Hong Kong and Macau
Trip Start
Jul 26, 2006
1
22
Trip End
Sep 03, 2006
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Well I arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday. It's a much nicer city than Bangkok but still really, really hot. It's quite westernised and more sophisticated. I went up to Victoria Peak on a funicular where there was a nice long walk around the park where you can see giant dragonflies and beautiful butterflies and excellent views of the city and Kowloon.
I visited a couple of the temples, had my fortune told again (apparently I work too hard - hmm..) I walked around the districts where they sell all kinds of dried things for eating and for chinese medicine- dried fish, dried deer dung, dried bat (whole ones)! I've hung out in Hong Kong park and went on a lovely night cruise around Hong Kong harbour.
I went to the Temple Street night market in Kowloon and picked up a few nice pieces of Asian things and gifts. I've been eating dim sum for breakfast which is a bit weird but that's what they sell pretty much everywhere in the mornings. SoHo here is where all the nightlife is and tonight me and another teacher (from Germany) are going to eat out perhaps in Kowloon after visiting the night market again.
Yesterday I went on the ferry to Macau. Macau is a small area which was under Portuguese rule until more recently. You need a passport to get there. It's a really strange place which has cobbled streets and architecture like a Med town but it's also very Chinese. I had lunch at a typical Portuguese restaurant near the inner Harbour. The ferry was very fast (just 1 hr to get 60km) and it was a very smooth ride.
I'm flying home on Sunday. It's a long flight - 13 hours! I will be seeing most people at Rachel's birthday on Saturday I suppose and I'll call on Sunday if I'm not too tired after arriving home. Today I will be exploring Lantau Island. I will update this blog tomorrow.
Here's the update: I went to the Buddhist Monastery in Lantau and walked up the steps to the Buddha monument. Then I took a bus to a little village called Tai po on the west of Lantau which had little houses on stilts. I caught the bus back to the ferry port on the East side of Lantau and the ferry back to Kowloon where I met up with Anna and we had dinner and drank some wine back at Mt Davis before catching a taxi to the airport in the early hours of Sunday Morning.
Take Care
love
Claire
xx
P.S. Rachel - when are we doing the Nike 10K? Am I supposed to be fit? I haven't been to the gym for ages - does carrying and walking around with a backpack around count as exercise?
