They speak English!

Trip Start Aug 24, 2008

129

Trip End Jul 07, 2009

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Flag of China Hong Kong, China
Sunday, November 23, 2008

We walked out of the station and found ourselves facing a massive twinkling expanse of water surrounded by skyscrapers. We had arrived in Hong Kong! We checked into the box that is our room and went to find food. Everything in Hong Kong is ridiculously expensive and so we had to accept the fact that the budget would go out of the window. After our overpriced sandwich we went to the Avenue of Stars to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li's hand prints, and the statue of Bruce Lee (mainly for David's benefit). We had some great view of the skyline. We looked around and I was very excited to see all the Christmas decorations because I didn't think we would get to see any thins year. We even had a mince pie!In the evening we sat looking at the skyline all lit up from Kowloon.

On entry to Hong Kong my passport was stamped, leaving me 5 free pages and only one double page. This is not enough for all the visas needed for the rest of the trip so I headed to the British Embassy to renew my passport. It will take a week, plus 5 working days for our Chinese and Vietnamese visas, meaning we have to stay in Hong Kong for 2 weeks. We don't mind, except that it will be very expensive. after visiting the embassy we went for a walk through the seafood markets and antique street and David got very excited because he recognized everything, having seen it in a computer game. We went to Man Mo Temple and saw the coils of incense and then took the longest escalator in the world up the hill to Soho. Everything was very expensive and all the bars were full of rich businessmen, so we called in at Marks and Spencer's for a taste of home and then had some lovely Cantonese food. We took the star ferry back to Kowloon so got to see the skyline all lit up again.
The next day we took the Peak tram to the top of the Peak. The ride was very steep but at the top we had great views over the city, especially as the sun started to set and the lights came out. We tried to walk the peak circuit but got lost so it took about 3 hours! We did see a huge spider though. We ate shrimp for dinner, very pricey but worth it. The day after this we went to the botanical gardens where we ate ice cream and looked at the orangutans and monkeys they have. In the evening we watched the light show when all the skyscrapers were lit up with lasers, which was pretty impressive.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

David with the bruce Lee statue	Angela and the skyline	David with Jet Li's star	David with Jackie Chan's star
I'm really a film star	Us with Hong Kong island	Star Ferry	Me with Christmas decorations
A junk in the harbour	Christmas lights!	The skyline at night	Scaffolding made of bamboo
Kowloon	Us on the Tram	Hong Kong Street	Trams with the skyscrapers
Selling dry seafood	Market stall	Coiled incense in Man Mo Temple	Night time markets
David with the very long escalator	Me on the escalator	Soho	David and Jackie Chan
The Peak Tram	David and Bruce Lee	On the Peak Circuit	Massive spider
Sunset	Hong Kong at dusk	The lights come out	Lit up at night
Me on the peak	On the Star Ferry	A church among skscrapers