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I awoke to a bit of a brighter day on public holiday Monday.  The mist and cloud had lightened a shade and although not clear across the harbour, the buildings looked sharper than they had since I arrived.  My plan was to get up to the Peak above Honk Kong Island, which is a favourite for tourists and locals alike.

The Ferry took me across to the Island.  It is funny that after just one trip your traveller confidence rises.  You have a comfort blank of ‘order’ that allows you to enjoy the trip a bit more.  My travel guide on the Web said to get the Number 15C bus from the Central Terminal.  That would take me to the start of the tram that steeply rises to the Peak.  As soon as I hit the bus stop, the bus, the number 15, arrived with “The Peak” as it destination.  Spot on, easy stuff.  The bus wove its way through the town and kept rising.  The views were amazing.  You get to the top of one stage and look down on the top of a skyscraper, then 2 minutes later you are looking down on another one.  It’s a bit like a LEGO town.  The buildings are slim and highly concentrated.  About 10 minutes in we have a great view of the Hong Kong racecourse.  This is a city of plenty of everything.  The in-between parts between the levels of road and the next curve in the road and between each of the main buildings are filled with dense greenery like broccoli.  In fact the whole of Hong Kong looks like a large Broccoli with organised toothpicks of buildings that descend down into the harbour.

The bus eventually stops in a station and everyone gets off so I decide to follow.  This should take me to the tram.  As we turn the corner we are in a large visitor area, surrounded by a couple of large buildings that hold shops and restaurants.  No sign of a tram though.  Everyone who was on the double decker bus had shot off in different directions.  I spotted a Tourist Information point, an old tram, that had a couple of girls inside.  “I need to find the tram that will take me to the top of the Peak, can you help?”.  “Oh, you are here, this is it”.  Johnny Tourist was back.  I think she may have been asked the same question a thousand time, so she gave me an answer without laughing.

There are two main buildings at The Peak, on the left a large observation tower and to the right a lower one with shops and restaurants.  I aim for the main viewing tower as it has the best angle to see both sides of the Island.  There are a lot of people around but not too many to cause queues.  I’ve been to the Lake District on a Public Holiday weekend and it isn’t a pleasurable experience.  Up on a host of escalators you finally arrive at the open top viewing gallery.  Although hazy and there is a hint of sunshine, but I wasn’t able to point accurately in which direction, but the Harbour and the view to Kowloon were excellent.  When you see apartment blocks in the UK they look an eyesore.  When you place them at different levels contrast them with the seasonal vegetable green trees in Hong Kong, it looks inviting.  On a clear day this must be one of the best views in the world.  I did the usual help for a couple of friends trying to take a photo in return for my photo.   Everyone is in the same boat.  Dad taking a photo of Mom and the Son, Son taking a photo of Mom and Dad…Never to be in the same photo.

After a quick lunch break, I headed for the Tram to take me down.  As it was full, I stood in the aisle of one of the two carriages.  I certainly got a feel for how steep the rail was by the angle that I had to stand and the pressure that was being exerted on my one leg.  Within a short while we were at the transfer point for the bus and I just followed the people in front of me until I saw a bus stop with ’15C’.  An open top Bus took us through winding roads of HK and back down to the Ferry Terminal.  Very enjoyable and great for photo’s (this is what I was hoping but you never know until you have them on the big screen).

From the Ferry I aimed into Kowloon in search of Temple Street.  This is one of Kowloon’s famous street markets.  They were setting up ready for the night market when I got there, but you got a sense for the masses of stalls in the narrow streets.  The area is bustling with hawkers and sellers, who want to drag you in for ‘Suits, Massages or Noodles’.  After a quick coffee to take a breather, I headed back up Nathan Street Kowloon’s busy main street, a bit like Oxford Street on steroids.  The tour operator hawkers were everywhere.  In India you didn’t know who was to confront you until they spoke.  In Kowloon, it is mostly young men and they are all dressed in smartly fitted black suits, white shirts and a matching tie.  The girls in similar attire.  I think it was mainly aimed at the wealthy Chinese visitors, as they didn’t approach me that often.  Watches and Suits were the main ones.  Even a pitch of “fake watch?” was one of them.

