Hong Kong

We (Rick & Gill, ‘cos Gary & Jan don’t leave Adelaide ‘til Sunday morning)arranged for a limo to pick us up from home early on Friday morning. Good run to the airport and easy check in. We checked in on line the day before which turned out to be a smart move because the queue to drop luggage only had a couple of people before us, while the “ordinary” queue had hundreds. Border control was efficient and we were through with 1 1/2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. Just before the time to board, we were told that the ‘plane had parked a long way away and that Qantas had to bring it over to the terminal, clean it and stock it with food. We left about 1 hour late, but arrived in Hong Kong only about 20 mins late. Very efficient airport processing and we were in the taxi within 40 mins of touching down on the runway. We had the smoothest flight we’ve ever had.

It was good to get to the hotel (our room is on the 19^th floor) and relax for a few minutes before braving the streets looking for some food. We’re in an area called Mongkok which is not nearly as touristy, so much so that most of the eating places that we were looking at (cheapies) didn’t have the menus in English. We did find one and had a great Pad Thai. Back to the hotel and a bit of internet investigation for the following day (today, Saturday) and into bed. HK is 2 hours behind Melbourne.

Mucked up the times on the ‘phone and the alarm didn’t ring when it should have, but we were awake around 8 anyway. Had a mix of basic east meets west breakfast with good coffee.

The hotel has a shuttle bus that drops and picks up at 4 locations so we went in the bus to the nearest MTR station (about a 10 min walk, but it was hot already and the bus was there). Great MTR system with spotless trains and stations, great maps with lights, inside the trains, to show next station, direction of travel, interchanges etc. Cost $HK18 (about $A3) to travel quickly to an amazing 5.5 km cable gondala to Lantau island. Spectacular views over the water, countryside airport and the new road from Hong Hong to Macau, apparently about 45 kms over the water. Had to queue for about ½ hour. Will look at online booking next time, very short queue.

 

Train back to Mongkok station and we walked through the “Ladies Market”. So much kitsch and cutsie stuff. Had a bit of a look for a phone cover, but had enough and walked the ½ hour back to the hotel. Interesting room offer for one of the hotels listed here.

We are now sitting in the “executive” lounge, with no one else here, with a good strong coffee and nibbles looking at the traffic, many 11 storey flats and 45 storey flats, thinking about tomorrow’s exploring.

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