A more detailed blog from Hong Kong:
We arived late into Hong Kong on Friday night, grabbed a bus to take us to the centre of Kowloon. On the way in we got the impression that this place is pretty huge and very high!. We got off the bus at Tsim Sha Tsui. This area is basically a large shopping district, most are either jewellers or technology shops with a few random gift shops thrown in! The worst bit about where we are staying is all the men who keep offering 'Genuine' copy watches and handbags, they are a complete pain!! The hostel is pretty weird to be honest... a sort of chinese laundry where the owners buy up old repossessed flats and make them into small guest houses but they are mixed in with local families and laundries so it's all a bit random!!
On Sat we went to the harbour to get our first view of Hong Kong and it's pretty spectacular!! Caught the famous Star Ferry over the harbour and wandered round the streets near Central Pier. Found the mid level escalators which are the world's largest outdoor escaltors and jumped off at SoHo where we had some drinks and food.
Sunday we decided to go to Victoria Peak by the old Peak Tram, we queued for about 45 mins but it was worth it. AMAZING views over the harbour. This place is seriously huge and overwhelming. We had a sandwich overlooking the harbour and then caught the tram back down. We then walked along the seafront to Causeway Bay which is the 'Camden' of HK and saw some strange sights along the way.. There is a promenade where the locals take their minature dogs out for a 'doggy catwalk'... very odd.
Monday we decided to get out of the hustle and bustle of HK and caught the ferry to Lantau Island. Wow what a different place. We went to Tai-O, an old fishing village on stilts and saw all the dried fish stalls. Pretty smellyyyy. Then we caught the bus to the Po Lin Monastery where the world's largest outdoor buddha is. It was awesome. Had a pretty steep climb up lots of steps to the top but worth it. Even got given free ice cream and water included in the ticket price!!
Yesterday we decided to catch the bus to the other side of HK Island to Stanley.. However, our plans were slightly stalled when I fell over and twisted my ankle. We both fell off this step that we didn't see but whilst Carl landed ok, I fell pretty heavily.. At first I wondered if I might have broken it but other than a golf ball sized bruise, I seem fine.
So, we did make it to Stanley and had a nice day at the beach... we're back off there today to kill some time before our train to the border into mainland China and then a flight to Bangkok..
Love to everyone.
Becs and Carl x
