smells from the restaurants and symbol writing on every shop but it has something western that I can't quite put my finger on. But I can definitely nibble so I picked up a cream cake from a bakery and we wander to a park so I can get my fill of processed heaven.
With no real need for speed, we wander through the busy streets and I'm struck by how European it feels, it is still very Asian with the smells from the restaurants and symbol writing on every shop but it has something western that I can't quite put my finger on. But I can definitely nibble so I picked up a cream cake from a bakery and we wander to a park so I can get my fill of processed heaven.
Cake consumed and map checked, we head off toward the China Bank building where we hear that you can see a great view of the city for free if you just walk up to the elevator and head to the 43rd floor. Our walk takes us past markets and brightly coloured shops that we dip into every now and then to pick up gifts and snacks. Our little trek hits an unfortunate dead end as they have now install scanners to the lifts so you need a pass to enter the building but all is not lost as we're near our next destination, the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Garden and after a very steep trek up there we arrived.
It is so beautiful and full of some great creatures and we see flamingos, toucans and some pretty orchids among other things. The park is split into two seconds, the bottom has the tunnels full of plants and the pretty birds and the upper has the primates, so you can image where we spent the most of our time. The monkeys all seem pretty happy and we watch them being fed and they got even happier.
A quick look on the map makes us realised we aren't that far (as the crow flys) to the peak which is a viewing point to see the whole of the city and as we would have to walk back on ourselves to get the tram, we decide to take it by foot, obviously completely ignoring how steep it was just to get to the gardens. Oh my freaking god, it's like walking vertical, I've never walked anything so hard. I swear we stop about 10 times and it takes us an hour. To do a mile. So painful.
However, all the aching limbs aside, it felt good reaching the top knowing we'd done it all by ourselves and to treat ourselves we ate some pretty delicious Dim Sum and tea at a restaurant at the top. After a photo session at the observation deck, we start to make our way down, shunning the tram again and feeling every pain in our legs as we did so. Once at the bottom, our aim is to wander back to the hostel to freshen up and then come back out but after the epic walk of the day and the gentle plod, plod of our feet back to our room, I crash, not stirring once in the night.
Day 13
You'll be unsurprised to know this morning I wake up aching in places I didn't ever know I had, from the balls of my feet to my calves, hips and bum. Today's walking is not going to be fun. But our stomachs dictate us and we dress and are out in search of food, settling for the same sweet and sour tofu I had yesterday. Today is Wednesday which means free museum day in Hong Kong so we are off to learn something. All the ones we want to see are on Kowloon so we make our way to Wan Chai Ferry pier to get a short and quite calm ferry ride over the way. London could learn something from this as the 10 minute journey was only 25p each and gave us a great view of the city.
Once disembarked, our first stop is the HK Museum of Art which I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy but we saw some amazing pieces including an exhibition of some amazing wooden sculptures from Tong King Sum. The rest was a bit odd, including videos of bagged air and walking vaginas so when Ben's tummy starts rumbling, I'm not too sad to be leaving. We take a wander into Kowloon and within 5 minutes our eyes have been caught by some huge cats outside the iSquare mall and they tempt us in.
This mall is huge with its equalling some of the sky scrapers surrounding it, and so many floors. The 6th has food and Ben spots noodles and we grab a bowl each. Ben wolfed his down, mine however tasted foul but not wanting to moan I sipped a little soup and gave the rest to Ben who didn't seem that keen on it either. Accepting that was going to be my lunch, we start to wander back out again when something catches my eye...FroYo!! This delicious frozen yoghurt goodness is something we both fell in love with in America and we make it our mission to fill up on it now.
This mall is huge with its equalling some of the sky scrapers surrounding it, and so many floors. The 6th has food and Ben spots noodles and we grab a bowl each. Ben wolfed his down, mine however tasted foul but not wanting to moan I sipped a little soup and gave the rest to Ben who didn't seem that keen on it either. Accepting that was going to be my lunch, we start to wander back out again when something catches my eye...FroYo!! This delicious frozen yoghurt goodness is something we both fell in love with in America and we make it our mission to fill up on it now.
