Hong Kong

On Saturday 3rd December we flew from Singapore to Hong Kong. We arrived at Changi Airport to find a huge Pokemon themed Christmas display. As you can tell by the look on my face, I'm rather excited about the giant Pikachu...

My sister-in-law Norshidah met us at Hong Kong airport as Warren was playing a rugby match that afternoon. That afternoon/evening we were invited to a house-warming party at the home of friends of Warren and Norsh who live out on Lantau Island quite close to the airport. We took a taxi to the house and dropped off our luggage. Since we were a bit early for the party we then took a bus to the nearby factory outlet shops for bit of a look around. Warren met us there, and after picking up some supplies at the supermarket we headed to the party. It was good fun. We had previously met a few of Warren and Norsh's friends at their wedding, as well as on previous visits to Hong Kong, so it was great to catch up with them again. One of Warren's best mates, Jason, also happened to be in Hong Kong for a few days for work, so it was awesome seeing him as well. 

Warren used to live in Sai Wan Ho on the east of Hong Kong Island, but since marrying Norsh they have moved in together into an apartment in Shau Kei Wan, just one station further east on the MTR. The new place is very similar to the old in that it is directly above a market, and is also a walk-up with no lift in the building. At least the new place is only 3 floors up, compared to his previous place which was on the 5th floor! 

Since our last visit to Hong Kong Warren and Norsh have also inherited a 'fur-baby', Rambo, who is a real character and well and truly rules the roost! Our daily alarm clock tended to be Rambo jumping all over us in bed when he decided that he needed some attention...

Will and I usually use Hong Kong as a stop-over on our trips back to the UK, so like in Singapore, we had already done a lot of the main tourist attractions. Will hadn't arranged a university visit in Hong Kong, so took the opportunity to catch-up on some of his work. One day I left him working in peace and made the long trek (via MTR and tram) to the Hong Kong Wetland Park which is right up in Tin Shui Wai near the Chinese border. My MTR train was disconcertingly empty, a totally different experience from using the London Underground!

I had a lovely day wandering the extensive park and checking out the birdlife. There are a couple of hides where you can sit and watch the birds. They tended to be full of serious birders, I did get a touch of camera envy!

They have done the park nicely with lots of boardwalks crossing the extensive wetlands. 

I do enjoy my birds, so was happy to come across a few that were kind enough to let me take their portraits... I would love one of the super-zoom lenses that would enable me to take some much better close-ups, it might have to go on a 'wish-list' for the future, maybe when we eventually upgrade our DSLR camera.

Aside from the birds, I also came across some other wildlife.

As dusk began to fall I thought I had better start making my way home. It felt slightly odd having a huge nature conservation area in such a built-up urban setting.

One day Will and I took the bus out to Shek O beach on the extreme south east of the island. We had a lovely day with a highlight being an excellent lunch at a little beach-side Thai restaurant. The duck curry was amazing (and huge!).

One evening we attended a special meal which Warren had arranged at a very cool little restaurant in Sai Wan Ho, just around the corner from his old flat. The restaurant is called Little Kitchen and it only does 24 covers per night. Its concept is that you have your seat for the night, so can enjoy a leisurely multi-course set menu fine-dining meal, with byo wine. It was a great evening and the food was top-notch. The menu changes weekly, and they guarantee that you will never have a dish repeated. We had a very enjoyable evening with excellent food, wine and company. I only took pictures of a couple of the courses, so below is the duck main, and a pear-based dessert.

I also realised that, despite taking loads of photos of their cat, the only one of Warren and Norsh we took was during that evening! Here it is below, with Jason on the left.

The last major excursion that Will and I did in Hong Kong was the Dragon's Back hike. We took the same bus that we had taken on our day at the beach, but got off a few stops before Shek O at the beginning of the trail. The trail is very well sign-posted and we had a great day climbing right up to the top of the ridge and getting spectacular views over the surrounding area.

 

This area is renowned for its paragliding and just after we had passed the summit we came across the takeoff point. Someone was just about to launch, so it was interesting to stop for a while and watch them eventually get airborne after a few aborted attempts.

