Our Travel Blog

Twenty Five hours after we were picked up at our Hong Kong hotel we landed in Ottawa! Now to try and stay awake a little longer to fight off jet lag!

Sent from 35,000 feet over Northern Russia!!!

The end is nigh, currently we are waiting for the Beijing to Toronto flight. If the internet is working on the plane, I’ll send my first airborne log! Was trip worth it? Absolutely! Did we go over the top with the business class flights, five star hotels and private guides?  No, Maybe and No for this particular trip. I can always use the excuse that the trip was to celebrate our upcoming 40^th wedding anniversary therefore we were entitled to go a little crazy. Conversely, we have both agreed that for long or ultra-long flights we will go business class if a reasonable fare can be found. Hainan Airlines had a very reasonable fare and excellent service, so that was the one for us. The hotels we finished up in, for the most part, blew us away and we probably could have dropped down a category or two and still been happy with the accommodation. For us, in a totally different culture where there is limited or no use of English, the tour guides were great. Looking at all the tour groups been shepherded around in groups of 20 or more just reinforced the fact that we had made the right decision (for us). This was also borne out when were on our own in Hong Kong, although the Hop-on-Hop-off wasn’t a bad solution.

The beginning of the trip turned out to be a little too hectic for us, and Beijing could have been extended for a day or two. Tibet was the same, although altitude also played a part in us getting tired there. From then on the tour went at a more relaxed and better pace, and we’re glad we did all the sights we did.

One thing that has to be mentioned is Chinese driving! On our first day in Beijing I had our life expectancy measure in minutes while we were in the car, there appeared to be no rules whatsoever, BUT on observing for a few days I believe the following is true. There are no driving rules in China, all Chinese know this and obey the non-existent rules! Basically you just need the confidence to do whatever you want to do, push into traffic, do a U turn in the middle of the road etc. Just do it and you (within reason) will be  OK and accepted by other drivers, but hesitate and you are in deep trouble.

That’s it from the Far East for a few years, the next tentative trip will be next fall. The current plan is to go to South Africa and take a tour on the Shongololo Express railway. I won’t be doing a blog in January from the trailer as we will be more in “living in the trailer” mode rather than traveling and exploring.

There were probably a few more typos than normal in these blogs, I am using a netbook rather than my laptop and the keyboard is a little temperamental. Although I follow spellcheck suggestions, and try to proof read a number of mistakes slip through when I miss a letter and the result is a word that spellcheck likes!

I will also have to think about how to do future blogs, as I found they were taking more time to write than I wanted. This was due mainly to slow internet (as the blog has to be composed on line) and the time needed to compress, sort and upload pictures.

Today is China’s 67th Birthday. This is  national holiday here, they celebrate for 2 days in Hong Kong an 7 days in mainland China!

We woke up to  dull morning after some storms went through last night, but the visibility had improved. At first we were sorry that we had used our ticket to the Peak yesterday rather than save it for today (more on that later).

Again we headed out sans escort and had breakfast. On the way to there we walked along an elevated pedestrian walkway situated above the road. Along either side of the walkway groups, predominantly women, had set up sheets on the ground and were sitting on them surrounded by food. At first we thought we may have come across a women’s rights demonstration, but we later found out these people were domestic help from the richer families, and they group together on holidays and Sundays to socialise with people from their own heritage.

 After feeding, then headed down to the southern end of Kowloon to the ferry terminus. From here took a short ferry ride across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island. Today’s plan was to take a different route on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus.

Another Ferry and a Dull but Clearer view if Hong Kong

Inside the Ferry

Skyline View

Docking in Hong Kong

Below are a couple of general views of the city.

Tram is a less Prosperous Area

As the morning wore on the crowds of people heading downtown for tonight’s celebrations increased. We arrived at the Peak Tram station; yesterday we waited maybe ten minutes to board the tram to the top, today I’d estimated the wait at greater than two hours. With the temperature in the low 30’s and the humidex in the low 40’s I was happy to forgo the trip, even with the improved visibility.

