Watching the queue disappear onto the plane at Hong Kong, it's hard not to be left with a sad feeling: our big adventure is over. All of those sleepless nights, dilemmas over whether the street food was safe or not, and complaints about foot massages being too hard. But the normality of the office beckons, and I guess I'll have to get used to walking around without my camera again.
I wonder if they'll understand Honglais back at Heathrow? I guess I'm going to have to try it...
A few photo highlights:
As always, China is... unfinished.
The Chinese equivalent of a pound shop: 2 RMB = 13p.
No, this isn't the speed of the taxi from the hotel to the station - although to be honest, it felt like it.
Both of us taking photos of afternoon tea at the Intercontinental back in Hong Kong.
A lot of blog catching up required!
What we did
What we didn't do
What we should do next time (if ever able to afford to come back)
And so much to write about, but so little time left in Hong Kong, and there's a sunset over the harbour to be enjoyed - so forgive me for keeping it brief!
First, let's just salute the freedom of the internet! Back in HK, we can actually access the web as it's meant to me. Over in China, it was a nightmare - some things would work, some things wouldn't, and most of the time, it just left you waiting. It was so annoying not being able to access the blog; even though I could get to the main Blogger site, I couldn't access my own blog! And life without Wikipedia is always a darker place.
Overall, Shanghai was, like the rest of China, a city of contrasts - some parts are just brilliant, very beautiful and impressive. Some parts are impossibly poor, with poverty and poor conditions only a few yards away from something which is brand new.
Fortunately, the hotel staff in Shanghai understood Honglais, too.
Found this notice on the table in the room this morning:
I really wish that we'd found/read this before the fire alarm went off yesterday morning. It would have saved a lot of rushing around.
Today's our last day in Hong Kong. Our itinerary for tonight & tomorrow looks something like this:
We come back to Hong Kong on Saturday. If all goes to plan, we'll have time to come back to HK Central for afternoon tea before flying back to the UK late on Saturday night.
Those sausage sandwiches can't come soon enough.
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with rice and noodles. Really. But after you've been here for a few days, you just kind of wish for something else. Anything else. Chips. Beans. A sausage sandwich (this is definitely on the list for Sunday, when we're back).
So today, we tried to eat other things.
The first intention was to get up and have breakfast in the hotel, where there's a big buffet with enticing prospects such as cereal with milk, blueberry muffins and toast (it's hard to imagine how exciting that sounds right now). That went out of the window when I slept through the alarm having stayed up half of the night not writing this blog. (I'm thinking that the same may happen tomorrow morning now... it's just gone 5am).
So, to progress from that, we went to the Hard Rock café which is just over the road. Fortunately the food was a little more enticing than the rooftop café (and I should tell you how much I'm looking forward to being back in there next week). We ordered 'ambitiously' from the menu and couldn't finish everything, then reflected at length that we felt a bit ill and how western food is so stodgy, it makes you feel all bloated. There's just no pleasing some people, is there?
After visiting the temple and the lovely Sham Shui Po, we came back to TST and ventured to the Harbour City food court and ate extensively from the creatively-named "Curry-in-a-hurry" (yes, I can see what they've done there) which came with enough bread to even satisfy Vicky's bread cravings.
The question now is how we'll manage in Shanghai. It's all well and good eating Western food here in Hong Kong, but is it safe to stray away from the local food in China? Well, a guidebook has been purchased and hopefully the extortionate price paid for that also includes some kind of food poisoning insurance.
And before you ask, there's no pictures of the food this time - not even over on Flickr.
We went to Wong Tai Sin temple today - probably the busiest temple we've seen on the trip, and with slightly fewer donation boxes that the one near the Buddha. Amazing to see quite so many people there - it's very true that away from the major tourist areas, there's a very different side of Hong Kong to be seen.
More bizarre was the fortune-telling area right by the temple. Almost like an indoor market, with rows and rows of small booths with fortune tellers. Logically for this to be sustainable, there must be a demand. Mind you, when you've got tourists coming in like us and negotiating as badly as I did for palm readings for both of us, they don't need to make a fortune from the locals.
Hard to say whether he was any good, really - I think Vicky thought that a lot of the stuff he said was wrong, and I was heartbroken to be told that the middle line on my hand means that I'm unlikely to ever be president or prime minister. I need to re-think my career plan - I was really hoping that negotiating for extra slots with Corby was going to come in useful for those meetings at the United Nations. (Which, on reflection, would probably be easier).
