Friday 29th June
As I had some time to kill in my last few proper hours in Thailand I decided to go for an Aromatherapy Oil Massage. It was so nice and relaxing... although she massaged my boobs a bit... which was just a little odd!! Felt really relaxed after!
As it has been raining since I was in there, our little Tuk Tuk driver mate was parked at the end of our lane and insisted on driving me to the entrance so I didn't get wet! And surprise surprise he didn't charge! Bless him!
I had a baguette which was as yummy as ever and was chatting to Natasha (the Chinese girl from the night before). Jem returned from the Internet and we were just waiting around for the bus really. The bus arrived and we said our goodbyes and it was time to go.
we got transferred to the main bus station and got the VIP bus, which wasn't half as nice as the one from Krabi to Bangkok! But never-mind!
So there we were one our way out of Thailand and I was thinking about the culture and what I'd learnt there....
- Every drink you buy you get given a straw!
- They see westerners as walking ATMs and try to rip you off
- 7 Elevens everywhere!
- Dorian Fruit, the stinkiest fruit ever, still not brave enough to try it!
- The woman and tiny and stick thin... all range from UK size 0-6
- The men are small too and always have one or more really long fingernail, apparently its some sort of Thai fashion
- Shoes have to be taken off in many doorways
- Can't always flush tissue down the loo! (although we did.... bad us!)
- If a Thai person can't understand something, they'll agree anyway
- Thai language uses symbols and is pronounced by sounds
- They eat noodles for breakfast (not ventured there!)
- Plastic bags with ice and drink, usually because they give the drinks bottles back to the companies and get a deposit back
- Every Monday they wear a yellow polo shirt with the royal emblem on, this is to honour the king
- On Fridays they wear light blue polo shirts to honour the queen, although this is not as popular as the yellow shirt
Saturday 30th June
We arrived in Bangkok and hour and a half before expected, at 4.30am! we were woken up by all the lights being turned on and rock music blaring out the stereo! Nice!
As soon as we got off the bus there were taxi drivers everywhere, trying to rip us off, saying its 400B to the airport, when we got a metered taxi it was only 200B! We got to the airport, 6 hours before check in! So found some seats, got my pillow, blanket and eye mask out and slept for a good few hours! When I awoke, there was a choccy bar and ice tea waiting for me... my favourite!
After a bit we went to check in, amazing enough our bags are still under 20kgs!!! Crazy! we went through to departures and got a coffee and bagel, which I ate a little later as wasn't too hungry at that point.
The flight, with China Airways, was fine. We had entertainment on demand, although the films weren't that good, so read my book some of the way. Finally we were in Hong Kong. Got our bags and found the bus easily, it was pouring with rain!
We got off the bus and walked 30 seconds to where our hotel was at Chungking Mansion. It was a busy skyscraper with loads of small businesses on the ground floor. There were so many people asking if we had accommodation and hassling us. We had been warned about this and told to ignore it. We found the life we needed to get into, thanks to the help from an Indian guy and made it up to Lucky Hotel.
Here we were greeted by Henry, from Nero-be, very friendly and helpful. He explained at the owners of Lucky, also owned 2 other hotels on the floors above and that we were actually staying at the Las Vegas hotel. So he called another guy that worked there and they took our bags to the 15th floor (we were on the 12th!). As we walked up we were hoping Las Vegas was going to be as nice as Lucky. when we got there we discovered it was! The room was Sooo cute! it was tiny, twin, but very clean with tiled walls and a little bathroom. It also has air con and a TV. It really is cosy, we were pleased with it!
Sunday 1st July (10th Anniversary of SAR government in HK)
Had a great nights sleep, although when my alarm went off at 8am, i could've slept a lot longer!!
Had a little walk around the street we were staying on, then went back in time to meet up with my friends from home, Matt and his wife Polin. They moved back out here about 10 months ago. Polin actually came to meet us, as Matt had trouble stopping on the street in the car. It was so nice to see her and she was glowing, being six and a half months pregnant, with the cutest bump!
We walked around to the next street and Matt was waiting, it was wicked seeing him, a friendly face from home! Also joining us for the day was Matt's best mate, Trung. He seemed really cool and down to Earth.
We started off by going for traditional Dim Sum at a restaurant overlooking the harbour, great views. Apparently Dim Sum is a kind of brunch meal, and is like our traditional Sunday Roast, where it is something for the family to get together and do. It was really busy, obviously a popular place to eat.
