Hola to all and sundry!
We've finally made it! EmJ and I saw (flew over really) the Northen Territory, the Phillipines and the Equator.
So Hong Kong. It's wet (at the moment) busy, crowded, dirty (and we mean FLITHY dirty), smelly (ugh- the polution) but it is also clean. Confused? I'll explain.
The city itself looks like it has just risen out of a black swamp, everything is covered in smog, but inside is soo clean! Not a bug or anything of that sort to be seen. We have been so far happy with how close everything is together, and the MTR(the rail system) is cool. We pay about $7.50 HKD for one train ride, which by the way, gets you from the top end of the New Territories to Hong Kong Island. In Aussie dollars it works out at about $1.00 a train ride!
We have made it to the Monastry of Ten Thousand Buddhas - but there wasn't many gold covered buddhas as far as we could see(there was supposed to be 10,000 of the things). They were right about the steps though - brillient workout! (400 steps up and down, and counting...)
Plus, when we weren't ogling the the skyscrapers, we were checking out the brand names - Gucci, Dior, BurberryBritt, Converse, Timberland - you name, Hong Kong has it!
Although we are tired(we got to our hostel at four AM Australian time), we are still looking forwards to our shopping spree which hasn't even begun yet. :)
Catch you all soon, b.
EmJ's blurb:
We made it (YAY!). The flight was cool, long, but cool. Spent my time watching Transformers (Stop rolling your eyes!) listening to Bach (I have discovered a passion for classical) and reading a new romance novel (Thanks Mum).
When we FINALLY made it off the plane the navigating begun. It was SOOO confusing last night when we were tired but we THINK we've got a handle on it now.
This morning we went up to the Temple (as b. said). We almost didn't make it. At first we couldn't find it. It was on the map, we were on the map (those "you are here" dots), but there was by all appearences, no connecting roads or trails between! We eventually found our way thanks to a really nice Canadian (I think) lady who pointed us in the right direction. Turns out what we thought was a large space between "us" and "it" was an office building and a driveway!
Before we met our "guide" we were wondering around (looking for the said temple) and we got REALLY hungry. To our dismay we couldn't find anywhere to eat and as such our first meal in Hong Kong was......Maccas. It was cheap ($3.00 AUD) but still. We go all the way to China to eat McDonalds! Oh well, it was yummy. I'm SOOO finding dim sims for dinner though!!!!!
Luv & hugs to all,
EmJ
P.s - besides being wet, the whether is quite warm, so Dad, we're fine - promise! (Although b. had to have a cold shower this morning... X P)
