Last day

Hong Kong

Last full day in Hong Kong so after a surprisingly nice coffee near our hotel we did some shopping. In the area where we were staying everywhere you look it's shops shops and more shops and as it was raining steadily we joined everyone else. The service in the shops was noticeably good, very different from home, and we both ended up buying some clothes.

Back to the hotel to rest for a while after all that shopping, and later that afternoon we headed back to Lan Kwai Fong for a happy hour drink and then a nice meal at an Italian restaurant.

After that we revisited the Temple St Market, this time it was open but as it turned out the merchandise wasn't much different to what we'd seen at the Ladies Market, so we came away with nothing. 

After a night's rest it was up early to check out, then take an Uber to the airport, followed by a 9 hour flight back to Melbourne and the ridiculously cold temperatures we'd managed to avoid for the last 10 weeks! We thought that the cold might be a welcome relief after experiencing some incredibly hot and humid weather, but after standing outside Melbourne Airport in the cold for about 30 seconds we realised we were 100% wrong about that!    

Too early

Hong Kong

In the morning we went over to Hong Kong Island again to visit an artist share space with lots of little studios called PMQ. There wasn't much of interest, although M picked up a cheap Mr. Men coffee mug.

Back on Kowloon we went to the Temple St. market to find everything was closed (we were way too early), so we then went to the Ladies market. It was open, but it was also a little disappointing as it was mostly just Hong Kong souvenirs and assorted junk that we could get back home at a $2 shop.

We ended the day at a small, tasty Indian restaurant, which for some reason thought that loud live music in such a tiny venue would improve the atmosphere, thankfully we only had to endure a couple of songs.

Too busy!

Hong Kong (and Macau)

Online information said the fast boat to Macau left every 15 minutes but we arrived at the ferry terminal to discover it's only every hour. Unfortunately it was very overcast so that even though we had window seats for the hour trip across the bay visibility was poor.

On arrival we took the free shuttle bus to the Grand Lisboa casino and walked to Senado Square.

From there we headed to the famous façade of St Paul's church. It was incredible how many people were there, we think most of them would have been Chinese mainlanders. The streets were cobblestone like Portugal, there were a lot of shops, many of them selling beef jerky which seemed to be incredibly popular. 

The crowds were overwhelming so we headed back to the Grand Lisboa to get another shuttle, our goal being to visit one of the larger casinos on Taipa Island, about 30 minutes away. It wasn't clear where we should catch the shuttle from, after asking for assistance we discovered that to get a free shuttle ticket back to the port you had to enter the casino part of the complex, take the escalators down to the basement, go to the opposite back corner and collect your ticket, after which you need to fight your way back through the crowds, go around to the side of the building,  join the queue and wait for a bus. Talk about making it difficult!

Once back at the port we took another free shuttle to the Venetian. The casinos are heavily modelled on the Las Vegas ones, including a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Parisian, and a copy of Big Ben and the houses of Parliament at The Londoner. The Venetian was also like what we'd seen in Las Vegas with a fake blue sky painted on the ceiling, and an indoor river with gondoliers. 

We had ended up in what was pretty much a massive shopping mall full of designer shops. Quickly we decided we'd had enough of the crowds and the commercialism and found our way back out to head for the ferry terminal. We had hoped to make the 6pm boat but the earliest tickets available were for 7pm.    

We finally made it back to our hotel, we practically made it all the way from the ferry terminal on HK Island to our hotel in Kowloon travelling by train and walking underground without needing to go outside, exposed only for the last 20 metres or so when we had to cross a road to get to our hotel! 

Taking a peak

Hong Kong

We caught the train under the harbour to Central Station on Hong Kong Island, so we could join a free walking tour at 11am. Unfortunately it was sunny and very hot which wasn't ideal.

The walking tour was interesting, we picked up a bit of information on history, notable buildings, architecture, religion and food, and also took a trip on part of the longest outdoor escalator in the world.

Back to the hotel by train for a short break from the heat, then we ventured out again to Victoria Peak. Hong Kong has a huge problem with smog due to coal fired industries so we needed to take advantage of the reasonably cloudless day while we could.

This time instead of the train to HK Island we took the Star Ferry, and from the other side jumped onto a double decker bus that would take us up to the peak.

It was very busy but seeing the amount of unused infrastructure for queue management it must have been a "quiet" day. Although still a little smoggy the views were good and gave us a good idea how large and picturesque the harbour is. 

We caught the tram back down, which was a lot quicker than the bus, but the views we'd seen from the bus were superior to the tram. From the tram stop we walked to the Lan Kwai Fong area. we'd been told that this was a famous street with lots of bars, though it was quiet when we arrived. After a (still expensive) happy hour drink we had dinner at nearby restaurant then took the train back to Tim Sha Tsui and our hotel. 

Inching homewards

Bangkok (Thailand) to Hong Kong (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China) 

K hadn't been to Hong Kong since 1981 and M has never been so it seemed a good option for a final stopover on the way home, especially as it's was only a two and a half hour flight from Bangkok.

The hotel were very nice when we checked out early and gave us coffees and some take away breakfast while we waited for our Grab to arrive, then it was off to the airport and another couple of hours in the lounge.

At the Hong Kong end we exited the airport into more heat and humidity. The red taxis waiting outside all looked pretty old, nevertheless we jumped into one after grabbing a bit of paper with the estimated fare to Tim Sha Tsui in Kowloon (as it turned out that the estimate was very close).

It was early evening by the time we checked in to our hotel, so after settling in we briefly explored the immediate area, around the harbour and Star Ferry terminal, before having dinner at a (believe it or not) Irish pub!