What a let down.

The first excursion booked here in Kowloon and it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The itinerary sounded great:- Ride the peak tram to the sky terrace viewing platform on Hong Kong Island. Visit the old Hong Kong fishing village.  Ride the longest escalator in the world. A trip to see the latest in designer clothing (not something we were interested in but was on the tour) Watch how fine jewellery was made at a factory. Star Ferry ride across the harbour to Kowloon. View the old clock tower and (to finish off the 9- hour excursion) a Victoria Harbour cruise with buffet dinner to watch the famous festival of lights on the harbour buildings from the upper deck. Unfortunately for us, and the other 8 people on the tour, it was only the tram to the sky viewing terrace, the fishing village and the Star ferry crossing (although that only lasted 10 minutes.) that was any good.

Peak Tram

Cheap tat sold at the sky terrace.

Fishing village

 As for fashion outlet....dreadful. In fact, we left our guide and headed for the nearest bar. Our guide found us 40 minutes later! The Jewellery factory was okay but hard selling after the demonstration was most off-putting. Ian did buy me a small Chinese zodiac necklace. My sign is the snake which means intelligent and flexible. Somehow I think they may have got that wrong! As for the longest escalator, he only took us halfway.  Stretching for over 800-metres and rising 135-metres through the streets of a steep hillside linking some of the districts of Hong Kong Island, the series of 20 escalators and 3 inclined moving walkways has 14 entrances and exits and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Would have been worth it if we could have gone right to the top but no, it was halfway to go see that fashion outlet!

 The ship was waiting for us on the Kowloon side of the harbour, Bauhinia, and we all only just boarded on time. No sooner had the last foot stepped off the gangway then it was hastily raised, ropes cast off and away we sailed. We literally had minutes to get to the top deck to view the lights. But if we had known how awful it was to be we should have stayed below. Apart from some of the lights on the buildings changing colour, shining a few green laser beams into the sky was not what I class as a light show! 

This is what we saw and this......

 

is what we should have seen!!! photo from  discoverhongkong.com

The old clock tower

Took some more night harbour photos. At least the building lights gave a decent show.

 And an Egret at the fishing village.

Hong Kong day 1

What an incredible place Hong Kong is. If I thought we would gently be eased back to the hustle and bustle of the UK I needed to think again. So many people, so many cars, taxis and buses that getting around was a challenge. The first hiccup of the day was Ian turning left from the hotel, down Nathen Road, the wrong way. Wanting to get to the harbour we must have walked 3k before Ian realised!. All that way back and more took over an hour! This I will remind him about for a long time!!!! Public holiday today so plenty of people on the streets as well as wedding preps at the docks. Ching Ming festival was the reason and to mention it briefly, it is when the Chinese people honour and remember their dead. The Filipinos (many as servants to the Chinese) also have this day off so partying and getting married all seem to happen on this one day.

Remembering the  Tiananmen Square massacre

Getting ready for multiple weddings

Took the Junk 'Duk ling' from pier 3 for a  harbour cruise. Free complimentary drink (alcohol included) and with very few on board, no fighting to get to see the views across the harbour. This was a fishing vessel originally and underwent full restoration in the 1980s. The 'Duk Ling' sank during a typhoon in 2014 and was submerged for 3 months before being rescued and restored by Yu Lik-hang and his aunt Cheng Ching-wah.

Duk Ling

These were saved from when the Junk was submerged for 3 months.

Leaving the docks it was a route march to the ICC, Sky100 tower. Roadworks were everywhere and pedestrian walkways blocked off. The only way we kept 'on-route' was by watching the skyline to get a glimpse of our destination. A lovely Chinese lady took pity on us as we stood debating which way to go and escorted us to the building. So relieved to have finally arrived.... as was our feet!! Spectacular views made the long, long walk all worthwhile and, as it was late afternoon, decided to stay for the sunset and skyline at night.

ICC Sky100 tower.

By the time we left and made the long walk back to the hotel, it was 8pm. Along the route, we came across the Temple street market and a thriving large outdoor eatery.  The smell of the cooked Chinese food was irresistible so we did no more than order a local beer (quite good for a pale ale) and a huge plate of beef and mushrooms in oyster sauce accompanied by two bowls of steamed rice. With the grand total of HK$145 (roughly $10 to our £ ) for £14.50, it was well worth the money.

So far Hong Kong is living up to our expectations especially the challenge of eating with chopsticks!