Dim Sum consists of many smaller dishes, that are mostly steamed, such as rice, pork, dumplings, rice soup, fish and much more. This is accompanied with Chinese Tea. It was really tasty, there were a couple of things I was a little unsure of, but tried it all and enjoyed it!
After Dim Sum, Matt drove onto Hong Kong Island and headed south to a tourist area called Stanley. There is a market, beach and the smallest temple I have seen! The market was quite good, made a change from the Thai markets! As it was a holiday (10th Anniversary) the streets were buzzing and there was dragon boat racing happening at the beach. we watched a bit of that, which was good.
From Stanley, Matt drove us back onto the mainland and parked his car at his work. Then we got a taxi to Mong Kok, which is a shopping area, and much more how I expected Hong Kong to be... busy busy and signage everywhere!! First off Matt helped Jem and me get HK Sim Cards, as they are so much cheaper and easier to call home, also we have a quite a social life happening in HK (for once) and is so cheap to call between HK mobiles! So I have a new number until 12th July... if you don't have it ask or look on Facebook, but will return to the normal one in Beijing (on 13th)! From here we went for a mango dessert... a whole shop with real fruit desserts-mango being the speciality. I had coconut noodles with mango and mango sorbet. Well nice.
We walked through the ladies markets... a markets selling most stuff for us girlies... great! it was quite a cool market! We didn't ponder for too long there as we had to get to the harbour for a certain time. Jem was on a mission to get an iPod, and with their help she managed to get a 30GB one for 60 pounds less than they are in the UK. We like a bargain! So shes pleased with that! Polin was telling us which streets sell what, certain streets sell certain things... such as electronics, sportswear etc.
We went to the MTR station after that and had our first experience of the HK underground. We got an Octopus card, which is much like an Oyster card in London, except you can use it in some shops too, great idea!!
We went down to the harbour area, it looked different from earlier... the road had been closed off and people were starting to gather, as part of the celebrations was a massive fireworks and laser display across the harbour a little later on.
We were booking into a Mexican restaurant, the food was lovely! It was a buffet starter, so got to try a variety, then we went down and outside for the fireworks. The were great, we didn't have the best view, but it was still really good and the atmosphere was electric. They lasted for about half and hour and the finale was amazing... fireworks everywhere and so many all at once!
We went back into the Mexican after and had main course, I had sole fish, which was so so nice! I was pretty stuff after that, think Jem was even more full! But still made a tad of room for Banana Tart... yummy! We chatted for a while and then to walk off the food, we went along the Harbour and walked through the Avenue of Stars. This is famous Asian film stars with their hand prints in cement, much like the Gorman Theatre in Los Angeles, although here it was much nice and cleaner! There was a big statue of Bruce Lee too.
Matt, polin and Trung walked us back to the hotel and we said our goodbyes! Really sad, it was so nice seeing them and the effort they put in was amazing.
Monday 2nd July
Didn't wake up until late, was so tired! When we got sorted we got the KCR to the Sin Tin race course. As it was a bank holiday, there was a special racing event, so we went to watch. It was really busy there, the race course over looked the mountains which was such a lovely view, but the course itself was quite plain. Jem put a couple of bets on, the first one her horse came last and the second did a little better but still didn't win! Oh well!!
After we went to Hung Hom Station to see about a train to Beijing... there is a sleeper train that takes 24 hours to get there! But much cheaper than flying... so going to be doing that!! Oh the joy of travelling!
From there we had a look around a nearby shopping centre, but it was quiet, there was a whole floor decided to weddings and loads of not too nice dresses!!
We went back to the hotel to get ready for our night out with two of our university friends that we lived with in halls... Gaz (who lives and works here) and Sam (travelling also... and lives in MK!) we got the MRT to Wan Chai and met up with Sam there, it was so good to see him, and he looked exactly the same as when I'd last seen him before he left in January! Gaz was working so we were meeting him a bit later. We went to a Mexican bar, luckily it was still happy hour, so we got the drinks in... I had a Sangria and a Strawberry Sangria, both very nice! We were just catching up, then Gaz's housemate, Andy, came and met us and one of Sam's mates from home, who was on holiday there, Joe also met us.
