Hong Kong mainland - Kowloon district

Although being based on the island has been good we always knew that at some point we would like to be based in the main mix of it 'downtown'.

After doing the main touristy things which came to a head on the open top bus, which frankly was rubbish. I'll tell you why, the driver seemed to think it was the sort of tour that needed executing at warp speed. The g-force on top deck was neck crunching. The old camera needed to be permanently fixed on sport mode to capture any of the whizzing highlights on this tour. Unless the bus company employ some calmer drivers I would not recommend it.

The next couple of days we opted for amore slower pace of life as would you believe it within a city that is so germ obsessed I actually picked up quite a bad cold, some, one included, would class it as flu.  You known lying in the park watching tai chi and sipping tea at local cafes. The people watching in HK is absolutely epic.

To further kick back we opted for a day at the beach, Repulse Bay. By getting out and about I was hoping to pass this cold (flu) onto anyone who wasn't wearing a surgical mask. The bay is beautiful and a real contrast to the city and only 20 mins away. HK an island itself, is surrounded by another 260 islands. These islands were created at the end of the ice age following billions of years of previous volcanic eruptions. So the amount of coastline is pretty high compared with its overall land mass of 1090 sq km's total. Once you are out of the city it's quite a green place. Hiking is pretty big within the cooler months as vista views are far clearer at these times. Beacon Hill being one of the more frequently trekked peak.

What we did note was that there was no tourist accommodation beachside, with only residential, very nice at that, seeming to be ex-pat dominated. We found it funny as we watched the tour buses roll up with the Chinese lot on board. Dressed for what we'd class as clubwear, stilettos and Gucci, always a strong look at the beach! Fe was pleased to see signage for shark nets in place as she entered for a dip.

Our trip to the beach did the trick as the flu eased so we spent a evening in our hotel bar know as 'the pub'. An eastern stab of what pubs are deemed to be like. Duly we entered into a game of darts, the soft tip type.  What really pleased Fe was that no mental arithmetic was required, it did it all for you. What made us laugh was that even if the darts didn't stick in the board the score still seemed to count. With this said Fe claimed the high score of the night of 140.  (hmmmmmm). We called it a day when one of Fe's tips actually snapped off and got stuck in the board.

The main thing that gets me in HK is the lack of chairs ! There's just no where to grab a quick pew. It's probably one of the factors to why the whole place is running at such a pace !

We had a massive thunder and lightening storm last night. Our first "big" storm really, going on this morning papers 40mm fell in just 30mins. This made our night at the races even more exciting. Racing is pretty big in HK, there are two race tracks and the season runs from September to June with meetings twice weekly and we happened to be at the first Happy Valley meet of the season. The Happy Valley track is famous for its downtown location being bang slap in the middle of residential sky-scrapers.  There did seem to be a slight racket around who could actually gamble or not. We had a few cheeky 10$ bets 'on the nose' but no lady luck to be had this night. Now this is a place to hang out if your an ex-pat. It was full of 'em.

Following half an hour of spectacular thunder and lightening the heavens opened just as the tenth and final race ended. This seemed to flush out the 40k plus crowd pretty swiftly which then resulted in a mad scramble to get out of the ground and onto any passing mode of transport. We opted of the tram, as you can guess it was rammed steamy.   As the rains fell it reminded us of nights in the van minus the 98% humidity !! There were some big lightening strikes pretty close by and at one point I'd even say the locals seemed slightly concerned at what must be a common occurrence. A fun time had for our last night in HK. Next onward to the Nam.

Miss
D - The feel of being somewhere that is totally different from the west
F - The surgical masks

Won't miss
D - Highrise blocks - a harsh way to live
F- Eating noodles with 2 sticks - come on thats just silly!