A few days in Hong Kong

We've spent the last 5 days relaxing and spending time with Lee and Jasmine. Brian developed a cold soon after we returned from Thailand and needed to see the local Dr who prescribed 4 different tablets and some cough syrup. Jasmine took Gran on some tours and they played the piano in the Green Green Club, swam in the Blue Blue Club and played games in the Chic Chic Club arcade. We all played Monopoly - we'd brought the NZ version with credit cards with us and both kids enjoyed being the banker.


Jasmine at the Blue Blue Club

On Tuesday afternoon we caught the ferry to Central and rode the tram for over an hour through Central, Admiralty, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Fortress Hill. We met Kat and Sean after work and Sean took Brian to TST to collect his new spectacles.

A view from the tram in Wan Chai

On Thursday we took Lee and Jasmine to Ocean Park, a family theme park with a mixture of exhibits and rides. Although the weather was cloudy and turned to rain, we had a wonderful day. We arrived just before noon and left 8 hours later after seeing pandas, performing dolphins, sea lions, a wide range of jelly fish and many other forms of wild life. We also spent a lot of time standing in queues, an inevitable part of visiting popular places in China. They usually post the waiting time on a board and we passed some exhibits by rather wait 60-75 mins. At one stage, Lee and Grandad queued for the ferris wheel (30 mins waiting time) while Jasmine and Gran queued for the flying swing (20 mins waiting time). We had our ride and went to watch Lee and Grandad go on the ferris wheel just as it closed due to the rain! So Lee and Jasmine went back into the queue for the flying swing while we sat and rested our feet. We took the cable car both ways to the main fun park and the day ended with a very impressive light and fireworks display on a lake.

The Amazing Panda Adventure

An amazing girl with a panda

Lee and Jasmine ready to ride the Flying Swing

Outside the Jelly Fish Spectacular

View of Ocean Park from the cable car

On Friday, we went with Kat, Lee and Jasmine to Tsing Yi on the bus and then to Central on the MTR. We dashed around each floor of the Worldwide building looking for a dress for Jasmine to wear to Jason's and Emily's wedding, then took a tram to a Vietnamese restaurant to have Foo (beef and noodle soup) and lime sodas for lunch. We spent the afternoon at Time Warner where we had a tour of the Cartoon Network department. Lee is one of their newest stars - the boy in the ad for Generator Rex which went live this week. He was treated like  a VIP and all of us had a great time there. It looks a fun place to work with tv screens at each workstation and massage chairs for staff use. We spent the evening watching the Royal wedding along with millions of others worldwide.

Today we went to a 40th birthday bbq with lots of bubbly here on Park Island and looked through a couple of apartments. Kat and Sean need to move by the end of next month as someone has bought theirs and wants to move into it. Tomorrow, we're going to a 35th birthday celebration at Cheung Chau, another island.

Hong Kong style ice bucket

Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and Kowloon



The tallest building in Hong Kong viewed from Park Island ferry



Looking back at Hong Kong Island and Star ferry

Yesterday morning we took the ferry to Central and then the Star Ferry to TST, with Sean leading us on a tour of his favourite shopping areas. As soon as we stepped out of theferry terminal web we bombarded with people trying to take us to tailors etc and learned very quickly to firmly decline the invitations and walk on. 

Arriving at Tsim Sha Tsui

We soon found an optical shop with a helpful optometrist who was horrified at the state of Brian's glasses and organised new titanium specs for approx $400 NZD - we collect them this afternoon. For lunch we had the Japanese equivalent of McDonalds but much yummier - bowls of rice and finely shredded beef with ginger, soy sauce and chili flakes to add according to taste. Next on the itinerary was FINDS restaurant and bar which Sean designed - very nice with a Scandinavian atmosphere to match the owners' nationalities and the company name (FINDS = Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish). Refreshed and ready to hit the road we made our way through a range of high end bridal dress shops and malls selling cheap clothes looking for dresses for Katherine and Jasmine to wear to Jason's and Emily's wedding.

Finally, we made it to the Night Market where we slaked our thirst at a bar outside a shop where they were preparing seafood and stall holders were setting up for the evening. We walked through it to the Jade Market where we saw old and new jade of all colours and shades as well as people working it. Then we returned to the Night Market and our shopping, bargaining with stall holders and chatting with other shoppers - this market is very well-known and by now was full of tourists. We ate dinner at the Spicy Crabs which takes up 3 corners on the intersection of the market and Temple Street. Apparently, it's the place to eat and by the time we started eating there were no free tables or seats.






We sat at a table like this one for dinner

After a yummy meal of spicy deep fried prawns, beef and ginger, sweet and sour pork and fried chicken noodles we were ready to go home. We took the MTR (train) to Tsing Yi, where we met up with friends from Park Island who'd also been out for the day. Then we all caught the bus to Park Island.




Koh Samet




Brian and Lee kayaking

  
We returned to Hong Kong last night after a wonderful week on the beach at Koh Samet, Thailand. Brian walked the length of the coastline easily accessible to our part of the island while I spent most days basking in the sun or in the water.

Kat and Ruth were the hard core beach lovers, Sean and Lee mixed beach with visits to the Internet cafe (right on the beach) and Jasmine spent most of her beach time in the water but was happy to relax in front of tv with Grandad when she'd had her fill of that.  


Sean, Kat and family in our typical daily scene

 




Our Singha supplies arriving with Internet cafe in background

  










We all enjoyed the food - Pad Thai was the universal favourite. Kat and I sampled it in at least 4 different establishments and ate it at least once a day. We were the hard core 'Thai food'eaters of the family and also sampled a wide range of other dishes. We also enjoyed eating fruit prepared for us ready to eat on the beach." 




Ruth in her favourite pose

  
Ruth's greatest indulgence was having foot scrub/pedicure/massage right on the beach and after a few days she developed a habit of taking a Thai massage late in the day from an older lady on the rocks under some shady trees at the edge of the beach.



Jasmine writing love letters in the sand

 





Lee and Jasmine snorkeling

  

As usual, we developed friendships with Thai children, waiters, resort staff and my "massage lady". By our last day, she was attending to body parts that needed most attention and gave Jasmine one braid in her hair "free just for you".   







Lee and his kite

We celebrated Lee's 11th birthday last Sunday. He'd requested a Stunter kite from Nature's Window in Westfield and on Monday there was enough wind for him to fly it. Getting it airborne involved all of us plus a Thai waiter who ran out of his bar to say we'd rigged it wrong! Lee soon got the knack and had a lot of fun making it dive and soar and entertaining the Farang sunbathers and Thai beach vendors and cafe staff.   

Today, the kids took us to the local laundry with a huge bag of dirty washing while Kat hid Easter eggs. After the 'egg hunt' Sean and Lee went shopping to spend Lee's birthday money while Kat, Jasmine, Brian and I went for a walk around Park Island.

 



 









 












 









Arrival in HK



 

Arrived in Hong Kong yesterday Kat was at the airport to meet us. Spent today with Lee and Jasmine exploring Central (downtown HK)






Waiting for the Park Island ferry

  


Brian thought he'd have one of 'those'massages

 






Getting ready to leave for Hong Kong

Only 2.5 more sleeps! We leave home at 3.30am on 14th April, Jessica's birthday, and have just had her and Jess over for dinner. Our bags are almost packed - we're at the weighing, putting and taking stage.


We went up in this balloon on Saturday



View of Hamilton Lake and hospital from hot air balloon