Hong+Kong.+Feel+It.+Live+It.

It was the day where you try and just get your damn bearings. By the time we arrived at the Hotel last night it was about 1:00 am local time, which was 4:00 am Sydney time. Brett (my brother) and I just didn’t want to go straight to sleep, so we walked off and found a bar where we had a sparkling wine and beer. Although each drink cost us around AU$14.00 it was well deserved. Walking back we stopped off at a 7 Eleven and got some water and iced tea. We would have to had spent at least 20 minutes in the store just looking at all the choices of water, soft drink and iced tea…. Plus converting it to Australian dollars too to see if we were being ripped off. In our opinion these 7 Eleven’s here in Hong Kong are a real bargain basement …. Unlike back home in Australia. So, with no real plan this morning we got our tourist day pass at the MTR (train station) and headed into Central and then from there we just wandered around rather aimlessly.On our travels we did come across a shopping mall that had a Halloween exhibit. Susan, Brett and I decided to partake in this. The first section was pretty amusing, we kept half expecting something or someone to jump out, but nothing ever did. The second part was a little more strange. The group we were with were all herded into this circular room, with these dead bodies peering through the glass. Next we were shut in, and overhead was this spooky Chinese voice. The three of just looked at each other with a nervous smile, because we had no idea what this ghoul was saying. Where as everybody else had a different expression because they could understand the announcement. Next this room started to shake and then spin, and the three of us were thinking “oh crap” we’ve just had lunch! After that experience it was a matter of hopping back on the train to try and get back to Kowloon and our Motel. Along the way though we had to find a toilet, and you wouldn’t believe how bloody hard it is to find public toilets in Hong Kong let-a-lone seats. This evening Susan, Brett, Mum and I went to this little European influenced restaurant just around the corner from us. I was very adventurous and had a U.S. Angus steak! Susan had some soup like dish with noodles which she ended up passing to mum, who in turn swapped her with her soup which was a little different that she was expecting. Even Brett had a dish he wasn’t expecting, a Caesar salad …. Without the chicken. After dinner Brett and I headed up some back street for a foot reflexology session, and I ended up having a back massage. It was very good, and so damn cheap. Back to the room for some sleep time, and the air-conditioner on because of the heat.
 * First Day in Hong Kong (Wednesday 7-9-09)**

After our rather disastrous day yesterday with the no plan option not being very fortuitous we ended up going on a half day tour which took us around Hong Kong island. It was very good; albeit a little rushed at the Stanley Markets and Victorias Peak. Funnily our first stop was a Chinese jewellery factory, where we had a talk from “Jimmy” on how the jewellery is made. We were told of the special pendant that had been made this year to represent 60 years of the people of China or something along those lines, and we thought how nice. Next we were taken to the showroom with every other tourist and started looking at all the lovely jewellery. Very temped to buy these special edition pieces with their HK$19,500 price tag, which works out to be around AU$2500. Thanks – but no thanks! We were lucky enough to have some free mint tea! Next on the tour was a stop at Aberdeen and a HK$50 optional boat tour, which didn’t turn out to be so optional after all. It was a dinky little boat, but thankfully made it’s way around the waters of Aberdeen. We had to laugh when the driver stopped the boat about a kilometre from the wharf (their version of one anyway) and made us all pay before he took the boat in! Arriving back we had to jump on a tyre then the concrete steps, being helped by our tiny tour guide. I tell you if the NSW Maritime Association saw this they would have a fit, not to mention Workplace NSW! Off to Stanley Markets where we were taught three phrases in Chinese to get our way through, Yes, No, Lower the price. Not that we really needed to know with our thirty minute time limit before being herded back onto the bus. Final stop was Victorias Peak with it’s spectacular panoramic views of Hong Kong below. Again a strict thirty minute time limit before being herded back onto the bus and back to the hotel. On the way back I must have drifted off as I don’t remember to much plus I could feel the onslaught of a cold heading my way. On arriving back at the Hotel we all had a nanna nap. By the time we all were aroused I was in no mood to be heading anywhere as I was in the full blitz of the cold now, which I was really cranky about because I just didn’t feel like going out anywhere. Brett and Susan went on a little walk and ended up at the night markets where they came home at 12:00 turned all the lights and TV on and began showing me their treasures. Oh well so much for my early night. I didn’t have the air conditioner on tonight to try and avoid making the cold worse so the three of us had to sleep in a hot stuffy room. We all had a little sleep in this morning to about 9:30 am, until Mum and Dad knocked our doors and told us that we had better hurry up if we wanted breakfast. That was the last thing on my mind, as I felt like crap. So I went and had a shower instead hoping that the steam would help ease the symptoms a little. Helped for a bit. Anyway