Friday 27 March 2015

Hong Kong Adventure!

Time to get out and explore!

So far Kris and I have stayed on the boat the whole time, we didn't get off in Vietnam for a few reasons, but Hong Kong is something I've been excited for since I found out it was one of our destinations. We were spending the most time docked in Hong Kong and I had hoped we could go to Disneyland, we had planned for it but when we were on board and talked to the 'help desk' people, it was made clear that we wouldn't be able to go, basically because of the time the ship gets in we spend a whole night in Hong Kong but only half the day, so we do have the most time there but not beneficial to us to go to Disneyland, nevertheless we were going to get off and explore it anyway.

We got in to Hong Kong at approx 21:00 and seeing the city lights float by was beautiful. 
Hong Kong from the view of my balcony.
At dinner our waiters were all busy with excitement because a lot of them love Hong Kong or are from here they were excited to get off the ship and have a good night, it was really nice to see them excited for something, even though this is their job, they get some downtime in a place they love and it was really nice to see. 

We had booked a tour for 07:30 in the morning which meant we had to be up and have breakfast by 07:15 at the latest. I'm not a morning person at all so this was kind of difficult. I was pleased however to notice a definite change in the weather. No longer was it hot, sticky and humid. It was now quite chilly and I was able to wear jeans, and boots and a big warm coat - what I like to call my travel attire. 

Our tour was a hop on; hop off tour. When we were left the boat we were taken to a long line of coaches and we were then stuffed in and whisked off to our meeting point. It was about a half our coach ride to our meeting point,  I was fighting to stay awake. When we stepped off the coach we were promptly ushered to a new bus - one of the hop on hop off tour buses - a giant double decker bus -we got on board and made our way to the 2nd story. We were all given a super sexy yellow rain poncho. 



 It was really windy on the top of the bus but it gave us the best views and I was all cozy and wrapped up in my coat that I didn't care. When it started to rain however. I did care. 

Kris and I took this chance to take some great couple photos. The one on the left is a nice one and the one on the right is our 'Its so damn windy' photo.

We did however happen to get a good couple photo at one of our destinations so that made me happy. Our first stop was called 'The Peak'. It involves a tram ride up a basically vertical hill that gives you the best views of Hong Kong. The tram ride was kind of scary, it started off ok but then went very steep. there were no seat belts and the seats were just wood. Not very comfortable. You could actually feel gravity pulling you back. What made me worry is that there were people standing!
The tram ride felt old and rickety and it honestly didn't feel like it was going to make it all the way up. About half way up we jolted to a stop and I freaked out, we rolled backwards for a bit and then stopped. After a few seconds I realised that this is intentional as we were stopped at a beautiful clearing so you could see the city of Hong Kong.

Just look at the angle of the rails. That is what angle we were on, on the tram. That is how steep the hill was that we were going up. Even though the seats were uncomfortable and it felt like my head was going to roll off my shoulders due to the gravity, I would highly recommend 'The Peak' tram ride. It is a massive tourist attraction in Hong Kong and totally worth it.

The views from the way up were lovely, but when you reached 'The Peak' it was gorgeous.

The View of Hong Kong from The Peak.
Even thought the wether was cold and rainy, it was still clear enough for us to get a good shot. Just imagine if it was a blue sky sunny day. I'd love to come back to Hong Kong. 


Pinky also enjoyed The Peak. I pretended that he was Godzilla until I remembered that Godzilla terrorised Japan and not Hong Kong. ): 

This little guy is more traveled that some people I know. 

I'm not scared of heights, like I've mentioned before in my travel blogs, but being up this high did for a second make me a little nervous - mainly worried about dropping something. 

I was super proud of my mum for being up here and looking around, I know she's scared of heights but she did this anyway.

It got quite a bit more cloudier after this photo was taken and started to rain a bit, it got quite slippery so we didn't stay up here for long.






There was a section at the top where you could write little love notes. I couldn't really read what it was for because it was in a language I don't speak. It reminded me of the 'lock bridge' in Paris. Because this doesn't seem like its going to weigh the whole building down and collapse I decided to write mine and Kris' name on a card and hang it up.


We then managed to take a pretty decent selfie. 





We then walked back down to the tram. Going up the hill was scary, but going down was even worse. In stead of facing down the hill, we wen't down backwards. It was unnerving but obviously we made it out alive. When we were waiting for the tram I noticed the cables used to pull it up the hill, the were as thick as my arm, massive industrial cables and a huge pulley system. Once I saw this I felt a little bit better about going back down.
From the platform you cant even see where the tram line goes it, it looks like it just drops off the planet. and when you're going down, it kind of feels that way. We only had to wait about 10ish minutes for the next hop on hop off bus to arrive, so we hopped on the bus and continued our tour, this time it went down into the sea-side section of Hong Kong. Unfortunately it started to rain and we got soaked, I ended up wrapping myself up in the ponchos so it wasn't so bad. The area we went to was beautiful though. Unfortunately because we were wet from the rain and on the top level of the bus kind of freezing from the wind I did develop a cold, it hit me when we came home so at least I could enjoy the rest of the trip without coughing up a lung. (:

The guid said that in summer the beaches are packed with people and there are often sea-side markets. The markets happen all year round, but are more popular in the nicer weather. We didn't get off at the markets like we were thinking because we were fast running out of time. We caught this bus back to the drop off point and this is when mum and Lindsay left Kris and I. 

We wanted to explore some of the city more and we wanted to try and do some shopping. So we caught a bus back into the hustle and bustle of the city. It was so overwhelming. The buildings and the stores were crazy. We got some of our money exchanged and set off. 

We didn't end up buying anything which is ok, but we had a little trouble getting back to the ship. We had intended on taking a taxi. We had only seen one ATM the whole time we were walking around and that made me a little nervous. When we went to ask how much it was to get to where we wanted we realised we didn't have enough cash and taxis didn't take card. So we were now in a bit of a pickle and a race against time we new it would take us a half hour to get back to the ship and we knew that there weren't many ATMs so we set off on a hunt and as we didn't know where we were, we just walked in every which way. We found one after 10-15 mins of walking about, but when we got to it, it was bank specific we were a little worried now, but then at the end of the same street there was another ATM that we say that would take our card. We walked to a hotel at the other end of the street and caught a cab from there to the ship and the day was saved!


It might be super tricky to see, but this is the shot of the ship from in the taxi on the way back. 
Once we got back, we chilled out in our room for a bit let mum know that we were back on board so they didn't worry about us missing the 'On Board' time. We wen't up to the lunch buffet and had a bite to eat, we hadn't eaten since breakfast earlier that morning and it was now mid to late afternoon. We had a small lunch because we knew dinner would be soonish and delicious. 


Dinner was exquisite yet again and afterwards we decided to go down to one of the bars and get a cocktail. We usually get 'The Drink of the Day' which changes daily, but you get to keep the glass. We came home with 8 of these glasses, it would have been more but to start with we didn't know we could keep the glasses so we left some behind. ): 

There is going to be a heap of footage of Hong Kong in a video so keep a look out for that on my YouTube Chanel for that. I hope you're enjoying these holiday posts as much as I enjoy writing them. 

There will be one coming out soon of the rest of the cruise time and then another one dedicated to Shanghai. 

Thanks for reading about my little Hong Kong adventure. (:

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