At the end of the tour we took the ferry back to Kowloon for lunch and a final round of shopping. It may be a national holiday but the shops are all open, it’s seems only the banks are closed!

At the end of or MTR ride back to the hotel we cashed in our Octopus cards, in the two days we had spent $5 Cad each on transportation!!

Next on the agenda is to take advantage of some of the hotel facilities and go for a sauna and a swim before dinner, then pack everything up for a 26 hour trip home via Beijing and Toronto starting at 5 A.M. tomorrow morning.

I will probably do a wrap up blog either on the plan tomorrow if the WiFi works or early next week.

Despite having been upgraded to a Club Room on the top (18th) floor, despite having a TV in the wall at the end of the bath etc, we woke up to reality this morning. No complimentary breakfast and no guide ad driver to whisk as away on our tour.

We had to go and find a breakfast place, I’d rather starve than pay the hotels  US $40 each for a buffet breakfast! After that we had to find the nearest MTR (Metro / Tube  / Subway) station an learn how to use it. Hong Kong has a vast public transport system used by over 90% of the population to get to and from work and seems to work very well. We bought an Octopus Card (Oyster for the Brits). It costs HK$50 which you get back when you hand it in after the last trip plus HK$100 for fares. Any unused fare money is also refunded when you hand back the card. With card in hand you just tap it on the gate when you enter and leave a station and it decrease the amount of credit by the cost of the fare and also displays the amount left at the gate.

First we headed up to a market area at Shim Sham Po where there were both fabric and electronics markets. Lyn managed to by a few metres of material, then we headed to the nearby electronics market. Most stalls were closed!!! They didn’t open until 11AM… not amused! There were a few stalls open, enough to prove to me that eBay is just as cheap, if not cheaper. Plus with eBay, if it doesn’t work you have some recourse.

Market Area and Fabric Stall

From there we headed south,  under Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island where we got on the Hop-on-Hop-Off bus. Our first stop was he Peak Tram, which climbs up 12ooft in around 1.4km,  that should  satisfy both imperial and metric users! From the top there should be fantastic views of the area, but the pollution put paid to that today.

The Tram

The Pollution

Back onto the bus for our next stop, Aberdeen Harbour and a Sampan ride.

Sampan

Sampan Driver

Sampan Ceiling

Hong Kong’s Largest Floating Restaurant

We continued on the bus back to our starting point, general views below

Less Wealthy Neighbourhood

hon Kong Eye??

Hillside Cemetery

Beach

Lutheran Church

At the end of the tour we had about an hour to spare before starting on a night tour. I thought there may be some geocaches around, and sure enough there was on 27 metres away, unfortunately it seemed to have disappeared! All was not lost though as there was another one 300 metres away. It was placed under a seat on a pier, unfortunately there were a couple sitting on the seat! Luckily they didn’t seem to appreciate our presence and moved away after a coupe of minutes. Our first Hong Kong Cache

Chinese Junk

Cruise Ship

Lights

Ladies Market at Night.

After Shanghai, Hong Kong’s lights were somewhat disappointing.

We headed back on the MTR and got some some dinner n the way, arriving back some 12 hours after we started.

Time to rest!

Today was a travel day. We headed back to Guilin, from the beautiful Rice Terraces, where we had lunch and then went to the train station for the 3 hour ride on the bullet train to Shenzhen which is the end of the line for mainland China. From the station we were picked up and taken through the Chinese exit process, quickly followed by the Hong Kong entry process, all in all it took about an hour. A little silly if you consider, in effect, we were leaving China and entering China!!

Once in Hong Kong we had to adjust to driving on the other side of the road, just like rel Brits do.

This weekend is the Chinese equivalent of Canada Day, except it lasts a week, so unfortunately everything is busy. So busy in fact they had to upgrade us to a Club Room on the top (18th) floor.

So far it looks like the cheap meals of China may be a thing of the past, this place seems a little expensive. This is even more true if you order 4 tour tickets instead of 2 by mistake, hopefully they will take pity on me and refund the cost of the extra 2 tickets.