Sunday 21st - Tuesday 23rd August

Hong Kong Phooooey

Juuuuuust about made it onto the plane at Brisbane…..Mark and Tiff dropped us off at the airport at about 9:15am for our 11:10am flight…….plenty of time……but we walked in to find an absolutely huge queue, which was moving very slowly (apparently Qantas were 14 staff down that day)

After much zig-zagging up and down the airport, we finally made it to the front of the queue to check-in at 11:00am (boarding time was 10:40)…..ok…..so we now have ten minutes to get through passport control, have ourselves and our hand luggage x-rayed….and get to the gate for boarding. Gazelle-like we sprinted through the airport, with the ‘final-call’ announcement ringing in our ears, filling in our departure forms as we ran and arriving at the gate at about 11:15….even managing to squeeze in a wee and stop for some food and drink at duty free….oooooh we like to live close to the edge.

Luckily the plane was still there when we reached the gate and we managed to jump on and take our seats…pheeeeewwwww…..

Arrived in Hong Kong after an 8-hour flight……….hmmmm……after so many flights the novelty of flying really is wearing off and we still have the 13-hour flight home.

Jumped on a train into the city and arrived at our hotel around 8pm….our hotel is in Chinatown….which is a good location as it is close to everything…..

Wow….what a fantastic hotel and room !!!!!…..we managed to play the ‘honeymoon card’ and were upgraded to an executive suit on the 32nd floor with large plasma TV…DVD player etc…etc….and wonderful views of the city….the bathroom has speakers and a glass wall, so you can even watch TV from the bath…

Headed out to investigate Hong Kong the next day and jumped on a tube train over to Hong Kong Island….we bought a 3-day metro pass (called an Octopus pass) at the airport, which we soon realised was essential, as in contrast to Sydney, the map doesn’t do justice to the size of Hong Kong.

Jeez this place is hilly….Hong Kong Island is basically one big mountain, but luckily there is an 800m long escalator system that run a significant way up the mountain, which was great…..apparently all through the day the system runs uphill until 4pm, when everything reverses…..cool…

Jumped on and took the escalator up to the botanical and zoological gardens…..the gardens are free and open to all, which is great, but unfortunately you get the feeling that this lack of entrance fee (hence funding) has a bit of a detrimental effect on the welfare of the animals…..the main attraction is a large orang-utan, who looked very unhappy in his cage.

After the gardens we then jumped onto the ‘Peak Tram’ which we rode up to the summit of the island.…..great views of the Hong Kong City and the mainland, even with passing clouds getting in the way….Hong Kong has a very low cloud-base and it is a very strange feeling watching a cloud come towards and engulf you….

Next stop was the harbour for a look at the Kowloon skyline....which, due to a bizarre lack of pedestrian routes in Hong Kong was easier said than done……however, after clambering over many road barriers and central reservations and cutting through various office buildings, we finally made it…..

After a long day we returned to the hotel, stopping at the night market to pick up some viewing pleasure for our in-room DVD….$20HK (£1.50) bought us the new version of Charlie and Chocolate Factory…..Joel also managed to pick himself up a very nice watch for about £20….

For our last day in Hong Kong and our honeymoon, we decided to head out to do some pressie and souvenir shopping….before heading back down to the harbour for a look at the Hong Kong City Skyline (from the Kowloon side)……

And then it was time to leave…….

Picked up our rucksacks and headed for the airport for our flight home……playing the honeymoon card for the last time, we managed to blag a very welcome upgrade to business class, which made the long flight home much more pleasant.