A bit later we met Gaz at a Chinese restaurant, both Jem and me hadn't seen him since uni, but he is the same as ever. It was great it was just like none of us had been apart and were catching up on whats been happening and reminiscing the good times at uni!! The Chinese was nice, had a mixture of lots of different dishes such as Chicken and Cashew Nut, Beef and Black Bean, Veggie option and a few other things. Yummy!
After the meal we went for a drink, then said our good byes to get the last MRT home... weird to think we won't see them for a very long time now, Sam is travelling for at least another year to two years and Gaz doesn't know when he'll come back from HK! So so good to see them though!
Tuesday 3rd July
We started off this morning by going to get our Chinese Visas, it was easily done at an agency near us, although we needed a photo,a nd I had run out, so had to have one done there and then... oh my god it was the worst photo ever. I looked like I had serious sleep deprivation... maybe its an indicator that I need a chill out!!
After we got that sorted, Jem went back for a lie down as she had a bad headache, so I took myself to the Harbour City shopping Centre. Its full of designer shops, but the top floor, is like a Paperchase heaven... and you guys know how much I love Paperchase!! It was great, I could have bought so much, but I didn't!!!
Had Sushi for lunch which was yummy and looked out over the harbour at a view from the window! Lovely!
When I got back later, Jem still in bed, watching DVDs. The guy who works at the hotel had lent us his DVD player... how nice was that?!?!! So I got into my PJs, watched some of South Park then we watched Borat... finally... I have not seen it! It was good, some bits are so shocking! James and Eion.... Finally I get the 'High Fivvve' thing!
Wednesday 4th July
Started a day of sightseeing with going to HK Island, straight to Central. We Walked to St Pauls Cathedral, it was really peaceful in all the madness of the city. It was small but nice. From there we walked to Hong Kong Park. My initial impressions are that it is gorgeous! On a bright sunny day, which we were lucky enough to have that day, it looked so peaceful and luscious!
There are many Olympic sculptures all around, celebrating the forthcoming Asian Games and Beijing 2008 Olympics. We walked around the lakes, waterfall and the fountains. Then made our way to the Tai Chi Gardens. After the steep stairs there was only one guy in the gardens practising Tai Chi. We watched him for a bit. Then I went up to a viewing point, that overlooked the park, although the view was gorgeous, it was one hell of a climb!! Jem's asthma hasn't been as good so she opted to stay at the bottom.
From there we walked to the Visual Arts Centre, there were mostly ceramics on display. It looked like they were there remaining from a competition, as there were bouquets of flowers all around with tags saying congratulations. The smell was lovely!
After the park we went to get a cookie at Pacific Coffee, I had a Cookies'n Cream Expresso Chillino, really nice!
We walked up to Victoria Prison, it was quite a steep walk up little staired streets! When we got there it was just a disused prison, with an English feel. Wasn't really much to it!
From there we wnt to the well know "Worlds Longest Esculator" it started to pour with rain, as it does most afternoons here! Luciky the esculatosr is undercover! It starts at Queens Road, goes through Hollywood Road (SoHo) and ends in Mosque Street. Although it is meant to be the longest it is in bits, so not one long one!! Before we went down, I introduced Jem to the world of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. She tried the Original Glaze and loved it! For once in my life I really didn't fancy one!! They have some different flavours here too... anyone for a Green Tea Krispy Kreme??
As the esculators only go one way we had to walk down to the bottom! When we got to the bottom we were going to go to Central Market, only to find it had been closed down... well it was shwut this day and very disused looking!
We walked up to Man Mo temple which was meant to be really bright and exciting, but it was so filled with joss ssticks burning, you could not breathe let alone see into the temple!! So that was a short stay! From there we had a steep walk up to the Museum of Medical Sciences. It was interesting, giving the history of the Bubonic Plague, SARS and other Chinese epidemics.
After we headed back to the MTR to make our way home, before we did though we stopped off at the Western Market. It was a lot different than expected! Not many shops, the second floor just sold fabrics and the third floor was a restaurant with what looked like people doing rock and roll dancing! Very unexpected!!
We got the MTR home and when I got back I watched The Devil Wears Prada on DVD and chilled out.
Thursday 5th July
Today we spent the day around the area we are staing in Kowloon. We started off by heading North and going to the HK Museum of History. This had a feature called the "Hong Kong Story". It was really interesting, a massive museum and you could easily spend hours upon hours in there! Found out a lot of interesting things about HK and Chinese culture in general. we had an audio tour, but to be honest it wasn't that great, you couldn't always find the little headset numbers that indicated different tours.
