Strong Pong in Hong Kong
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2003
1
30
97
Trip End
Nov 08, 2004
Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
First evening, it was out on the sauce with them catching up on what stories we had to tell. This is turning out to be a drinking tour of the world, oh how shameful, not! What else is there to do at night?! We met up with Martin and Harriet, two of Liz's friends, very nice couple also doing the traveling thing.
The first day we hit the Tourist Info office for some... info. Found out that there are quite a few set walks to do around the island and neighbouring islands, one of which we did today which was through parts of the city centre looking at points/buildings of interest and market stalls and clumps of shops that all sell the same thing in one area
01 See ya round big bruv
. Then, very tiredly, we walked into a cinema and did a double bill. Watched Paycheck, kinda good quality trash really, and then, and i take my hat off (and my hat never comes off, i sleep in my hat dammit) to him, Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Up there with my all time faves easily.Thursday, we headed over to Lama, the southern island and apparently home to many ex-pats. There's another recommended walk that you can take through the island which is only a few kilometres so we did that and then stopped off for some grub, had fried beef with brick-sized chunks of cooked ginger, bit too much, and some deep fried Calamary, pretty tasty. The evening was spent doing a tour of brit pubs that sell Strongbow Cider, that's Liz.
On Friday, Liz and Chris wanted to see Lost In Translation before they hit Tokyo. They're such film buffs. I decided that I would catch it on the plane as i had seen it being shown on the way over so i decided to firstly check out Victoria Park and then take on the 'City Amble' which is a stroll through the city past St Johns Cathedral, Hong Kong Park and many other monstrous sky scrapers. Honestly, i've never seen anything like this city. It's truly cool.
Managed to lose my camera case but luckily have a spare
02 Mountain ranges of Shikoku
. Now thinking along the lines of everything happens for a reason, as the spare is much better. Then met up with them and headed over to Kowloon... which turned out to be one big shopping frenzy. Walked up to the start of another 'walk' and then headed back down through Kowloon to the bay to catch the Jean Michel Jarre stylee light show which was another fantastic sight. Hong Kong island from Kowloon at night is breath taking enough, but when at 8 o'clock, they give you fireworks and a spot and laser light show, that did it for us. It was the commemoration of something and I think about 16 of the most important/tallest buildings have synchronised sequences to play the lights and to set off the fireworks, although it's probably all set off from one place, anyway, it was speshul!Very tired now, we headed off for some food, hunted down a very nice Italian that had San Mig on draught, get in you boy! Kick ass portions and two pints later, we leave feeling quite unwell.
Got back and said my farewells to the stinkmyster general and Chris. They're off to Tokyo for a few days before heading down to Hiroshima. I'll see them there for some more adventures.
Saturday, my last day, bummer, was spent walking walking walking
03 Out on the sauce in HK
. Started up at the peak, having cacked it on the peak tram which goes up at i'd say, about 45 degrees, very dodgy. But the peak walk was again, an amazing sight. It's set around the hill behind Hong Kong city and you can see the most awesome view of all of Hong Kong City and Kowloon and the neighbouring towns and cities going up the coast. Another breath-taking sight. Walked around for a bit and had some lunch.Headed back down on the tram, backwards, probably just aswell, else we'd all be in a crumpled heap at the front of the tram, and just checked out some more of the city.
Went back to the hostel to freshen up, then out for a double whammy of a cheeseburger at the Sports Bar that we went to the first night. I would like to point out that we walked for close to an hour probably last night to find a burger bar which was no longer there. Anyway, at the burger bar, i noticed on the placemat in front of me, the words...
'Unique pub brunch with great food and laid back atmosphere. Great for "Hangover Recovery" and other fun activities.'
Since when has hangover recovery ever been a fun activity? Anyway, an early night is at hand, flying to Tokyo tomorrow. Game on.
