Hong Kong and home

A whirlwind tour of Hong Kong.

I've been several times before as my brother lived out there for years but Chris hasn't.

The airport express train into central HK is a great introduction to the city. It's clean, fast, shows you where you are on the journey and delivers you into the centre of Hong Kong island itself. It puts London to shame.

They are lot less concerned about people taking photographs here than in the UK. We went into the HSBC bank building and asked a security guard if we could take photos and he said yes to the atrium and no to the banking hall which is reasonable. We also went up the Bank of China tower to the 43rd floor where there is a special viewing area which has a panoramic outlook over the harbour. Again no problems with photos here.

A wander through the conservatory and the aviary in Hong Kong park and then on the Peak Tram. This is incredibly steep and you are pushed back into the seat at several points on the short journey. Again a fantastic view from the Peak Tower (about 5 storeys above where the Peak Tram arrives). Very busy up here as it is a popular tourist spot.

The MTR (the equivalent of our tube) is also very good. The carriages are much wider and taller and cleaner. There are fewer seats but that doesn't seem to matter. The Octopus payments system is better than Oyster as you don't need to take it out of your pocket or bag to pay as it can read from a distance. Makes it much faster getting through the gates.

We ventured to Mongkok to look at electronics stuff. The prices don't seem that much different to the UK. Bought a new strap and battery for my camera. A very busy place and you can't walk down the pavement in a straight line as there are people coming at you from all directions. This is more like the 'real' HK. Scruffy buildings and people selling things on the street. Shopping is a major pastime here.

Another trip on the airport express and dinner in the airport.
Up early the next day to get our plane back to London.

The plane was completely full (still trying to sort out people after the problems from the Icelandic volcano) but I had a friendly kiwi woman next to me and we didn't feel too cramped. I definitely prefer day time flights as I find it very difficult to sleep on planes.  The Air NZ entertainment system and a couple of books and the 13.5 hours seemed to fly by (not quite but they definitely made it go more quickly)

Heathrow Terminal One is a very bad introduction back to London. It's small and cramped and feels dirty in comparison with the lovely airport in HK. At least our bags turned up relatively quickly. It's always an anxious moment waiting by the baggage carousel. We were lucky and didn't have any problems at all whilst we were travelling.

My parents collected us and drove us home. A bit of unpacking and an early night as still on HK time (+8 hours).

Our 96 day trip is over. We left in the cold, in the middle of winter, and arrived back in late spring. The garden is full of flowers and scents. No frogspawn in the pond as I think it was too cold for the frogs. Lots of birds singing now and bluebells coming out.

It's good to be home for the moment. Not sure what is happening with the political situation as we arrived home just before the election and now we have a hung parliament. Don't know what this will mean economically.

We need to seriously consider where we want to live over the next few years. New Zealand is an attractive option as there doesn't seem to be a recession there. Australia has too many creepy crawlies for me and I'm not sure we fit the entry criteria.

It's been a fantastic journey and opened our eyes to lots of possibilities. It was also great to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones. We are likely to have visitors later this year from both NZ and Oz.

I'll put up a summary of our favourite places later on.