We arrived in Hong Kong airport to a fantastic welcome party consisting of my Dad, my step-Mum Grace and her brother-in-law, To. The last time anyone met or saw us off at an airport on this trip was Euans Mum at Heathrow and that wasn’t exactly a happy occasion!
It was wonderful to be picked up and taken back to where we were staying rather than have the usual hassle of finding transport to wherever we were thinking about staying. Bliss!
To is a brilliant tour guide and we were spoilt rotten right the way through our five-day stay, two of which were spent in Macao (see posting after this). We had a family dinner on our second night in HK with a side of the family I’ve heard about for over a decade, through graduations, weddings, births etc but never met. Here they all are!
Funnily enough, Edwin (far right of photo) attended Bristol University the same time as Euan did.
We were staying at Graces place in the Kwun Tong area of Kowloon
and the sheer number of apartment buildings in HK is staggering
Those that we saw were pretty secure, with steel sliding doors in front of a pretty solid wood door. This is in addition to security on the apartment block door, plus a concierge…. We didn’t think anyone would bother trying to get into someone elses apartment!!
I was pleasantly surprised at the open space on Hong Kong Island and even Kowloon has areas that are open. The parks in the morning are full of people throwing balls around, doing Tai Chi, stretching and many other weird forms of exercise that I’ve not seen before and some folk hike up this mountain.
To drove us around HK Island seeing the sights for an entire day but not after we got our whereabouts from the view from his Kowloon apartment. You can still see the old airport (the long straight thing in the below photo is the runway) and Euan remembered flying in here when his family visited in the early 1980s.
Thanks to To, we visited places in HK that we wouldn’t have done had we not had a local guide and transport; Stanley Bay, what used to be a fishing village of Aberdeen and Repulse Bay, named so because the British Navy managed to repulse the pirates from the bay
There are some very colourful and unusual statues at the Bay, there to protect the boats
Along with a temple
This is Dad, Grace and I at Repulse Bay
This is what was the old fishing port of Aberdeen, now a very built-up part of HK Island. You’d almost never know that there was an island not far off shore…. The apartments on the island look like a continuation of those on HK Island, a few hundred meters away.
The HK Island city shoreline is seemingly never-ending
and the neon signage is impressive
The city looks particularly spectacular at night
and if you’re ever in HK and planning a late night visit, get up Victoria Peak before 11pm…. it looks very different when its not all lit up (the lights go out at 11pm, as we found out at about 11:02pm). The below should be a lot brighter and colourful.
We knew the Hong Kong Squash Open was on but by chance we came across a temporary glass court down by the waterfront
and we were in time to sit in the free seats to the side to watch the mens and ladies finals. The mens final, between the Egyptian world #1 played a Frenchman, was great to watch.
To, Dad and Grace and had fun catching every form of transport possible! The boat traffic in HKs Victoria Harbour is never-ending and the ferries go back and forth every 10 minutes.
There are loads of folk from the Philippines who work in HK and on Sundays they all get together on their day off. The street was closed and it looked like they were having a great time eating, playing games and chatting up a storm.
We spent a bit of time around Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and visited the Space Museum and the Art Museum. The area was actually quite cool, day or night and some of the surrounding areas had undergone a face lift.
Just across the harbour was the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre
We went up to the 52nd floor of the HK Finance Building where there is a (free!) exhibition of the history of the HK currency. Its actually quite interesting but even if you’re not interested in how money is made etc (the HK plastic-feeling notes are actually made of cotton!) its worth going up for the views alone
Dad and I were stopped by these kindergarten kids who wanted to ‘interview’ us for a school project. They were so cute!
When it came time for this little girl to ask her questions, she just stood very close, waved her hand madly in my face and smiled at me. The lady who was with her was trying to get her attention and get her to stop waving but she just didn’t do anything else!
HK is often very hazy due to the pollution from China which is a real shame as the views are quite something. We visited the Space Museum, Art History Museum, hung out with Dad and Grace and generally enjoyed being back with family! It wasn’t so bad saying good bye as we’ll see them again in NZ in mid- January.
