Honk Kong buzz

Hong kong definitely has a bit of a buzz about it, more so than Shanghai and Beijing and more akin to London. You see lots of different people from different ethnicities, religions, backgrounds etc. Interesting (or maybe not) things we have noticed about Hong kong so far include:

# The use of 999 as emergency number
# Lots of English road and street names
# Less spitting and generaly more hygienic than other places we've been
# Lots of shark fin soup and herbal remedies
# Much more culturally diverse

Day 1 (Lantau Island)

Today we went to see the giant buddha on Lantau Island. We got there about 11am and still queued for nearly an hour to get a cable car to top. We decided against the glass bottom cabin as it was a lot more expensive and I'm glad anyway as it was very high and I'm not the best with heights. The 23m high buddha is nice although it didn't have any historic or spiritual feel like some other temples we have visited. After waking around the monastery (izzi hated all the incense being burnt) and sampling some vegi delights, we headed back down to Kowloon. The subway is good and efficient like all the other major cities in China we have seen, although more expensive than the others. We walked down Nathan Road (aka Golden Mile) to see the hustle and bustle and found an Indian restaurant our lonely planet book recommended. Tea tonight however will probably not be in a resturant!

Day 2 (Hong Kong Island)

Today we decided to go to the main island even if the weather didn't look so great. The forecast seems cloudy and overcast for the remaining days we have left so shouldn't make a difference which day we go up to the Peak. We started the day by getting the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island which was very easy, cheap and remarkable pleasant. The island is packed with skyscrapers and office blocks. Firstly we took the world's longest escaltors up 800m (over 20 escalators) stopping of at the Man Mo template which turned out to be one of the nicest temples we've seen and we've seen a lot! The midlevel escalators were fun and half way up you re in an area called SoHo which is pretty cool, packed out with little boutique shops, cafes and restaurants in varying price, we had a Turkish kabab which hit the spot nicely. We next went up the the Peak Tram which was okay, basically complete cloud cover so we couldn't see anything but the world famous custard tarts are delicious. We chilled out then headed back down and went to Hong Kong park and saw lots of terapin and birds in massive outdoor bird cage which reminded me of Jurassic park 3, although not full of dinosaurs. We headed further down past the HSBC head quarters and into Statue Square. We followed our guide book to a good dim sum restaurant but turns out that's only on between 11-3 so ditched that idea. Next we head back over with on the ferry to see the symphony of lights and avenue of stars. The symphony was enjoyable but cheesy as hell and probably could have been done better. A long day again, next we plan to go Macau for the day and gamble some money ;)

Day 3 (Macau)

This morning we got up and went to get the ferry to Macau. It takes about an hour and is easy and probably more comfortable than flying. The ferry is a comfortable ride and the sea wasn't to bumpy which made it a breeze of a trip. Firstly we got public bus to the center where we walked around a ruined church, an old Portuguese fort and the Macau history musem which was actually really good. We then jumped on one of the numerous shuttle busses to the casinos on the neighbouring island and headed for Venetian, the worlds biggest casino. Its ridiculously big, it has 600 shops including a man utd shop, a full Venice style street with gondals and a fake sky, its impressive allbeit tacky as hell. After a walk around we headed for the casino floor, we soon realised that our budget was too small and the stakes on each table were too high. It was still busy even on a Tuesday afternoon. We headed straight for the slots and small time roulette tables, we didn't do so well. Izzi kept on asking where the 2p machines were!

Day 4 (kowloon and the hunt for shoes)

So today we had a day of exploring Kowloon, we first went to the history musem which was good and learnt about Hong Kong's long and turbulent past then went on a mission to find me some shoes. We went to about 20 shops and found they only stocked up to about a UK 10/11, I tried some on but couldn't fit in them. When we were nearing the end of out tether we headed to the Croc shop and boom, UK 12 in some, and cavas shoes as well. I ended up getting them but they weren't cheap, the same price as to get the Macau and back for the two of us! Atleast I have some footwear which isn't falling apart. In the evening we headed for some food and an early night. I decided to try a local dim sum restaurant and boy was it a bad decision, dim sum is the devils work! We got 5/6 dishes and they're not for me, izzi wasn't to bothered, one of them made me feel like throwing up when it entered my mouth, slimy and sickly it was like eating and long snotty piece of shit, never again will I order dim sum!