Hong Kong

Thu 17 May

Arrived at Hong Kong airport. Bit of a delay waiting for hotel transfer. Finally arrived at the Harbour Grand Hotel at about 9.30pm.

Grabbed a quick meal in the Waterfront restaurant, with views over Hong Kong Island.

Fri 18 May

Joined organised tour of Hong Kong.

First stop was at Dynasty jewellery designers. A waste of time if, like us, you had no intention of buying anything.

Next was an optional boat trip. Started raining.

Here we saw fishing boats that were also used as homes.

Also saw the world's largest floating restaurant.

Then we drove to the South side of Hong Kong Island to Stanley Market. This was fun although the quality of the handbags seemed a little poor.

Around mid-day the coach drove us to Victoria Peak to admire the views over the city. However, because of the weather, all we could see was cloud.

Caught the tram back down from The Peak.

The coach dropped us back at the Kowloon Hotel so we decided to take the MTR under the harbour to Central station where we had a look around some very expensive shops before catching the Star Ferry back to Kowloon.

After our evening meal we went for a stroll along the promenade. It was a bit wet and windy! It's fair to say that this day had been a bit of a let-down.

Sat 19 May

Caught courtesy bus to Hung Hom station and took the MTR to Tung Chung on Lantau Island.

Here we boarded the cable car up to Ngong Ping.

From here we climbed the steps up to Tian Tan (the Big Buddah). Our timing was perfect, arriving just before the rain started falling again. We returned to Ngong Ping and went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch.

We returned to Tsin Sha Tsui just in time for the harbour cruise, and it was still raining when we boarded the traditional Chinese boat.

Luck then turned our way. As sunset approached the rain stopped and the skies started to clear. The sunset was stunning.

As darkness fell, the city was lit up and from the boat it looked fantastic.

After the cruise we waited near the quayside for the 8pm Symphony of Lights where multiple buildings on both sides of the harbour coordinate their external lighting in time with music.

We caught the MTR up to Jordan and walked along Nathan Road to see the many neon signs. Bumped into the Canto Opera singers and then visited Temple Street Night Market. The quality of goods on sale here were superior to Stanley Market and we haggled some good prices. All in all, this had been a great day and gave us a much improved opinion of Hong Kong.

Sun 20 May

Took the MTR to Central station and visited Central Square where a few old colonial buildings are dwarfed by skyscrapers.

Touched the paw of the lion statue outside the headquarters of HSBC Bank; this is supposed to bring good luck. Had a walk around the general area when it started to rain, and then rain heavily. We managed to zigzag through office lobbies and across covered walkways to get back to the MTR.

Later on we made a quick trip to Temple Street Market. We had a drink back at the hotel and watched the rain. Left for the airport about 8.30pm.

We arrived back at Heathrow on Mon 21 May at 5.40am. We rushed home then went straight to Valerie's to pick up Alfie who we'd missed loads.

An amazing trip; must do it again sometime!

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