So, after a month of teaching my kids by myself (Ancheon weren't letting me have any let off at all!) Greg and I escaped Korea for the sunny climes of Hong Kong! When we left it was averaging about -10 C in Jeollabukdo and in Hong Kong it was 15C so it was practically tropical! It was so great to not be wearing my massive puffa jacket and shivering all day!
Hong Kong is my favourite place in the world. I went there 3 years ago and fell in love with it, and have always wanted to go back since, so this was a great opportunity (its only 3 hours from Korea) and I wanted to convert Greg to it's charms too. Luckily, HK has 2 theme parks so he was happy!
We stayed at the IBIS hotel at North Point, the hotel was nice, but as with all hotel rooms in HK it was tiny! It had a great harbour view though, so we were pleased! Unfortunately, the only TV channel we could find was FOX news, argh!!! So, we were bombarded with right wing insanity for the whole stay! Luckily, these presenters were very easy to laugh at!
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| Damn you Gretchen/old guys!! |
When we arrived in HK, we were very impressed as the bus to our hotel had wifi! So obviously we went on the internet for an hour instead of actually looking at HK! On our first night in HK we set out in search of a hip night out and some food (it was a Friday). I had the name of a bar on a map, but we couldn't find it, or anywhere else that sold food. The only places around were bars and clubs that were packed and really loud(Yes, we are pensioners now!) Alas, the only place we could find was a McDonalds, and even then we couldn't get a table! I looked v out of place with my makeup and outfit, but was the classiest person in there!
Saturday brought a trip to the Lantau Buddha, a giant Buddha built in 1992 ( I think!) by the Chinese to try and suck up to the Hong Kongers they were soon to take over. Its only accessible by a steep mountain climb or a 20 minute cable car ride! We chose the cable car route, but were amused to see some hardy fools climbing up the steps of the mountain!
I liked the Buddha, but had seen in before, and we were in agreement that the 300 steps to climb to reach it was a killer! A really massive, old guy overtook me on the steps so that was pretty depressing!
The area around the Buddha is all very touristy and tacky as well, a bit like Lourdes is (Catholic shrine), but Greg made friends with the local stray dogs so he was happy. He tried to get me to touch them but I wasn't having any of it as they were all fleay and mangy! eugh!!
After the Buddha we went to look for a new netbook for Greg (his had broken in Korea because the stupid ethernet wire (we don't have wireless, wtf!) was really short and his computer crashed off his bed on to the ground!) So, we looked around some cool computer markets and Greg eventually bought a MacBook - lucky him, we love the MacBook!
On Saturday, we also discovered the most wonderful thing in the world - Marks and Spencers Food! Oh my, it was soooo amazing! I jumped up and down in the street! We had a long look round and resolved to stuff our cases with things to take back to hell-hole Korea (it has M and S but no food - wtf!!)
On Saturday night, we went to a Mexican bar and drank cocktails out of cactus shaped glasses - good times!
On Sunday, we started the day by going to the 'World's Best Buffet' at the Shangri-la, a lovely posh hotel on Kowloon. It was the nicest buffet it the world, and as I had made a reservation they kept calling me Ms Lees and giving me great treatment and stuff - it was ace! The food was fabulous (Greg was even converted to eating salads) and they had the best icecream bar ever! Greg also ate about 20 cakes. I was more restrained and had 3! The service was my favourite thing about it though. Every time my glass was nearly empty, Hunter the lovely waiter came up and was like 'Refill, Ms Lees?' It was ace and I felt v posh! I want to stay in the Shangri-la next time I go to Hong Kong!!
Hong Kongers are definitely some of the nicest, politest people in the world. Despite all being crammed onto a tiny island and the issues that come with that, they are all friendly, smiley and don't glare at us in the street - Korea what's your excuse??
After our buffet we treked to the Victoria Peak.We got the Star Ferry across back to HK Island. The Star Ferry is great, it costs 25p and gives you a great view of the Island if you get a window seat. We did not :(
The trolley tram used to access the Peak goes up a really steep cliff and the view from the top is amazing. Unfortunately, there was a long queue to get on the tram, but luckily we decided to visit the Madame Tussauds on the Peak (yes, we really do love Chinese film stars) so we got to buy duo tickets and skip most of the queue! We decided to go on the cusp on sunset so we could see the view of HK from both the daytime and the evening! We went to Madame Tussauds first, which was ok but a bit crap as we didn't really know most of the Chinese 'stars'. We got to take the piss out of Kim Jong Il though, so that was amusing. Greg wanted to go in the Chamber of Horrors but I didn't after my 3 previous experiences at Chamber of Horrors, particularly in Blackpool where the monsters/actors hit me with sticks and said 'Greg can do nothing!' when I screamed for help from Greg....shiver!!!
The peak was really nice and to top it off we had a romantic picnic after sunset. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anywhere to sit so we ended up sitting on the cliff road - it had an excellent view but people gave us funny looks when they walked past! We were also swigging Bucks Fizz from a bottle (as we couldn't find plastice glasses anywhere so I think we looked a bit Alkie! On the plus side our Bucks Fizz was from M and S, so was the best thing ever! We also had M and S sandwiches, crisps, and wait for it, sausage rolls!! That shop was like heaven in a basket!! ( I will keep banging on about it!)
At the top of the peak we also wrote romantic notes to each other on love hearts and tied them to a fence thing ( I don't know what it was for but it was a good thing anyway - very soppy):
After visiting the Peak, we were due to watch the Symphony of Lights, a big light show which lights up all of the building on the Hong Kong Skyline. It can be seen best from Kowloon, but we underestimated the time it took to get down the peak (there was a BIG tram queue) and so we had to race across town to get to the harbour. I moaned a lot but we got there on time. However, as per usual, I had to go to the loo, and then got lost in this shopping centre, so we ended up missing most of the show! Gutted!!! I also lost my earring so I was grr tastic!! After the aborted light show, we went to a Shisha Bar and had Shisha - I have never had it before and it was good, we also had many, many cocktails - which for Katherine is not a good mix! Stupid lightweightness!!
On Monday, I had a stonking hangover. Unluckily I had forgotten in my hurry to get pissed that we were visiting Ocean Park, HK's Premier theme park and animal park - they have pandas. Thus, I was a grumpy moo all day and also got stressed about times and stuff - poor Greg! Ocean Park was also very busy. We had to queue for about half an hour to walk around and aquarium and about 20 minutes to see some Jellyfish! We did get to see the best pandas ever though, and got our picture taken with Redd the Red Panda ( a man in a suit). We went on a scary roller coaster and a carousel and also the log flume. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go on many things, as the ride queues were massive and we didn't have lots of time. Maybe we will go back one day!
After Ocean Park, we hit M and S and stocked up on as much tinned stuff (the M and S guy was like, 'ah you love paste') and crisps and sweets as possible. If only I would have thought more I would have brought a bigger case! Luckily, Greg is smarter and bought a new, bigger case in HK (his old one had broke he's not just crazy) so we managed to get a hell of a lot of food. We would have got more but we were going to the fabulous Tokyo before we went back to hell (Korea) so we had to be slightly restrained! HK also sells things like Cadbury's chocolate and maltesers which for some reason Korea does not, so we had to stock up on them as well!
On Tuesday we headed to the airport, tired but happy with our trip, and looking forward to the next leg of the journey to Japan and magical Tokyo Disney!!
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