Lantau
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2008
1
4
26
Trip End
Jul 02, 2008
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Thursday, April 10, 2008
On Wednesday we spent most of the morning organizing our onward journey from Hong Kong. We decided not to stop over in Guangzhou, as we had previously planned, as we were advised that the train station that leaves there to travel north is notorious for pick pocketers, and it very busy and stressful. This, along with the ease of getting a direct train to Shanghai made us decide to go right there on an overnight train.
We have booked ourselves into the hostel that we first stayed in when we arrived in Hong Kong, for Friday night until Sunday night. We wanted to try an alternative hostel elsewhere in Hong Kong, but all the ones we fancied were booked up. We knew this one was good, so we thought we'd go back!
We had to travel to Hung Hom train station in order to buy our train tickets from Hong Kong to Shanghai (this route cannot be booked online or by phone yet). On the way there we ran into the seemingly omnipresent Steve Wilkie (a friend from school) and his girlfriend on the Star Ferry. They were in Hong Kong for a few days at the end of a trip to the Philippines to see his girlfriend's family, and by the sound of it they were living on a very different budget to us!!!
Once we got the Hung Hom we booked a train for 3.15pm on Monday 14th April - a 20 hour trip in a cabin of 6 for only about 35 pounds. It was out of our way to go to Hung Hom from Lantau, as we had to get a ferry and then travel by metro to get there, but it was the first time we'd used the MTR, and we were really impressed with it - very clean, efficient and cheap.
dinner in DB
On the way out of Hung Hom train station we went into a Chinese sweet shop and bought a bag of pick and mix sweets - we had no idea what most of them were, and since then we've been daring each other to try them. It's quite like those jelly beans in Harry Potter - you never know what flavour you'll get. So far we've had thing such as ginseng sweets, and chestnut jelly, with a whole chestnut inside, and wasabi peanuts. We have a second bag of mystery sweets, as the lady in the shop said it was buy one get one free - we really don't know what's in that one!After buying our tickets we went to Mong Kok on the MTR, and saw the bird garden where locals take their caged birds to get some air. It was lovely seeing the little birds in their beautiful old fashioned cages, and very interesting seeing their owners sitting around with them. From there we walked around the enormous flower market, which stretched over many streets and sold every kind of flower you could imagine. From there we had a long walk down towards the 'Ladies market'. On the way we saw a group of about 6 old men playing Majung (can't remember the spelling, but it's a game played with little white tiles), and also saw an old peoples exercise garden (!), full of elderly people using strange looking stretching machines, and also playing badminton.
The Ladies market wasn't quite what we expected. There were hundreds and hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of things - mainly clothes but also gadgets as well as the odd box of live chickens (!).
View towards marina
After what seemed like miles of this market, and busy streets full of signs, shops and dodgy looking motels, we caught the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui, and the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong island. We met James there, and after collecting Sue went for dinner at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. We sat at a table outside, with an amazing view of the waterfront - we saw the fantastic light show that the buildings on Kowloon put on. This happens at 8pm every night, and we had not seen this yet. While we were sitting outside, we saw a couple of cruisers that take their passengers outside Hong Kong waters so that they can gamble all night. In Hong Kong gambling is only licensed to horse racing, so there are no casinos on land. We had a great meal at the Yacht Club. The food was tasty, and the waiters were friendly, teaching us to use chopsticks properly, and challenging James to pick up cherry tomatoes and a small pickled onion with his! He passed his test!On the way back to Lantau on the ferry, we got drinks at the beer hut outside Pier 3 - it was so cheap and there seem not to be shot sizes, it just depends on how the barmaid feels I guess! We would definitely recommend going there.
Today, we didn't do much in the morning, other than booking a hostel in Shanghai for when we arrive. All of the places on the Hostelling International website look surprisingly posh, but we'll see when we arrive!
At just after mid-day we set off to walk to another town on Lantau called Mui Wo. It was an interesting walk along a couple of coves, in between shack-like homes (most of which had no glass in the windows which made us wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes) and then up a never-ending hill. The first part of the fill had stations of the cross along the side of the path, as it led to a Trappist Monastery. As the hill was steep, we thought that these reflected the suffering of those doing the walk up to the monastery! We had a walk up to the monastery, keeping silent as the monks do. After an enormous hill we reached a great view point, but we were very very hot and sweaty from the climb! We ate lunch at the top, having what was left of Ali's dinner the night before (!) and had a quick game of Chinese sweets Russian roulette... I think Ali lost! Made it down hill on lots of steps to the beach at Mui Wo, then caught a ferry back to Discovery Bay. The ferry does not go from the main ferry terminal, but from outside McDonalds. (not very romantic we know, but it's a nice trip home!) There's a cafe here called the China Bear that serves apple crumble and stocks HP sauce. May well be worth a look.
We're going to grab some dinner in the plaza at DB now - we'll update you again soon.
Kate and Ali xxx
Comments
News from Corsley
Hi jusr returned from a couple of days in London and read your wonderful account! You sound so busy - how are you managing to fit it all in? One of the views from the Bank of China Tower shows the hotel that we stayed in on our last trip to HK. Its the one with the swimming pool etc - which were on the 14th floor!
Thought you'd be interested to know A went to a reception at the Royal Society on Weds and met with the new Chinese Ambassador - very smooth - a woman from Mongolia - and so westernised she has grey hair - you'll see what she means when you've been in China a bit.
Have a great trip to Shanghai - try & fit in the Museum, from what we remember it has some lovely things, and a walk along the Bund.
Have fun. Love G&G
woohoo!
hellooo! sounds like you're having an amazing time. Can't believe you're actually there! Keep uploading the photos - i like seeing pictures of interesting places while i'm sitting at my desk at work!
Love, Lucy x