Half an hour later, full of ice cream we start walking towards the science museum with achey legs and sore feet. This, as it was free I guess, was quite busy but we managed to have a good play on all the science toys and games and learn all about Hong Kong health and safety rules (spoiler, it's not much different to ours). At this point our achey legs are starting to get the better of us. Our plan was meant to be a day of museums and eating and then as it got dark, we would make our way to the Temple Street Night Market to see what that was all about and then make our way back, whilst watching the free Symphony of Lights show that goes on over the river and is in English on Wednesday nights. However our feet were seriously aching now and we googled both places and they look a bit either touristy or naff, so we made our way back to the boat, wincing at every step. When Ben has a brain wave, why not go get a foot massage? Hong Kong is meant to be famous for them and it would certainly ease our aching muscles. So we researched and found a well-reviewed and well-known one around the corner from our hostel called Big Bucket, so named as you started by dunking your feel in a warm bucket of jelly, sounded blissful. We made our way back to the hostel, washed of the day's muck and ventured back out.
Well this experiance was easily one of the most painful in my life. Yes, we started with a very soothing foot soak in gorgeously warm water but that was where the pleasure ended, either my muscles were too painful to touch or my masseuse had a hatred of pink hair English girls but every touch he made to my legs and my feet was easily a 9 on the pain scale (a 9/10 for pain for me, means yelping) He pulled, he pummelled, he rubbed and cracked until I generally though I was going to have to kick him, when my 45 minutes were up and I hobbled out of there, in more pain than I started. The only saving grace was that Ben seemed to be in as much pain as I was and we waddled back, and ached all evening. Ben went out and got some food but I really couldn't leave the soft bed once I sat on it and curled up for a night sleep, full of pain.
Day 14
Waking up this morning, I had the thought, that although painful when it happend, the massage might just take a little while to work and today I would feel perkier than a spring chicken. Oh no no no, I'm sorer that yesteraday and today I have the added fun of my rucksack on my back as we are leaving Hong Kong this evening for Bangkok. We need to be out at 12 but we stay for as long as possible as we had time to kill today so I pack slow and we cut it fine for check out. We can leave our bags at the hostel which is great and the cat thats living on the reception counter looked like he'd take good care of them for us. The programme today was to pick up some presents and mooch until we needed to take the bus to the airport, my legs ease a little as I began to walk so it wasn't going to be as torturous as I thought.
We make our way across the city and it took forever, the streets were packed with people and unlike London where everyone seems double busy even when they aren't, 70% of the crowd today where glued to their phones, 12 inches from their faces and walking at a pace most toddlers could beat. I try and detour us at every side street as slow walkers really get my goat, and we stumble upon a packed street market where everything is being sold from pigs faces to hello kitty bags and fruit to cups of tea. We wander around there until the smell of dried fish gets too much.
Presents bought, we stop for a quick cup of jasmine tea before making our way back to Wan Chai park. The sun is quite warm today so we slouch in the shade under the trees, watching the health conscious pensioners of HK lunge around the park, swinging their arms as they go. Our plan is to go back to the hostel to put a new battery in Ben's camera but looking at the time, we decide to pick up our bags now and spend the last hour in Victoria park which is a stones throw from the bus stop. Soaking up the last of Hong Kong, my resounding feeling is still one of intrigue, I definitely want to come back and spend more time exploring this city that never sleeps.
The time comes to leave and we waddle like pregnant women with both our bags on to the bus stop, where efficiently as always, the bus turns up on time and impresses Ben with its free wifi. A nice and quick check in at the airport, with a sneaky pizza dinner, it isn't long before we board our Kenyan Airline flight to Bangkok. Wait, you say, an African airline going from Hong Kong to Bangkok, how strange. Well not so, when you realise, it's stop over in its journey to Nirobe and this face is a bonus as the flight is near empty. They also have the comfiest seats, largest legroom and a very nice dinner which we weren't expecting but still fit in with our pizza. I would definitely recommend Kenyan Airlines.
We land two hours later and step into the suffocating heat of Bangkok, even at midnight you are sweating within seconds. Fed up of tourists being scammed by taxis and complaining the airport has come up with a genius way to get a taxi, involving tickets and screens and our driver is great, taking us straight to our hostel with no "oh look at my friend" detours. All I notice at this point is the air con and the bunk beds and within 20 minutes of arriving I'm asleep, preparing myself for our first day in Thailand.
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