I made it in time for breakfast but I just didn’t have a lot to eat.Off to the ladies markets, so we boarded the MTR and found our way back to Mong Kok. My nose was dribbling which is taboo in Hong Kong, so I found some little dinky pharmacy and got some nasal spray and a mask! Yes, I was officially quarantining myself. You have to, there are so many signs around Hong Kong in relation to the cold about the correct etiquette and wearing a mask is one of them. I looked like a real sine flu case. I ended up cutting the trip short and heading back to Kowloon. Every time I breathed my sunglasses would fog up, and my nose was beginning to drip under the mask and I felt like death warmed up. When I got to my room it hadn’t been cleaned yet, the housekeepers were next door. So I got my laptop and headed down to the lobby and was going to transfer my photos. However Bill came online which was a lovely surprise and so we chatted for an hour. Before a droplet came loose from my nose, in a crowded lobby and I thought “Jesus, if I don’t go they’re going to call the health authorities and have me carted away” So I discreetly got up and headed to the elevator and went back to the room, blew my honker in Hong Kong an chatted to Bill some more, before he surprised me by ringing the hotel phone and we then talked for about 30 minutes. Later on the family arrived back with their spoils of the day. Their Billabongs, Guess, Gucci, Prada and Boss items… and all I had to show for the day was a bin full of tissues. Such a waste of a day, but what can I do? There’s no point going out, because I don’t feel well and I have to wear a bloody mask anyway. As I hadn’t had lunch today I felt like a substantial meal, nothing to unhealthy. Mum, Dad and I ended up going back to that European restaurant where we all had steak and vegetables! Although this time I had an Australian tenderloin and mum and dad had the U.S. Angus steak this time. From what I could taste the meal was delicious. And I’m hoping the vegetables will inject some of their magic into me. Needless to say that I fairly well drugged up on different concoctions from Nasal spray to Chinese Panadol Cold and Flu tablets just hoping for some release tomorrow. Please, please, please. Everybody has headed off to the night markets, and I ended up walking to the massage parlour again and having a full body massage. Not my brightest idea, because my nose was dripping …. And on to the ground. Luckily the masseuse didn’t see all this, and when she finished and left the room I had to mop it up with a tissue, then disinfected my hands with that hand gel you can buy these days. My veins are popping out a little tonight, which Bill taught me means the human body is dehydrated. So I’ve been drinking water and had two bottles of Lucozade this evening. Will drink more water through the night, I’m hoping the family will come in quietly and we can have a look at all their goodies tomorrow sometime. Not feeling up to be terribly excited this evening, especially if it is going to be late. I know I sound like a sourpuss …. Oh well bugger it – I just am ill at the moment.
 * Day Two (Thursday 8-10-09)**
 * Day Three (Friday 9-10-09) **


 * Day Four (Saturday 10-10-09)[[image:Day_Four_Macua_Hong_Kong.jpg width="312" height="233" align="right" caption="Taking photos at Chinese Customs. A no no."]]**

The big day of leaving for another country … well kind of. The beautiful fact about Hong Kong is that although it is China, it has the one country two government policy going on. This is why it chooses to fly two funky and very red flags just about everywhere you look. At least with Australia we have a blue and green motif going. The Australian flag and the boxing kangaroo; however I digress. We set sail for mainland China, and the destination was Macua which involved an hour ferry trip across the South China Sea. This was very exciting because it really is the equivalent of leaving for a new country. One rocks up to the ferry terminal and lines up at customs, smiles awkwardly and the scary masked wearing customs officer and then presents the passport. One through it’s an hour of swine flu health alerts, safety demonstrations in case of sinking in the middle of the South China Sea (although the polluted waters would be my greater concern) then some very tacky Chinese Rove come Thank God You’re Here show. Of course it’s all in Chinese so the jokes really go over your head, however in their wisdom for us non Chinese speaking white people they have the show subtitled …… in Chinese!Once landing in Macua my brother was welcomed with a barrage of text messages from the Macua telco or we are inclined to believe the casinos of Macua; all welcoming him and calling him the “lucky player” and to drop in HK$ in the slots at the Casinos. The rest of us were a little disappointed as we only received a welcoming message from the Macua telco which was at a blistering fast GSM service! After making our way through customs again and declaring that we weren’t sick of the swine flu, although I was tempted to tell them I was sick of their bloody swine flu health alerts, but the lesbian looking Chinese customs officer didn’t look like the people who would share some larrikin Australian jokes. We eventually made it through and I was suddenly struck with the fear if they used the Hong Kong currency over in Macua or perhaps the Chinese yuan. After being bombarded by at least fifteen tourist operators or vying for our precious dollar my sister pressed us to “move out of the bloody terminal” so we did and began walking down the road soon realising we really