As I get up into the Hotel Room again at about 6pm, the sights of the Harbour lights are still a little disappointing, but I set myself a challenge to go and walk the promenade again, and I am glad I did.

The Promenade was alive with tourists doing the same thing as they did the night before.  Mapping their hands into the imprints of a famous Chinese actor, getting pose photo’s against the Bruce Lee statue or leaning against one of the many props that are along the harbour front.  My first feeling was that the outline of the buildings across the water had improved, then looking towards the Central Terminal it was much brighter than before.  As I passed Starbucks there was an announcement that the Harbour of Lights show would start shortly.  I had obviously missed this for the last two nights or had been facing the other way.  As I continued to walk towards the Ferry terminal, where there is a better vantage point, the numbers of tourists hanging around had increased.  The buildings were brighter and irrespective of the light show, my Hong Kong picture was on the cards!

The show started and although it was on both sides of the Harbour, all eyes were on the tall buildings on HK Island.  For the next 15 minutes the building lights and additional spots and lasers shone out to music.  It was spectacular.  I hope that my photo’s caught it well.

Back to the Hotel via a Harbour Bar.  I thought about staying here for a while as it was a nice place to watch people.  So I did, but I had arranged for a table in my Hotel’s 38th Floor restaurant overlooking the Harbour, so I didn’t stay for too long.  The restaurant was surprisingly empty and I had the best table in a glass corner that gave me a really wide view.  Food was western, but the Blue Crab Bisque, Medallions of Tenderloin (softest steak I have had in years) and a Mango Parfait were all, well, Perfect.  Washed down with a couple of glasses of an Australian Sauvignon Blanc.

My day was complete.  My Hong Kong trip was satisfied.

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Good morning and Happy Easter.  For clarity, I ate 10 easter eggs before leaving on my sabbatical, so I am in tune with you on this special day.

It’s Sunday morning here in Hong Kong and my good night sleep is being rewarded by a traditional English Breakfast.  I was tempted by a spicy soup or the noodles, but Easter Sunday is about tradition.  If I was at home today I would be planning a very traditional lunch.  I would be at Aston Villa for the Liverpool game and a ‘roast’ lunch of Balti Pie and Chips with Curry Sauce would be the order of the day.  Come on you Villa!  3 points today would make this a very very good day.  I digress, unreserved apologies for my lack of reverence.

I caught up on the Blog today after my embarrassment last night.  The Chinese are checking-out in their masses this morning, as I assume they will be back on their buses to the mainland shortly.

It is a bit brighter start to the day, but I am expecting it to pour later.  I am off to Hong Kong Island to walk around and get a feel for the place.  The general quietness and lack of building lights is leading me to think that my Hong Kong night skyline photo may not happen on this visit.

I head straight for the Star Ferry which will give me a 10 minute taxi across the harbour.

From the Ferry dock at Central Terminal the long clean ond open walkways take you straight into the of the best Shopping Malls I have every seen.  Hundreds of the top brand shops of the world in a massive 4 level complex.  London eat your heart out.  Worth a stroll just to see who and what is there.  I am not a shopper, more a procurer, but I still thought this was top drawer.

I aimed for the back end of the mall to move through town to the back end of which means that you walk up hill.  This is Hong Kong, it is built on a big hill.

As I left the mall and passed into the next main walkway, I noticed ladies sitting and talking on rolled out cardboard.  Sunday in Hong Kong means serving staff have a day off and they get together with each other and catch up.  It is almost a carnival with the amount of ladies and they are all smiling.  The latest iPhones are out, music is playing and they have picnics.  They are all glad not to be working, all happy and they are doing everything from video phoning to love ones to dancing.  The roads and every crossing point (Hong Kong people are good pedestrian) are packed with gabbling ladies.