Afterwards, we went to Sham Shui Po (an area that makes Mong Kok look classy) and I dragged Vicky around the so-called 'Golden Computer Arcade' in search of a new laptop. Even with William's help, there was nothing to find or buy - just lots of talk of stock "that can be here tomorrow", and "if you pay, we show you laptop".
It was enough to make fortune-telling look an honest profession, and enough to make Vicky look as though she'd lost the will to live.
I think it's generally held over here that Temple Street is a market for tourists, and Mong Kok is more of a place for locals.
Well, all I can tell you is this - Mong Kok might have the shops and stalls which make it an impressive sight, but the atmosphere on Temple Street is worlds ahead of Mong Kok.
We looked around for a while but honestly it was quite disappointing. The highlights were the Virginia 'hourly' hotel (why would you want an hourly hotel? -- oh hang on, I get it) and the obligatory shop which has a name which sounds rude to Westerners.
Temple Street, on the other hand, seemed much more pleasant, relaxed and generally fun to be in. Vicky found some Pashminas which meant I could have some fun negotiating the price down. Obviously I'd not factored in that Vicky would have to have an extensive dilemma as the colours to buy. It's hard work negotiating when it's none too clear whether you'll be buying two, or twenty. In the end, three were purchased and I was less concerned with the price and more relieved not to be there for four hours deciding on the colours.
Later, back in TST, Vicky went our to see the nightly light show whilst I slept, making up for being awake all night not writing the blog. Afterwards, we went to Aqua and had a fine meal overlooking the harbour. Vicky was so looking forward to this meal, she even badgered me into taking the photos of the food before eating it. Controversial, I know.
If you want to know what the other courses looked like (and honestly, why would you?), you'll have to go over to Flickr. (I think I'm going to have to start getting a referral fee agreed with Flickr. They must be millionaires over there).
We went to 'the door' near Lan Kwai Fong. It was closed. And locked.
Look, it's all going to take too long to explain. But Victoria will know what I'm talking about. Sadly, Vicky still doesn't know why I took her to see a door which was locked in a dark side-street.
I've been avoiding writing the blog, because the obvious time to write it is in the middle of the night, when I'm wide awake and can't sleep. But somehow starting to write is almost like admitting defeat and saying that I know I won't get back to sleep anytime soon.
To be honest, I had high hopes of sleeping through the night tonight. It felt like a long day (see below) but soon after sleeping, Cannons health clubs decided to send Vicky a text - ironic, as before we went away, we were trying to get some info from them, and they were far from helpful (or responsive). I would normally say better late than never but this time, honestly I think never would have been better.
So here I am at 3am. Let's blog.
You know already how much I hated that bus journey on Friday. It was just awful. But probably not as awful as Vicky found the journey from Central to Cheung Chau island on Saturday. In fairness, the ferries are large, fast and comfortable; they form a key part of Hong Kong's commuter network, departing to several different places around the territory from Central and TST. The outward journey was none too bad. But on the way back the wind had picked up and there was a lot of movement on the boat. This rocking motion immediately sent me to sleep (easy, I know, when you've been up half the night) but Vicky looked a little green.
The island itself was small and very crowded. We went with William and Sharon. I was a little worried about walking too far away from the ferry terminal but walking from one side of the island to the other takes only 10 minutes in some places. Mainly thought it's a fishing harbour.
We walked around, took lots of photographs (see my Flickr album) and, as always, remembered to take a photograph of the lunch food too late - although perhaps unsurprisingly, it was rice and noodles. Kind of leaves you dying for a burger.
Afterwards, we went down to the beach and got unnecessarily wet walking in the sea (sounds obvious maybe, but the waves kind of caught us off-guard...). There were plenty of people there but I'm sure that Sarah wouldn't have been - this sign was just by the beach:
Just time then to go back and get a great photo of the sunset over the harbour. Thereafter followed the legendary ferry journey back to Central.
Last night was not the best night's sleep ever. Woke up at 4am, as I've been doing every night. But most other nights, I've been able to get back to sleep and all has been well.
Not last night. In the end, I got up and sat looking at the internet, reflecting that people in the UK would just be thinking about going to bed.
Went back to bed around 7am, and eventually got back to sleep at 8am.
Then the alarms started. It wasn't until we were dressed and out in the corridor that they told us it was a test.
Which is ironic, because I think I'll be spending most of the day in the corridor today.