had no idea where we were and that Macua was a lot hotter and less tidy then Hong Kong. As luck would have it we saw a TAXI pull in across the road and we crossed the highway and waited outside prey tell a Casino. All aboard and we pointed on the map to where we wanted to go, because that’s what us tourists do.The St. Pauls Cathedral loomed over us and we took our 1001 happy snaps between the five of us and looked at all the relics, then made our way into the holy crypt where my sister and brother decided in their wisdom to pose for photos by the lectern. With the sacred bones of priests I suspect lying in special airtight containers to their right, they donned their sunglasses and put their thumbs in the air! I’m sure if the priest had have had cameras in the 1600’s they would have done exactly the same pose. After the cathedral we made our way down the great steps and ran into a lovely performance of Chinese dragons dancing around trying to eat some oversized snake and then throwing it away again. Why any animal would take twenty bloody minutes to catch the food and then throw it away again is beyond me, but then again I’ve never seen a dragon in action before and I deduce that this is what they do…. Through the tight, crowded Portuguese market places to another church, this one not in ruins. Not being Catholic some members of the family found it a little difficult to experience the peace and tranquillity of the surroundings with the bloodied Jesus looking down from his somewhat mission brown cross. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that it was not me, and I gave a HK$2.00 donation in the magic and sacred wishing box outside.More winding through tight, crowded Portuguese market places to more tight, crowded Portuguese market places eventually into the back streets of Macua. Finally finding our way to some lovely town park, which I want to stress with all sincerity was most charming. The locals were out, playing their instruments, playing with the kids, exercising and generally having a good time. It had a real sense of community about it. The only amusing part of the experience was that we were the only Westerners and to make it worse had our cameras out clicking away and videotaping to boot. Up a hundred or so steps and we found ourselves looking out over the “slumdog millionaire” back town of Macua and thinking “crap where the hell are we and how on earth are we going to get to a TAXI?” It may sound rather amusing to read but it was really very daunting at the time. We were utterly lost in a foreign country. Onward we pressed marching through tiny streets, citizens in their shanty huts playing mahjong and gazing at us we strolled along. During this time we felt it best to put the cameras away. Stumbling on a main road we took sight of several TAXIS whizz by and watched them to see where they were going, so onward we soldiered up another street trying to hail them down. Eventually managing to get one we began to pile in only to have the TAXI driver shout at us which we think was “get out!”. We learnt he wasn’t going to take us because there were five of us! So, some other people grabbed the TAXI, dad wandered off ad the rest of us sat down and started collecting strategies on how the frick we were going to get back to the ferry terminal with only one map. After Dad finally returned from his own little adventure, my brother and I decided that we wanted to go to the Macau tower while the others wanted to head back to the ferry terminal. Brett and I hailed a TAXI pointed to the Macua Tower on the map and quickly handed the map to Dad so they could point to the terminal when the finally hailed a TAXI.Whizzing through the streets of Macua we saw the giant Macua tower loom over us like a great big Mighty Angus burger and began to feel the adrenalin pump through our bodies. On arriving we headed up to level four for a drink and then back down again to the ground floor to buy our tickets for the skywalk. I had done this before but thought after four years I was ready for it again. Heading up the elevator we donned our official bright orange skywalk shirts, out our very exclusive and sexy worn a thousand times sneakers and waited for our guide. He took us out on the edge clipped in only by two ropes and began walking, then sitting over the edge, then to my horror leaning over the edge and just relying on the ropes to hold us while we held our hands out as we tried to hail a 747 Jumbo. Many photos were taken and we also had the opportunity to see some crazy fools bungee jump right in front of our eyes. After all that we hopped into another TAXI and headed back to the ferry terminal barely making the eight o’clock ferry back to Hong Kong. At one stage raising suspicions from one officer because my mother, brother and I discovered that we were heading for the wrong berth and we were on the one way floor escalators and tried walking back on them. We quietly turned around and headed to the end of the track then ran our way back to the correct berth. A pleasant trip back to Hong Kong, although I would like to say that when you hit some waves in the South China sea you really feel the ferry rock around it’ just like turbulence. All aboard the MTR once again we were heading for Lan Tau island home of the Big Buddha. The last time I was there the only way to the top was to walk or by a very hair raising bus ride. Luckily now though Buddha has seen the almighty value in the tourism dollar and built this huge cable car from the base of the mountain to the top. The beautiful part to is that you step off the MTR and practically walk