That was the end of our time in Hong Kong. It was lovely being able to spend so much time with Warren and Norshidah, and we appreciated all of their generous hospitality. We've loved visiting them over the last few years on our travels to or from the UK. This was the last time we'll see them in Hong Kong as when we are next in that part of the world they will be living in Singapore.

Singapore

On the evening of Sunday 27th November we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, then took an Uber to the 1-bedroom apartment I had booked through Airbnb for 6 nights. The apartment block certainly had an interesting sculpture garden, it looked like something out of the Kama Sutra!

Our apartment was in a great location, up on Institution Hill off River Valley Road. It was walking distance to Fort Canning Park and Clarke Quay. We were up on the 5th floor, you can see my distinctive striped jumper hanging up in the window!

I did enjoy having top-quality badminton showing live-to-air on the telly every night.

We enjoyed revisiting Fort Canning Park which was the venue when my brother Warren married his Singaporean bride Norshidah a couple of years ago.

Since then a whole lot of double swings have popped up around the park. These were great for chilling out and watching the world go by.

I love the frangipani that grows all over the place.

Pretty much my favourite thing about visiting Singapore is the food. You can get amazing meals for very little by eating as the locals do at the cheap and cheerful food-courts that are all over the place. I LOVE chicken rice, and the feast below literally cost me a few dollars.

We've done a lot of the main 'sights' on previous visits to Singapore, so this time it was nice to just wander around and soak up the atmosphere. I do like the bustling area around Boat Quay with all its funky little cafes and bars.

I really like this sculpture

These mirrored sculptures seem to be all the rage at the moment, we've seen them in different cities all over the world this trip.

Wherever you are in the city centre, the landscape is dominated by the iconic Marina Bay Sands complex. 

The Helix bridge is one of my favourite structures in Singapore. It looks equally impressive both during the day and all lit up at night.

No visit to Singapore is complete without a visit to the Merlion park.

Yes, it is cheesy, but it had to be done!

Singapore does do strange animal amalgamations... As well as the Merlion, we also stumbled across a weird elephant/unicorn combination.

One day we took a bus to Zainon's place where we enjoyed a lovely home-cooked meal for lunch. Zainon is Norshidah's mother, and we were also hosted by Zainon's sister, Mel. Below is the post-lunch selfie!

After lunch we walked a short distance to an apartment block where Warren and Norshidah have purchased an apartment. They are planning to move to Singapore from their current home in Hong Kong in the near future, once they have carried out some renovations on the property. Their balcony is the second one from the top in the pic below, up on the 18th floor. I'm sure Zainon and the rest of the family are looking forward to them living in Singapore.

Not far from the bro's new apartment is a sports club/gym complex where Warren had given me the heads-up that they serve some of the better western-style coffee in Singapore. We took Zainon and Mel there for afternoon tea and I had a flat-white that wasn't bad, although was still a long way from Wellington coffee standards!

It wasn't all play during our time in Singapore. Will spent one day visiting a colleague at the National University of Singapore (NUS). While he was working, I checked out the massive high-end mall that adjoins the Marina Bay Sands complex. It is quite liberating wandering the shops when there is pretty much nothing that you want/need to buy. Will met me outside the complex once he was finished. the gardens and lily-pond area outside the mall were impressive.

Having come straight from work, he is rather better-dressed than me in the selfie below!

We had visited Gardens by the Bay on a previous trip to Singapore, but the 22m high Skyway was closed then due to lightning strikes. This time we arrived at dusk and enjoyed wandering the gardens in the lovely soft light.

After some excellent satay for dinner at the Satay by the Bay food court, we purchased our tickets for the Skyway. It just happened that it was the very first day of the Christmas festival in the gardens, so the place was absolutely heaving. The bonus was lots of pretty extra Christmas light installations to enjoy!

We were lucky enough to be up on the Skyway during the nightly sound and light show. The light show was very impressive. You are only meant to spend 15 minutes up on the Skyway, but we spent much longer than that and the staff didn't try and hurry us along which was nice, it meant we took LOADS of photos!

As part of the Christmas festival there was a live band knocking out the Christmas numbers. There was also a whole lot of carnival-style games which the locals were fully embracing.

That sums up our very enjoyable 6 days in Singapore, next stop is Hong Kong, and some time with the bro and sister-in-law.