Hong Kong is a great city - colourful, vibrant, big but still not as busy and pushy as Shanghai or Bejing. We have seen everything we wanted in 5 days, but this time, relaxed. We even felt like real tourists so we also bought a few souvenirs in markets and shops, oh how we loved it!
We are staying in one of the "mansions" called ChungKing Mansion, on the 15th floor in a 8sq bedroom+bathroom. It`s small, a bit like we used to live in our student accomondation in France. Taking a shower means putting one foot on top of the toilet lid, going to the toilet means putting your feet on the wet floor from the shower earlier. But the room is clean, the owners are nice and it feels a bit like a hotel (yes, our standards have changed!).
The first day we arrived, we went to see the daily "symphony of lights show", which is also in the Guiness World Records book as the biggest light spectacle. Various buildings are taking part and create a spectacular laser/light show on the waterfront. Nice to watch. We also found a cheap and clean place to eat - on the groudn floor of a big shopping centre, YES - we will survive the next days.
The following days we went to see the Big Buddha, located between mountains near the airport, where you need to take a "gondel" or lift for about 30 minutes to reach it.
It is really impressive when you first spot the statute from afar and it really has a mystical and religious calm. We also went along the wisdom path and checked out the temple on the hill, which was nice. We also went to see Soho and the Western District including all the various places such as the dried seafood or herbal medicine shops and the antique market. We also saw the worlds largest escalator, went on the peak tram to see the surprisingly called peak (wonderful view when all Hong Kong is litten up!) and checked out various markets such as Gold Fish market, Ladies market (poor Raf!) etc. in our area in Mong Kok as well as the Avenue of the Stars. Other than that we had a good time watching movies with beer and chocolate and having breakfast with iced coffee and a nice pastry from one of the "healthy food" shops. We also took a ferry to Lamma Island, only a short ride away from Hong Kong, which is a totally different area. Beaches, nice walking paths, little shops, no cars - a nice break from the buzzling city.
It`s now time to leave this place and fly to Dubai and then India (from one extreme to the other!) where we will try to fight the heat...and believe it or not - our journey is nearly over. Only 3 weeks to go and Europe has us back! Maybe a good thing....;)
Raf and Mel aka. "can you switch off the heat please?"
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