Early afternoon, and it is a special day, I am in need of a beer,  I walk towards a Beer icon on my map that I have and it takes me straight to the Hong Kong Hard Rock cafe.   Replenished and good music and videos too.  I caught up with a couple from Cambridge who were going to a wedding out in the Philippines and stopped off for a couple of days in HK.  Nice to talk and share a few things.  I didn’t tell you about the Australian couple that I met at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.  They had been travelling around India for 12 weeks and they looked to be in their early 60’s.  They said their purpose was to see a lot of beautiful things before they died.  A lot of people say things like this but it is often conversational.  I really believed these people as they didn’t try to embellish it.

Anyway for my shallow reason I was in Hong Kong in a Hard Rock Cafe franchise having a good time and nothing more spiritual than that, although Jon Bonjovi’s ‘it’s my life’ made me think a bit about the lyrics.

Back through the shopping mall, I spied a Godiva shop with some small Easter Eggs and Chicks.      Well I did! and they were ace.

I made my way back to the harbour by following the thread that I had laid on the way out and jumped aboard the first ferry.  On the other side I turned left into yet anther enormous shopping mall, not so pretty, but a massive amount of brand names.  I wanted to make my way to an area where there we lots of street market stalls and lights on Shanghai Street.  At the time I got there it was getting dusky, there was a little drizzle and it was quiet.  The side streets and main streets in this part of town like their neon lights.  On the main road back towards the hotel, travel guides touted their wares, mostly to the Chinese visitors, but I did get the odd offer of a Watch.

In the evening I found a place to watch Aston Villa in a live game with Liverpool.  Liverpool FC is popular with the Chinese, even if they do find it hard to say, so I seemed to be the only one in the pub in support of the Claret and Blue.  For the first time ever in my life I put a football shirt on to go out while on holiday.  Luckily this years sponsor is a Chinese casino, so I sort of blended in.  We lost the football so enough said about that.  I did manage to get a half rack of ribs which had so much meat on them that I could only get through half of the portion.

I wandered back to the hotel to check if the skyline had lit up.  Unfortunately not.  Lots of colourful adverts but the building were in total darkness.  Note to the Mayor of Hong Kong…Sir, did you know that I am here.  I am on an old colonial audit tour, checking out if you are looking after the place and it appears that someone has knocked the plug for the lights out of its socket.  Can you please send someone around to correct please.  I need a photo.

Misty Hong Kong

Missed Hong Kong

Where’s Miss Hong Kong

Well my planning day and last day in Delhi wasn’t as productive as I thought.  The WiFi was as slow as a tax rebate and the options I was coming up with for Japan were not giving me what I needed.  It was a pack-up day too.  Interesting how your main Suitcase becomes almost like a room in your home.  You start to know every nook and cranny (that’s every little bit of space, for my friends outside the UK who are following.  My world map on my Blog Stats now shows following in Finland, India, Switzerland and the USA) although I expect the Chinese to be following me anyway), and the only thing that is missing is a light switch.  One thing I know is that it’s full and so is my carry-on bag and it weighs a shade under the 23 Kilo allowance.

When I went through one of the security screenings at the airport last night, they asked that all Electrical, Computing and Metal items were taken out and placed in a separate tray.  After the officer had inspected it, she looked puzzled at me and said “All these are going to go back into that bag?”, but everything now has an order and the chinese puzzle logic kicks in.

Before leaving the hotel, I had one last meal up in the rooftop restaurant. I knew it was going to be a very long and painful night as the flight wasn’t until 2.20am. I went for the Mutton Rogan Josh with my new found accompaniment Pea Puloa and Chapatis. The sauce was rich and just the right consistency for scooping into the Chapati.

Not only was the wind up in my body, but there was a very healthy wind across Delhi.  Kites were being flown from roof tops, that were so way up in the sky that they mixed with the birds.  I was thinking if anyone would do that in central London? other than Mary Poppins.

So off to the airport via the Express Train a straightforward check-in and through to the departures.  After my praises of the Delhi Domestic terminal, my quality check (yes this is what you do when you have 3 and a half hours before the flight) of the International area felt that it was getting a bit jadded, tired. Soft furnishing ripped, power sockets not working and a general dullness to what is a modern airport.

