W Hong Kong

Arrived today at Hong Kong aiport (the stop over to Sydney). It's nothing spectacular - need to find a way to while away 5 hours!! Was hoping to see some skyscrapers but there's nothing...<br><br>The flight here was uneventful - just long. Can't wait now to get to Sydney!!

... lounging by the beach. A swimming area was roped off for to prevent sharks from entering the lifeguarded area. Just east of the beach, we found Kwun Yum Temple. The temple area is full of statues and mosaics of Kwun Yum - the God of Mercy.<br><br>Our final stop on the tour was Aberdeen. The main lure to this area is Aberdeen Harbour, a vibrant fishing community. The other main attraction is a string of floating restaurants. Jumbo ...

... I&#8217;m not sure what a helper is so I don&#8217;t want to comment until I&#8217;m sure but if it&#8217;s what I think then it&#8217;s no wonder they&#8217;re so soft. The academic ability range in the classes is no different to what I&#8217;m used to but what is different is the attitude of the students. Before coming here I had some strange notion that I&#8217;d be teaching highly academic and motivated students who could seriously challenge my knowledge ...

... Now they got a taste of their own and It helped a bit! Blondy even did smarter as they asked us for a fake watch, she would turn around and say: " Fake.?? I want a real one!! That would stop them as well. Any who..we had a beer and as the evening started we came to the harbor side of Kowloon. A huge boulevard were you can walk along the whole city and see the other side of Hong Kong. A beautiful sight to see and with all the lights a great place to see Hong Kong from the water ...

... the sheer size of the restaurant there were still a few vacancies at any given time (although since it was the first day of the restaurant's re-opening, perhaps word hadn't spread; one can never be sure). The restaurant also affords amazing views of the harbour area, especially West Kowloon. We meet up with a couple of C's friends who happened to travel to Hong Kong as well - officially they're ...

... a series of escalators. It was exciting for all of two minutes, until we realised that spending a good 20 minutes going up escalators really wasn't actually that enthralling. Still, at least I managed to find a street that was named after my Mum - Shelley Street! After a trek through the Botanical Gardens, the name of which was potentially misleading considering the mass of concrete that it consisted of, we reached the Peak Tram. Incredibly steep, the tram takes you up to a ...

... rides. I was really excited to see the pandas as even though I have been to China a lot of times before, I had never seen live pandas. I was slightly disappointed because all the pandas were so lethargic, but it was still good to see them for the first time. We took the cable car over to the side with all the rides. we first went on a roller coast but liam was allergic to it (sorry he wasnt tall enough) so he went on the ferris wheel. We went on ...

... 15 minutes later Sarah, Wade and I were all back at Hatim's beautiful apartment with a few beers. Now by this stage we'd been invited to stay over and Hatim's generosity seemed to know no bounds. It's for this reason and perhaps the fact she had recently read American Psycho, that Sarah was a little worried that he was too nice to be a real person and he might cut us up whilst listening to Phil Collins. A few minutes later she pulled herself back into reality and ...

... There is one on Hong Kong island down by the beaches, a nine hole course, and one in the new territories, which is a 36 hole course. Why would I mention this? Well maybe because initial membership in the new territories course is only US$260,000. We were never told what the one in Hong Kong island costs. A final interesting thing from Hong Kong. They have begun moving people from the island to the new territories nearer China to give them a better quality of life. Within ...

... lineups for US bound flights. We sure knew we were headed for "the land of the brave and the home of the free". I even got a little concerned about the machetes in the checked luggage! We found out that it couldn't be checked through to our connecting flight with American Airlines. It would have to be off-loaded in JFK, claimed and taken back through US Customs for our continuation to Toronto!