There were about a million school kids about (oooh joy!) and they were so misbehaved! If we'd acted like that on a school trip we probably wouldn't be allowed to go on another. But the teachers didn't seem to care that they were running around and shouting!! It kind of ruined it a bit. But nevermind!
In the cafe we had noodle soup... yummy! Kind of miss that from Thailand and Malaysia! Eventually al the sceaming brats left, but we were leaving too... typical!
We wondered back down to the Harbour to go to the Cultural Centre, although we didn't realise it was just a theatre venure so there were no exhibitions or displays to see. Although the architecture is something to be desired!! Because of the cream coloured tiled it looks like a public toilet wall and is a very odd shape!
we had to pick up our visas after that, so we're all legal to go to China now!!
From there we went back to the habour, wondered round to see the old KCR Clocktower, wasn't too exciting, so we got photo and went! The HK Museum of Art was our next stop... but it is closed on Thursdays... booo!!!
So whats a girl s'pose to do... shop of course! we went to the Star House shopping centre first, but its a bit rubbish! So moved on swiftly to the Harbour City shopping Centre. Just had a little look around there and went for coffee. Today I tried the Rocky Road Expresso Chillino, yummy!
Then it was time to go back and get changed ready for our evening out. We got the MTR to Times Square and met up with my friend from college Madison. Shortly after his girlfriend, Mary, also met up with us. Wow, it was so good to see them! There are plenty of places to eat out in HK so we had a look around for a good place. We went to one where Madison's sister had her reception a few months earlier, so he knew it was nice. And it was really nice! Tried lots of different Chinese food, really enjoyed it!
After we went to a bar, it had a really lively atmosphere. Jem and me had the Sangrias, Mary hit the cocktails and Mad had beer. We chatted for ages, Mad and me we chatting about all the mischief we all use to get up to at college... oh such fun days!! On the tables were Monkey Nuts to crack open and eat, the shell you were just s'pose to disguard on the floor! It was an experience!
When we were walking back to the MTR, people queuing up outside YSL, when Jem went and asked they said they were waiting for an limited edition bag that was coming out that the following morning! Oh dear. Thats all I can say about that.
We had such a lovely evening, so so good to catch with them properly! Hopefully will be seeing them again over the course of next week.
Friday 6th July
Today we were heading off to explore the New Terriories, which is North of where we are staying. We jumped on the KCR and headed to Sha Tin and to the Ten Thousand Buddha Monestry. When we arrived we walked towards the Grand Plaza Shopping Centre, which... had IKEA!! First one we'd seen in a long time! Anyway... the monstery was up in the hills, there was an entrance on ground level, it was really pretty. There were esculators to take you up... it really was quite high up!! when we got to the top, we went into the room with the main Buddha, then noticed loads of mini buddhas all around the room... hence the Ten Thousand Buddha thing I think! Outside were different rooms with what looked like little memorial plaques, many with photos of the deceased on. Also in the grounds was a Pagoda. There would be some gorgeous views, if there wasn't a massive skyscraper in the way!!!
On the way down... yep had to get the stairs down! There was the smalled frog I have ever seen! It was so tiny!
We thought it would be rude to not visit IKEA! So we did! Its pretty much the same as ours, had luch in there, I just had the Spagetti and Jem and Meatballs!
From there we got back on to the KCR to the next stop, Tai Wai. Here there were a couple of things we wanted to see, firstly Che Kung Temple. It was quite a good temple, had more or an army feel to it than the others, by the look of the statue. I did the most stupid thing ever, went to put a donation in the box, emptied my change from my purse into my hand and shoved it in... as I did I noticed my UK Sim Card also heading in there. Opps! Luckily I have an HK number which is +85266714742. They weren't able to open it so I had to call the main people! They said they only open it once a week... so hopefully I'll get it back before I leave!! The lady on teh phone asked how on Earth I did that!! Opps!
I was so mad at myself after! But we walked to Tsang Tai Uk, which is a preserved anicent walled village. When we arrived, what we didn't realise was that people actually do still live there!!! It was good looking around.
From there we stopped off at Hung Hom station to book our train ticket to Beijing then, headed back!
Think we're just chilling tonight, nothing too exciting!
See you all in 2 weeks, gosh its just going so fast!! Miss you xxxx
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