I asked for an extra bit of leg room in my Economy seat and it was perfect, what I should have asked for was a bigger width of seat. Over the years I have got used to a number of airplane types and especially seating. Being able to move your leg to one side under the arm rest is quite empowering when your backside numbs as the flight goes on.  The one I always hated was the seat which had fully enclosed metal dividers, and tonight it was one of those.  I had my usual aisle seat but was not expecting to have a huge Indian man sitting next me who overflowed into my space. You could image he was one of those as a kid that ate his siblings and went to make a sandwich when the adverts were on for the slimming clubs. My head was starting to throb with tireness as we took off, so I just leaned into the aisle and let him spread like Playdough across into my ‘territory’. I thought to warn him (as I have done with other long haul passengers in the past) that if I snore too loudly, to wake me.  I thought again, I thought live with it!  I woke a few of times in the night when crew spoke to me to offer food or when I heard that we needed to prepare for landing.  The fourth time was when we actually bumped down on landing.

Short and pleasant immigration (that’s the ‘process time’ not the ‘people’), baggage was there waiting on the belt and within 15 minutes from leaving the plane I was in the Express Train heading for Kowloon.  Kowloon faces Hong Kong Island and is supposed to be the best place for seeing the HK skyline.

Because it was an early flight I was expecting that the room would not be ready for occupation. I was right, so I put my main bag into conciege and went for a little stroll with the help of a map from the hotel.

It is a grey and murky day here in Hong Kong and the weather forecast says that it is due to stay like that for the next 3 days.  The hotel is about 300 yards from the Harbour and by the Star Ferry terminal, an icon of Hong Kong.  My North Face coat made its official first outing as the rain was falling, but apart from being tired I am happy with that.  What you immediately feel with Kowloon is that its designed with straight roads (very British city), which means that it will be easy to navigate and get home.  I headed straight for the water and the promenade which faces towards the skyscrapers of Hong Kong harbour.  I don’t think I will see it at its best as the cloud is so low that you can’t see some of the top floors.  At about 10.30am I am marking the area, but there is hardly anyone around.  The promenade is really nice and where I am walking has a Movies theme a bit like Broadway. I stop off at Starbucks. I haven’t had a fair cup of coffee since I left home two weeks ago. I added another day to that statistic. The coffee had a very earthy taste to it, which was weird.  I am sure I will have another to compare. A few people have since started promenading too.  Lots of people with Wheelie travel bags so have either just got here or who checked-out and have ‘no place else to go’ (I do like that Richard Gere line).  It is funny to see that the population of Indians has now changed to mostly Chinese, but with more International faces. The view across the dark choppy water is still amazing.  I can’t see the hillsides as they are in the mist but you can see the shape of the Hong Kong skyline.  Fingers crossed that the mist will rise and that the lights will come through in the next days.

Hong Kong celebrates Easter so it is holiday weekend, so not sure how that will affect anything??  it looks mighty dark in the mighty offices.

As the day goes on and turns into evening very early with the rain continuing to pour, the skyline starts to light up.  I have put my camera on a tripod in my bedroom to catch it lighting up.  By 8pm there were about 20 or so neon adverts in the sky, still not office lights. I nipped downstairs to have a Face Time call with Jon which again was a bit hit and miss on quality, but we caught up. Unfortunately it wasn’t the only thing that caught up. I was looking at the fixtures for the Premier League on the iPad and I dosed off to sleep in the Lobby.  A bit embarrassing when the Lobby is small and leads straight onto the open fronted Restaurant. I guess it was time to turn in.  Hopefully the rain will break for at least 15 minutes tomorrow to get the pictures and to satisfy my reason for coming. We’ll see…

By the way if you see any weird words in my Blog, it is probably due to the ‘intelligent’ software on my iPad.  I draft my thoughts on an Application called Notes and then cut and paste it. Sometimes it thinks, he didn’t want to say that he meant this, and corrects it.  I try to review but I tend to miss a bit.  Try going straight to my Blog at dunmoanin.com for the latest instead of the Email summary as it may make more sense in the edited version.  Of course, the writing may also be correct and just point out my failings!