onto the cable car. There are two options the standard or crystal experience, We went for the crystal experience at only an extra HK$20 each and basically was able to walk by the hundreds of people all lining up for the standard cable cars. The crystal cable wasn’t much different to the standard except that it had a glass bottom. So if we were to fall to our demise, at least we knew how long we had to say our hail mary’s before we hit the ground with an almighty plod.This cable car was one of the longest that I had ever seen, it crossed roads, rivers, mountains, whizzed by the international airport and finally to the brand spanking new Buddha village which was like a replica of Disneyland’s Mainstreet USA! We got to the base of Buddha only to be greeted by two hundred or so steps. Suck it up – it had to be climbed; and we did. Stopping every now and then for photos. Once at the top we were greeted with a scenic view of Lantau island and we had the opportunity to touch Buddha’s bottom which we believe brings good luck. I’m not sure how Buddha feels about having his bottom groped by thousands of eager tourists day in and day out, however I wouldn’t complain. So the bum was touched and it was now time to descend the stairs and start heading back to the MTR for lunch with my friend Sarah who was meeting us at Central. We met Sarah and she led us to the buses that were taking us to the other side of the island for lunch at the Boatshed Restaurant, very popular with locals. Well ones who had decent jobs and an American Express card to suit. Although the poor waiter we had made mistakes that made Manuel from Fawlty Towers look like he had stepped out of hospitality finishing school, the meal was grand and dare I say that there pavlova was just as good as an Australian one, I wouldn’t dare say that it was better. Lunch out of the way we headed over to the Stanley Markets for some more retail therapy and then back onto the bus bound for Central. After saying our goodbyes to our very gracious hostess we headed back to Kowloon for some dinner then out again to the Temple Street night markets for you guessed it – more retail therapy.
 * Day Five (Sunday 11-10-09) **

Day Six (Monday 12-10-09) Disneyland ** This is the day, the day that has been building for at least 27 years. Disneyfreakinland! Mums adventure that she has been planning since she popped me out, and the other two! We were up reasonably early, well almost I think three out of the five made it downstairs for breakfast. After that it was a brisk walk down the to the Tsim Sha Tsui station, on to the Tung Chung line alight at Sunny Bay and finally onto the Disneyland Resort line. Bliss. Once we arrive at the Disneyland Resort station and crossed, we were greeted by another MTR train, but this one brought huge smiles to our faces. Every window on the train was in the shape of Mickey Mouse, and what’s more the seats were all plush and had golden figurines of famous Disney characters on each wall. It was fabulous. Even when we arrived at the plush built Disneyland resort station the train voiceover wished us a “magical day” had they not thought of anything that would detract from the day!? Once we checked our octopus cards to make sure we had enough credit to get back to Tsim Sha Tsui we began our long but excited walk to the park gates. Although we did have to stop at the magical fountain which involved Mickey Mouse on a surfboard hovering above a giant whale on this beautiful fountain. We walked to the park gates, and after being stopped and searched to make sure we weren’t bringing anything un-magical in to the most magical theme park on earth we purchased our tickets. I was served by a lovely young Asian woman by the name of “Vince” ! This is where it began. Once we got the iconic start, where the Mainstreet Station looms over you, and the garden is the form of Mickey Mouse, plus the obligatory park entrance photographs which I’m sure were at least $HK100 it was time to set sail and begin our adventure into Disneyland. Dad with the park map opened was trying to figure out where the heck we were. However as you start off in Mainstreet USA you soon learn to realise unless there is something specific you want to see you just go with the throw and follow the paths. As Disneyland Hong Kong isn’t as large as it’s brother in the USofA there’s little chance of missing out on anything. I do believe our first ride was the spaceship Orbitron ride …. or equivalent. So after getting into the queue and having to wait a gruelling five minutes before we entered our space vehicles, the lady counted down and we were off hurtling through the air at a whopping 15 km/h! In saying that we were able to “fly” our spaceships up and down, and we did get a great view of the park from the top. After disembarking we found the rollercoaster entitled Ghost Galaxy, not knowing quite to expect after the last ride we still waited in anticipation. After sitting down in the coaster cars and having the bar come down and squash our laps the roller coaster began. This would have to have been our favourite ride, not only was it the only roller coaster at Disneyland, it was fast and unpredictable and in pitch blackness apart from the odd ghoul. To top it all off after the final steep dip a camera flashed and took our amazing photographs! Dare I say I looked the most //normal// out of the bunch. Dad looking elsewhere, Mum with her eyes shut and Susan and Brett looking like they were in a moving car with Thelma & Louise, they’re hair blowing back quite fiercely. It was hilarious. So I snapped up the photo for another HK$100. After