We left Melbourne just as the week’s promised heat wave began. The temperature was above 40 degrees there. We had a very good flight straight up through New South Wales, Western Queensland and to the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria, over New Guinea and Manila. The on-flight food and entertainment was very good. We arrived in Hong Kong at the start of the Chinese New Year and this is the year of the Ox.
We travelled from Hong Kong airport on the Airport Express train, and are now staying at the Park Lane Hotel on Hong Kong Island. I woke early Thursday morning (timing was out – jet lag) and managed to watch a crowd of people practising Tai Chi down below in Victoria Park. We also have a good view across Causeway Bay. So after breakfast we headed out on foot to the shops, and more shops and....more shops (!) both on the island and then in Kowloon having crossed the water on the famous Star Ferry. Understandably, we returned to the hotel very foot weary but with a few purchases. It appears to be quite difficult to get anything tailor-made as it is the New Year holiday and many of the workers in that business have gone back to their families for their holidays for a week.
Friday, we spent the whole day up The Peak. We caught the MTR (mass transit railway) to Central and then walked up to where we caught the Tram which is a rack and pinion system and very, very steep. So steep in fact, the skyscrapers looked like they were leaning over! Today, the weather was perfect – very clear, so a good day to see the whole of the vista. We went to the very top of the Sky Terrace and were rewarded with fantastic views over the container port, the cruise liner port, Kowloon, as far as the Northern Territories and all of Hong Kong Island. We walked the walk around The Peak and decided to stay up there for dinner so that we could get all the night photos as well. Being New Year and a good day for weather, half of China’s population was up there too and we had a massive queue to get back to the tram for the ride down the Peak. I confess, I also did a little more shopping (as you do) and I think the zip on my rucksack will be screaming in agony if I shop anymore! However, Hong Kong prices for clothes, jewellery and electronic equipment don’t always appear to be cheaper than at home, partly due to the poor exchange rate.
Saturday, we went by MTR across to Diamond Hill and visited the Nan Lian Gardens – Tang dynasty style (618AD to 906AD) with various timber structures, water features and rocks. Around the walk there was music to relax one! After that we tried to see the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple but there were so many Chinese people worshipping in the New Year, we only got to the outside. So, on we went to the Ladies’ Market – lots of bargains on offer. Then we came back to Kowloon and walked down Star Avenue and back to the island via the ferry. We returned here in the evening to see the Symphony of Light. All the buildings around Hong Kong Central were lit up and there was a Sound and Light show with laser lights being beamed from the tops of the buildings – quite impressive.
Sunday, we caught the MTR to Wan Chai and found the Computer Centre. We walked on to the Exhibition Centre to Golden Bauhinia Square where the golden sculpture marks the occasion of the return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. We then took a taxi to Stanley Bay on the south side of the island and visited the market there. It was far less crowded there and we were treated to yet another performance of dragon dancing. We returned to Causeway Bay and were greeted by simply hordes of people picnicking in Victoria Park. Apparently today was a special Carnival day to raise funds for next week’s Hong Kong marathon.
Well, this has sadly brought us to the end of our Walkabout as tomorrow night we go to Hong Kong airport to catch our BA flight back to Heathrow where a snowy reception awaits, I gather.
The Aborigines say that to go Walkabout is “to lose one’s self in order to find one’s self.” That is probably very true. Coming away straight after both Peter and I retired from full time work and timing it with the doom and gloom of the Global Credit Crisis and the cold winter at home was in hindsight a good idea. We have seen so many new places as well as revisiting places we remembered from our life in Australia in the 70s. We have encountered many new faces of several nationalities as well as being reunited with friends that we have sustained a friendship with over the years and it was great to be able to catch up with them again and their hospitality towards us was wonderful.
We will both be coming home with such fantastic memories of our Walkabout and we hope those people who have followed our journey on the Blog have enjoyed it too.
Until the next time..... G’day from Sheila and Peter