Farewell Australia

Sad, sad day leaving Australia 'cos we have had the best time with all the family and friends and had the most amazing adventures in the 6 months away from the UK. Very hard saying goodbye to my twin brother and partner Sally but we are determined to come back for a visit in a few years.

It was raining as we drove to the airport, shame really as we had hoped to get the last glimpse of Sydney in the sun as we flew overhead.

I hate flying, it makes me very nervous. After all, if we were meant to fly surely God would have given us wings! So I was most relieved that the 8-hour flight held no surprises. Very little turbulence made me a very happy lady. Almost perfect weather when we landed with a pleasant 23-degree temperature. Through immigration without any dramas and even the baggage pickup was quick for a change. But trying to find where the hotel shuttle bus went from was a nightmare. We must have seen most of the airport before finding ourselves at the bus stops. Then Ian went to ask one of the officials which stop to use and was told we needed to buy a ticket before we could board and that was at arrivals about 700mtrs back the way we had come! A few expletives later and a rather brisk walk eventually saw us clutching the tickets and 30 minutes later on our way to the hotel. The bus journey took over an hour. It was 8 pm and the traffic in Hong Kong was a nightmare. All those taxies vying for business and holding up the bus. Still, once we arrived we were given a decent room, twin beds and a small bath with shower over (feel quite at home as that bath is the same size as the one we removed from FS over a year ago!) and....... overlooking the air conditioning in the yard below!!! Exploration day tomorrow. What will we find to do? Knowing us....loads.

Weddings, birthdays and cyclones

23rd March to 1st April 2017

 Since our return from the Queensland trip, it had been what I can only describe as manic! What with our second niece Jennifer getting married to Mathew on the 25th, and my brother Andy and my birthday bash on the 27th it has been pretty well full on for days. Rain and torrential thunderstorm for the first couple of days of our return kept us confined to base and our biggest fear was that the wedding day at Newcastle would be a washout. But the gods were looking down on us and the day dawned fair with the glimpse of the sun every now and then to raise our hopes. And so it was during the ceremony that an almost perfect afternoon materialised.

Liz on the left (Jennifer's chief bridesmaid and sister) That my brother waiting to escort his daughter Jen

The Mustang belongs to Ali who is sister to Sally's (my brother's partner) 

On the 27th (our birthday) we had a family get together and a buffet meal at the Sydney revolving tower overlooking the harbour and skyline of Sydney. The plan was to all meet at the Opera House Circular Quay eateries first. Unfortunately, our first niece Liz and hubby Rich (the wedding we came to in Australia back in October last year) couldn't attend and so Jen and Mathew took their place. Ironic really as they should have been at Hamilton Island in Queensland for the start of their honeymoon but got caught up in cyclone Debbie that caused havoc and devastation from as far north as Townsville down to the NSW border. Thankfully they were able to fly out on the following Friday to New Zealand instead.

Us 'twins' celebrating together for the first time in over 40 years.

From L to R, Ian, me, Sally, brother Andy, Jen and Sally's sister Ali.

 Took about 20 minutes to walk to the tower and got a great seat right by the window. Having put my bag down on what I thought to be a convenient ledge, I was dismayed to see it disappearing from view as the tower revolved. Much hilarity and scrambling around other diners to retrieve it but it was noted that I wasn't the only one to have done that. The skyline was amazing and the
360˚ views of Sydney spectacular.

View from the tower.

 The buffet was an 'all you can eat' consisting of a fish course, then Chinese, English, and Indian cuisine. The different deserts were too tempting to ignore so, even feeling completely stuffed after eating so much, they had to be tried. Such a memorable occasion and to share it with my twin after all these years apart, was brilliant.

We are now at 'The Farm' (Liz and Richards place) looking after the 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 ponies and 4 chickens, and not forgetting the 20 or so goldfish, until Sunday morning. Liz and Rich will be away for a few more weeks so this job when we leave gets handed over to my brother and Sally. The weather her in Bulladela is horrible, wet and cold, but at least we haven't had to experience the horrendous flooding in Queensland and parts of NSW in the aftermath of cyclone Debbie.We fly out to Hong Kong on Monday morning and must remember that the clocks here go back by an hour. Means we get to have a lie in. 10 am is when the plane leaves and we have to be at the airport 3 hours before the flight. Seems such a long time to hang around especially as we can now do an on-line check-in. I expect the queues for the baggage drop off may be the reason.

During a lull in the rain and Colin wants to play.

Colin loves bubbles.

Colin front, Hank at the back and Sunday one of the cats.

Toby and Sunday.

A few more Aussie wildlife photos.