It was wonderful to be picked up and taken back to where we were staying rather than have the usual hassle of finding transport to wherever we were thinking about staying. Bliss!
To is a brilliant tour guide and we were spoilt rotten right the way through our five-day stay, two of which were spent in Macao (see posting after this). We had a family dinner on our second night in HK with a side of the family I’ve heard about for over a decade, through graduations, weddings, births etc but never met. Here they all are!
Funnily enough, Edwin (far right of photo) attended Bristol University the same time as Euan did.
We were staying at Graces place in the Kwun Tong area of Kowloon
and the sheer number of apartment buildings in HK is staggering
Those that we saw were pretty secure, with steel sliding doors in front of a pretty solid wood door. This is in addition to security on the apartment block door, plus a concierge…. We didn’t think anyone would bother trying to get into someone elses apartment!!
I was pleasantly surprised at the open space on Hong Kong Island and even Kowloon has areas that are open. The parks in the morning are full of people throwing balls around, doing Tai Chi, stretching and many other weird forms of exercise that I’ve not seen before and some folk hike up this mountain.
To drove us around HK Island seeing the sights for an entire day but not after we got our whereabouts from the view from his Kowloon apartment. You can still see the old airport (the long straight thing in the below photo is the runway) and Euan remembered flying in here when his family visited in the early 1980s.
Thanks to To, we visited places in HK that we wouldn’t have done had we not had a local guide and transport; Stanley Bay, what used to be a fishing village of Aberdeen and Repulse Bay, named so because the British Navy managed to repulse the pirates from the bay
There are some very colourful and unusual statues at the Bay, there to protect the boats
Along with a temple
This is Dad, Grace and I at Repulse Bay
This is what was the old fishing port of Aberdeen, now a very built-up part of HK Island. You’d almost never know that there was an island not far off shore…. The apartments on the island look like a continuation of those on HK Island, a few hundred meters away.
The HK Island city shoreline is seemingly never-ending
and the neon signage is impressive
The city looks particularly spectacular at night
and if you’re ever in HK and planning a late night visit, get up Victoria Peak before 11pm…. it looks very different when its not all lit up (the lights go out at 11pm, as we found out at about 11:02pm). The below should be a lot brighter and colourful.
We knew the Hong Kong Squash Open was on but by chance we came across a temporary glass court down by the waterfront
and we were in time to sit in the free seats to the side to watch the mens and ladies finals. The mens final, between the Egyptian world #1 played a Frenchman, was great to watch.
To, Dad and Grace and had fun catching every form of transport possible! The boat traffic in HKs Victoria Harbour is never-ending and the ferries go back and forth every 10 minutes.
There are loads of folk from the Philippines who work in HK and on Sundays they all get together on their day off. The street was closed and it looked like they were having a great time eating, playing games and chatting up a storm.
We spent a bit of time around Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and visited the Space Museum and the Art Museum. The area was actually quite cool, day or night and some of the surrounding areas had undergone a face lift.
Just across the harbour was the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre
We went up to the 52nd floor of the HK Finance Building where there is a (free!) exhibition of the history of the HK currency. Its actually quite interesting but even if you’re not interested in how money is made etc (the HK plastic-feeling notes are actually made of cotton!) its worth going up for the views alone
Dad and I were stopped by these kindergarten kids who wanted to ‘interview’ us for a school project. They were so cute!
When it came time for this little girl to ask her questions, she just stood very close, waved her hand madly in my face and smiled at me. The lady who was with her was trying to get her attention and get her to stop waving but she just didn’t do anything else!
HK is often very hazy due to the pollution from China which is a real shame as the views are quite something. We visited the Space Museum, Art History Museum, hung out with Dad and Grace and generally enjoyed being back with family! It wasn’t so bad saying good bye as we’ll see them again in NZ in mid- January.
No comments:
Post a Comment