HKG

Went to hkg and china for a week's hols - was a pretty good trip apart from the fact that i spent too much ;-(

got to hkg first and checked into BP int'al, watched tv and freshened up, took angela's map, made a few enquiries at the concierge and was off. got lost of course ;-) but had the map and some of the youths spoke a smattering of english so managed to get back on the route. got back to my hotel - cant even rmbr what i had for dinner - oh yeah, Mc Ds HKG - they had this burger where the buns were patties made of rice and diced mushrooms, like lo ma kai - quite nice and filling. always always ALWAYS go to all McDs around the world - the only staple think you'd find is the Mc Chicken. I had Mc Country in Prague where the meat patty was pork and I had cheese and broccoli nuggets in Vienna (you'd think they sound very vegetabl-y, but i actually like it altho i'm carnivore!)

so neway, went to kowloon park where there was a lantern festival going on. prob walked like 5 kms or something. went to some street market and did some window shopping. also wanted to buy a camera, so was browsing. there was this sleek really nice sony one, 5.2mp, which he was willing to give for HKD900 but only 1 battery (NO), the memory card was only 128 (NO) and the warranty was not in english altho he claimed it had an international warranty (DEF NO). so didnt get around to buying it ler..

woke up the next morn and went to maersk hkg, met up with april and ashley and april took us for typical hkg fare - sweet and sour pork, some veg with mushrooms, fishball soup (nice) and something else. there was chinese tea on the table and i was about to take a sip when she said that those were only there to wash your chopsticks!! oh well..

got back, checked out of my super expensive hotel and went to mariners club which was decent and less than half the price ;-) was near tsim sha tsui stn, abt a 2 minute walk so VERY convenient. went to the temple street market and shopped like crazy ;-) had a good nights rest then decided to go to ocean park the next morn - that was damn fun.

pandas, dolphins, sharks, stingray, jellyfish - my kind place ;-) also had this halloween thingy going on so took pictures of giant tarantulas, ugly pumpkins and the wicked with from the west. and another corner of the park housed and amusement park with all the rides and went on those as well. and there was a 10 minuite cable car ride frm the lowland to the headland which overlooks the SCS - damn nice and saw 12 eagles in the skies at the same time ;-) dont ever ever miss that if you go to hkg..

got back, went straight to the maersk office to have dinner with april - szechuan food which was quite nice - fish belly soup, dumplings, crabmeat in egg white, mushrooms w something and chicken w dried chillies. aaaaahhhhhh, the glories of food ;-)

prob walked 15 kms the whole day - not kidding! oh how i missed gorgeous!

took the tram to victoria's peak the next morn. quite disappointing actually but it was a must see tourist attraction, so. but the tram ride was good - was 45 degrees going up the hill!! also went to hkg park and the tea museum and a bought a chinese tea plucking music cd which cost me a bomb. very nice tho - all about wind instruments.

checked out, left my luggage at the hotel then took the mtr to the hkg space museum and the avenue of stars. saw jackie chans hand prints and also michelle yeohs. tried the moonwalk simulator in the space museum - that was cool. turns out that we only weigh 1/6 of our actual weight on the moon!!

so then got my luggage and got to the stn and took the train to china..

got salsa now, so china will be another blog.. ciao.