Hong Kong

Had a fantastic two days in Hong Kong. The contrast between it and Okarito is amazing - it certainly amazed Monty. Right from arriving at the airport and taking an underground train from the arrival gate to the immigration section. Then the airport express to an undeground station,an into a tidal wave of humanity as it was rush hour.

Monty had only ever been on three trins in his life and two of them were steam trains! The underground stations are all ultra modern, spacious and very clean. You could live a subterranean existence in Hong Kong and almost never see the light of day - actually the smog means you actually almost never see the real light of day!

Our hotel was 77 storeys high, and we were on the 76th floor. It was a little out of central Hong Kong, so the surrounding neighbourhood was truly local. We were rather jetlagged, and Monty couldn't understand why it was hard to breath and his eyes were stinging. I guess rush hour smog isn't such a problem in Okarito.

 

Needless to say the view from the hotel was pretty amazing and Monty was spellboundby it for the whole time we were there. We took the first day easy as we were very jetlagged.

After a good night's sleep we were ready to hit the town. We took the underground to Hong Kong Island then road the Peak Tram cable car up to the Peak for a fantastic view over the concrete jungle. The cable car is unbeleivably steep and was built in about 1882.

We then rode one of the double decker street trams to Sheung Wan and wandered the streets. It is a great mixture of old Hong Kong street life and modern skyscrapers.

Crabs at a fish market

We took the Star Ferry across the harbour and back to the mainland, then the heat and smog started to take its toll. Time to retreat to the hotel.

This is the skywalk between the two towers of our hotel. It is 41 storeys up. Yes, my knees were trembling.

Overall we really liked Hong Kong and would have liked more time there.