that we walked through the different themed lands, Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. One ride that I have to point out though is the River Cruise in Adventureland. All the English speaking people had to line up in one queue and native speaking in another. Once we were aboard our full boat our tour guide by the name of Mary or equivalent began to speaking to us in her wildly animated Asian voice. It was hilarious, here she was giving us a run down of what we were seeing from elephants, to piranhas to crocodiles. Getting more excited as we progressed down the river, you couldn’t help but laugh. She was fantastic, even though most of the time you couldn’t understand a word she was saying between being so excited, the microphone practically down her throat and her thick accent. The ending was charming “thank you for travelling on the River Cruise, I hope you enjoyed it and had fun. If not never mind I still get paid, and have to do it another 450 times today”, true story. It was brilliant. Whilst in Adventureland we stumbled across a jungle adventure walk which apparently was built on sacred grounds. As we walked through the pitch black, we had jungle demons and friends popping out on us, then bumping into the walls because it was a little to dark at times. Susan didn’t particularly enjoy that one as she claimed she just doesn’t like when things pop out. Fair enough. Another attraction that Brett and I went into was the Main Street Haunted Mansion. I’m sure it was supposed to be scary, and for the young lady in front of us who screamed the entire way I’m sure it was, but for Brett and I it just didn’t have the same effect. For us it was the language barrier. As we kept walking through, we had ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, wailing bloodies ladies and dead hotel concierges all screaming at us …… in Chinese! I’m sure if we had known what they were screaming it would have been far more frightening but it just didn’t have that effect like it did with the native speaking park guests. We tried to get Susan to go through telling her it was a cheesy roller coaster, but something just made her not believe us. Wise decision Susan. Coming back into Tomorrowland the attraction //Alien Invasion// was now open with a long crowd of people queuing up and we thought “why not?” the wait time was 15 minutes and what else did we have to do with our time? We all honestly thought this was going to be some kind of roller coaster so was quite looking forward to it. As we approached the entrance and we were told by Lance or equivalent that there was to be no flash photography and to keep moving we suddenly learnt this was not going to be a roller coaster. One young Indian girl was already in tears and her father was trying to comfort her, she just didn’t want to go, I swear she was all of the age of six. So in we ventured, into the darkness and smoke (made possible by a fog machine) past aliens and other space like fiends and then bang our first alien actor jumping out, gave us all quite a fright but it also made us aware of what we were in stall for. Brett and I were at the front, so for the first few minutes we copped the grunt of all the surprises… however these clever actors soon learnt that we were not the ones to be attacking but my poor sister because she was terrified. Brett and I were in hysterics because we could hear her screaming and she was right behind me. At one part of the attraction we entered what appeared to be the control room and they had these life size aliens slumped over the controls. Brett walked by and not one stirred, then I walked by and not one moved so I just assumed they were inanimate and for decoration. Next thing I turned around to see my sister walking through and they both came alive and went for her! She screamed her lungs out, and Brett and I just burst into fits of laughter again, next thing I know I had Susan run right into me and push me to hurry up because she wanted out, then realised that if she was in the front then she would have to endure more surprises ahead so turned around and ran back to Mum and pushed her to get behind her. All the while these aliens were still chasing her. Between my 25 year old sister screaming and the frightened 6 year old Indian minor it was a real Italian opera happening. By the end of it my sister was white, and to add injury to insult just before she left through the exit one last alien jumped out from the roof. Susan claims that she knew it was going to happen … but I think not, I believe she was just trying to maintain some dignity! I’m imagining when she returns to teach her classes she won’t be telling them about these little experiences but more on the wonders of meeting Mickey and Minnie Mouse. All good things must come to an end and as the park was drawing to a close, and certain areas were being fenced off all park guests were herded towards the princesses castle, the iconic castle that is always associated with Disneyland. As we found our spots and watched a light show of spiders crawling over the castle on a 30 second loop for fifteen minutes we were told by the voiceover that we had only minutes before the fireworks were to commence. This was going to be a highlight of the day, because they always look good on television. We weren’t disappointed; the firework display was simply amazing. The way the fireworks performed in time with the classic and magical Disney music, it was perfect. And that was the magical world of Disney!

So I'm getting - go Disneyworld (especially the fireworks), eat the angus burgers & always carry a map!