Live it, Love it, Hong Kong!

Well it has been a long time… no excuses; I’ve just been too busy sorting myself out to get in contact with y’all so here comes a very long update!

It seems like ages ago that Pete and I set out from Perth. We had a smooth uneventful flight out to Hong Kong, if only the build up had been like it. Yes I did the one thing you are NEVER supposed to do – I forgot my passport at home. Needless to say this little control freak was in a bit of a state by the time he got to the airport!!! It’s funny now but at the time I was ready to have a breakdown.

The flight was uneventful, though I must admit I was exhausted from the 4 hours of sleep I'd had the night before. Yet nerves and emotions of leaving y'all back in Oz left me bereft of sleep... snoozed a bit but spent most of the flight watching movies.

Hong Kong airport is absolutely huge but well organized. Both Pete and I had managed to pack ~30kg’s each (thank goodness I’m a Qantas Club member – it’s the only reason I can think to justify the lack of excess baggage charges). Rather than haul our bags around on public transport after 5 steps we’d agreed to get a taxi or anything that could deliver us to our door – thankfully Hong Kong has a business that for about half the price of a taxi will deliver you to your hotel door – we paid our money and were very grateful for the service!

The hotel – ‘The Salisbury YMCA’ was clean, and very comfortable - a bargain right in the centre of Kowloon. Ironically it is right next to one of the world’s most expensive hotels, the Peninsular. I’d definitely recommend the hotel to anyone visiting Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is AMAZING - so clean, so many shops - most open well into the night, you can even go and see a movie at 12:40am AM!!! It truly is a world city. Saw the Da Vinci Code but really wasn’t that impressed.

A side street

Keep feeling like I've spent my life very sheltered in sunny old Perth.

Sunny – that’s one thing Hong Kong certainly wasn’t, it poured down! Plus the heat and humidity is oppressive, though every shop is air conditioned.

One word of warning if you are ever here - shop toilets don't carry toilet paper! I found this out to my detriment and embarrassment one morning. I won't go further but needless to say I will always be carrying a roll in my day pack in Asia!

The food was great, the public transport fantastic and I loved my time there – if I ever get the chance to work in Hong Kong I’ll jump at the chance.

What else - oh yeah, one night I had pork intensines + pork and chive dumplings in a hot and sour noodle soup - DELICIOUS! Also had some Lotus seed cakes which are a very unusual nutty pasty treat, try them if you ever get the chance.

There were a few other highlights that I got to – Temples, riding the old trams from Central to Causeway Bay, watching the light show over Hong Kong harbor and going to Lantau Island to view the biggest Buddha in the world.

One thing that stands out from my experience of Hong Kong was its confused identity; it’s undeniably a part of China and increasingly the investment capital for anyone wanting to invest in the mainland, yet the vestiges of British rule remain – the cars drive on the left hand side of the road, all the plugs are the UK prong, all the signs are bilingual in Chinese and English. When HK ends being a separate part of China in 40 years (?) I wonder how these issues will be addressed… not my problem in the end but still it will be fascinating to see what they do.

Pete and I flew out of Hong Kong on the Friday morning – we got to the airport 3 hours before our flight but that was so early that we couldn’t go through customs for an hour as they didn’t open until 6am!

Special mention on the Qantas Club lounge at Hong Kong International airport – this is by far the best lounge I’ve ever been in, truly a world class lounge. Plush.