Our arrival in Hong Kong was nothing spectacular, but the train ride was, being the most comfortable so far this trip. After a frantic phone call to the hostel we were staying at we made our way to the bus stop for the free shuttle bus up the mountain, only to find that there was 'Essential water mains work' in progress, and the bus would not be picking us up for another 2 hours. This ended up being quite a pleasant and relaxing time for us, as long as we ignored the noise of all the buses in Hong Kong driving past us. Little did we know that our Chi would be well and truly destroyed by our free ride.
It seems all the public service drivers in China are mad about F1, and would do anything to impress potential sponsors, including taking a winding mountain road with no barriers at no less than 35 mph... I thought I'd lived on the edge before, but this gave the 'edge' a whole new meaning! The hostel itself was fairly unremarkable when we got there, an assumption we soon changed when we breakfasted for the first time on the balcony outside our room. All around us there were eagles rising on the thermals of the city below, circling above our heads.
Our first evening we met up with some Auzzies and a German who were leaving the hostel the following day, and together we made our way to the completely wrong pier for a ferry to Kowloon, and ended up in a sleepy little fishing village, where motorised transport is banned. Aolthough we had a lovely dinner, watching the world go by on the bay, it would have been better for my nerves if I'd known how often the ferry was running, as we ended up having to get a taxi back up to the hostel (and yes, he drove just as well...).
The next few days were spent wandering the tropical parks of HK, including the walk-through aviary. We rode the worlds longest escalator (woooo!) and also spent an evening on the Kowloon side of the harbour to watch the spectacular light show. Needless to say I took several pictures, none of which will be published as they're terrible! We also did the obligatory funicular ride up to 'The Peak', and made it just in time for a quick look before the smog came down.
