Sightseeing in Hong Kong

We enjoyed our few days in Hong Kong, even though I was a bit jet-lagged & not quite my usual self. It was Will's first time in Asia so he was pretty excited. We were knackered when we arrived Friday night so Warren popped out & got some Thai take-away & we had a nice relaxed night in.
On Saturday we did a bit of sightseeing. First stop was the Nan Lian garden which was a beautiful oasis of calm amongst the skyscrapers.
Next to that was the Chi Lin Nunnery which was also lovely & peaceful.
From there we headed to the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai San Temple. This was a riot of colour, and where the locals go to get their fortune told.
Next on the list was the Kowloon Walled City Park. This used to be bit of a slum, ruled by the triads, with all sorts of dodgy business going on. The powers to be pulled down all the derelict tower blocks & built a very nice city park in its place.
From there it was quite a walk until we reached the flower market and bird garden. The orchids on show in the flower market were beautiful, & unbelievably cheap. It's just a shame I couldn't buy some to take back to NZ... I didn't like seeing some of the birds in cages at the bird garden, but there were some pretty cool brightly coloured birds on display.
We were starting to fatigue by now after hours of walking, so we took the MTR down to the waterfront. We had some dinner before taking in the nightly sound & light show on the waterfront. It's a bit naff really, but a pleasant enough way to kill 15 minutes or so! The video below will give you an idea of what it is all about.

Sunday was another big day. We took the MTR into Central & first stop was the Bank of China building. Here, as long as you provide photo ID & pass through a security check, you can take an express lift up to the 43rd floor for a good view over the city.
Next it was the Peak Tram up to the Peak, Hong Kong's number one tourist attraction. It was quite hazy so we didn't get the best of views from the top, but it was still pretty cool.
That night a couple of Warren's friends came round. We went out for cheap & cheerful Chinese at his local market, before heading out to one of the more bizarre evenings of my life. Pro Hong Kong Wrestling!!! It was an event being held at Warren's local Sai Wan Ho youth centre building, & it was hilarious! Basically a whole lot of teeny Chinese guys having a go at wrestling. Even more random was 'Ladybeard'. He was a huge big Australian guy with pigtails, wearing women's clothing, speaking the local language fluently. Anyway, after a few beers we all found it pretty entertaining. Watch the vid if you want a taste of the action...


Monday was fairly relaxed. We wandered around Soho, taking in the worlds longest travelator (taking about 15 minutes to ride it from the bottom to the top). Will was fascinated by all the bamboo scaffolding that was everywhere.
On Monday night we met Kitty, one of Warren's friends, & went out for Chinese Hot-Pot which is hugely popular at the moment. You get a huge pot of bubbling broth, then order all sorts of meat/seafood/veg etc. It all comes raw & you cook it in the broth at your leisure. It was very tasty, & a very social way of eating.

Tuesday was very chilled. We had a nice sleep-in, then leisurely packed up all of our stuff. Quite a big job really since we had 80kg worth of luggage in 4 bags between the two of us! Once we had packed it was time to meet Warren for Yum Cha after he finished his morning at school. We gorged ourselves with lovely food, before Warren put us on the airport bus ready for the trip home.

We had a very good flight back with Air NZ & it is lovely to be home. Today was a gorgeous summer's day, so I spent most of it outside, lapping up the sunshine.

Farewell UK, hello Hong Kong

Our last night at Bearwood was really nice. Scottie and Sarah had organised for a few people to come over in the evening and give us bit of a send-off. Ben even bought Lenin over to say goodbye!

It was brilliant being able to use Scottie and Sarah's place as bit of a base during our time in the UK. It was also very cool getting to know little Elsie who is very cute.

Our flight to Hong Kong on Thursday wasn't until 9pm so Ric, who was on babysitting duties while Graz worked, bought Tobias around in the afternoon. Once the babies had been fed...

And wrapped up snug against the cold...

We headed off to Dinton Pastures for a walk. It is just down the road from Bearwood, yet in my 6 years living there I had never actually been! We went for a very nice walk around the lake for an hour or so.

Will and I even did a bit of stroller duty! I guess this is what it would look like if we ever changed our minds and decided to have kids...

When we got back it was a case of saying our goodbyes, before Scottie very kindly drove us to Heathrow.

We had an excellent flight, arriving in Hong Kong at around 5pm on Friday. We managed to get our 80kg odd worth of luggage onto the airport bus, and luckily Warren was waiting for us at the bus stop the other end which is just a few minutes from his apartment. A good thing really, considering he lives on the 5th floor of a building that has no lift!

It is very nice to see the bro again. He has done a bit of DIY on his place since I was last there, knocking down an internal wall to remove the 3rd bedroom and turn it into a large lounge area. He had a couple of minor things to do before returning the drill he borrowed from one of his mates.

Seeing in 2011

On Wednesday we drove into London to spend a bit of time with my friend Nic. Before we left we paid a visit to Ben & Anna's to meet wee Poppy who is around 4 months old.

We had a lovely time with Nicola. On Thursday we did bit of a tourist day in central London. We ticked off lots of the 'must-see' sights including Big Ben & the houses of parliament...

Westminster Abbey...

The London Eye...

St Paul's Cathedral...

Tower Bridge...

The horse guards...

and Buckingham Palace...

At the Queen Victoria monument I ceremoniously handed over the 'gift from NZ' bronze lions to Nic. Yeah I know, I'm bit of an idiot at times...

We briefly popped into the Tate Modern to see what the installation in the turbine hall was. At first it didn't look like much, but it was actually the sunflower seed exhibition by Ai Weiwei. It is basically 5 million 'sunflower seeds' that are actually hand-crafted from porcelain. The scale of it was pretty impressive.

Nicola lives in Blackheath so Friday morning, New Year's Eve, we walked to Greenwich park & had a really nice wander around. The Royal observatory was fascinating, with lots of info about time. In the pic below you can see the Prime Meridian.

We also walked around the old Naval College, including the very impressive Painted Hall where Nelson's body lay in Sate before his funeral.

Our initial plan was to head back Reading way for a house party at Claire & Mike's place. Unfortunately they returned from their trip to Paris with some nasty food poisoning & had to call the party off. Instead, we stayed an extra night with Nic & saw in the new year from a roof-top terrace of an apartment near London Bridge belonging to one of her friends. We had an amazing view of the impressive fireworks being set off from the London Eye. Unfortunately we left the camera downstairs so didn't get any pics of the actual fireworks! However we took the pic below & the video after the event.

Yesterday afternoon we drove back to Claire & Mike's, bringing Nic with us. We had a very nice pub meal & when we got back, after a few more drinks, decided to pretend it was New Year's Eve all over again, as Claire & Mike were a bit too poorly to appreciate it the first time around!

Today has been very chilled, we didn't get up to much. Tomorrow we will drive back up to Will's parents & spend another couple of nights there. Then it is back to Bearwood on Wednesday night, ready to fly out to Hong Kong for a few nights with the bro on Thursday.