Monday, April 04, 2005
Here's a brief log of our Hong Kong/Macau trip (I'm doing it bit-by-bit):
Day 1 (Sat.) - we arrived in Hong Kong at around 9pm as usual, after a really good flight with Cathay Pacific. I can't express enough how good that airline is, food, service, entertainment and generosity with drinks. A big difference from a certain major US airline which we used (for the last time maybe!) for our Christmas trip. Anyway, we got a shuttle bus to the hotel, which was in the Western area of Hong Kong island, a little out of the way but good for us as we'd never been to that area before. Although there were only about 10 passengers getting on the large bus, it took over 10 minutes for them to organise who should get on first, who's luggage should be put on first etc.! All we did the first night was go to a nearby 7-11 for some snacks and rest.
Day 2 (Sun.) - it was a bit cloudy and humid, as we expected. So we boarded the tram to Admiralty, and then walked up to Hong Kong Park. Among a lot else there's a fairly interesting Museum of Teaware there, and a really cool and very large, walkthrough aviary. We saw a lot of birds there, unsurprisingly. After that we made our way past the Victorian cathedral (unfortunately it was too late to join the Easter service) and then kind of back on ourselves and round the houses, to the botanical gardens. Here we horrified ourselves by watching the various orangutans and howler monkeys (not our favourite beasts) and managed to find the jaguar. By this time we were well overdue for our first lunch, so we trekked into SoHo and then Lan Kwai Fong to find a dim-sim restaurant. This was the first point at which we found that a lot of places had suddenly changed even since the newest Lonely Planet guide was published...(the quite famous China Lan Kwai Fong at 17-22 Lan Kwai Fonghas now become ManchuManchu in case you're interested) but it was good anyway! After that, we trudged down to a bus station somewhere near the Airport Express station and found the bus to Stanley...the journey there was scenic as described in many guides, but also WELL SCAREY!!! Imagine being upstairs at the front of a double-decker driven very very quickly over steep hills, around very tight blind bends with sheer drop-offs, with a lot of oncoming traffic including other similarly driven double-deckers...Stanley itself is a sometimes run-down but interesting little town with the famous Stanley Market, a couple of quiet beaches and restaurants. We helped a group of high-school students with some kind of survey before heading back (cue the same journey in reverse plus rain) for dinner in Soho. This time we discovered that a place we visited last time, Shang-hi! (38 Elgin Street, Central), which is mentioned in all the books, had transmogrified into a Thai place called Chedi Thai. We went there anyway, and it wasn't half bad. After that we had time to catch the happy hour at Dublin Jack, which is a good, and really friendly Irish pub a bit lower down from Soho, just off the escalator. Ah, Tetley's, it had been a long time!
Day 3 - coming soon, I'm tired now though.
Day 1 (Sat.) - we arrived in Hong Kong at around 9pm as usual, after a really good flight with Cathay Pacific. I can't express enough how good that airline is, food, service, entertainment and generosity with drinks. A big difference from a certain major US airline which we used (for the last time maybe!) for our Christmas trip. Anyway, we got a shuttle bus to the hotel, which was in the Western area of Hong Kong island, a little out of the way but good for us as we'd never been to that area before. Although there were only about 10 passengers getting on the large bus, it took over 10 minutes for them to organise who should get on first, who's luggage should be put on first etc.! All we did the first night was go to a nearby 7-11 for some snacks and rest.
Day 2 (Sun.) - it was a bit cloudy and humid, as we expected. So we boarded the tram to Admiralty, and then walked up to Hong Kong Park. Among a lot else there's a fairly interesting Museum of Teaware there, and a really cool and very large, walkthrough aviary. We saw a lot of birds there, unsurprisingly. After that we made our way past the Victorian cathedral (unfortunately it was too late to join the Easter service) and then kind of back on ourselves and round the houses, to the botanical gardens. Here we horrified ourselves by watching the various orangutans and howler monkeys (not our favourite beasts) and managed to find the jaguar. By this time we were well overdue for our first lunch, so we trekked into SoHo and then Lan Kwai Fong to find a dim-sim restaurant. This was the first point at which we found that a lot of places had suddenly changed even since the newest Lonely Planet guide was published...(the quite famous China Lan Kwai Fong at 17-22 Lan Kwai Fonghas now become ManchuManchu in case you're interested) but it was good anyway! After that, we trudged down to a bus station somewhere near the Airport Express station and found the bus to Stanley...the journey there was scenic as described in many guides, but also WELL SCAREY!!! Imagine being upstairs at the front of a double-decker driven very very quickly over steep hills, around very tight blind bends with sheer drop-offs, with a lot of oncoming traffic including other similarly driven double-deckers...Stanley itself is a sometimes run-down but interesting little town with the famous Stanley Market, a couple of quiet beaches and restaurants. We helped a group of high-school students with some kind of survey before heading back (cue the same journey in reverse plus rain) for dinner in Soho. This time we discovered that a place we visited last time, Shang-hi! (38 Elgin Street, Central), which is mentioned in all the books, had transmogrified into a Thai place called Chedi Thai. We went there anyway, and it wasn't half bad. After that we had time to catch the happy hour at Dublin Jack, which is a good, and really friendly Irish pub a bit lower down from Soho, just off the escalator. Ah, Tetley's, it had been a long time!
Day 3 - coming soon, I'm tired now though.
# posted by Phil T : 12:27 am
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