11 - 14 September 2009

Oh yeah, you would have liked to read or (even better) look into this kind of pictures. But no, those are private!

After a short night on the plane from Delhi (we departed at 23.30h) we arrived in Hong Kong early morning. I think everyone visiting Hong Kong for the first (or me for the 2^nd) time is impressed by its stunning skyline of tall skyscrapers filled with neon ads on both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island divided by the sea. You definitely feel you are in a big and modern city, where it's happening!

Tipped by our Dutch friends Rosalie and Michiel from Shanghai we had chosen the Bishop Lei International House as our base from where to explore this vibrant city. Although the room was small (one double bed just fitted in) it was a very modern complex with even an outdoor swimming pool (and that only for 40 euro) and superbly located on top of the Escalator in Soho, one of the coolest areas in town. But most important it had sparkling clean white bed sheets ditto towels and a great shower the things you are really starting to miss after travelling for a while.

Hong Kong is difficult to compare to other cities, it is a cosmopolitan mix of China with a subtle but very present British colonial atmosphere. And it is rich! Or at least a lot of people are! We were surprised by the amount of luxury cars, ultra modern high quality shopping malls, Prada, Louis Vutton and Gucci stores. But again in between you also saw some alleys with its small Chinese food markets and other mini stores.

After three months on the road (mainly in less fortunate places), while walking in Soho we looked astonished at the abundance of nice and hip cafes, bars and restaurants! It didn't take us long to enter one and so we started with some drinks in Staunton's (full of English) followed by dinner at Soho Spice (a delicious Thai restaurant) to top it of with some late night cocktails in the very lively Lan Kwai Fong area.

The next morning (with a bit of a headache) we went shopping for a laptop so we could have a bit more often and in a more pleasant way contact with our family and friends and write you all these stories from in our cozy campervan ‘ Happy Crab' here in New Zealand. We are not sure if you are aware of this but a (mini)laptop is the number one backpackersgadget nowadays, no matter what budget you are travelling at.

After we succeeded we took the ferry to Kowloon (the mainland), had some dim sum and visited one of the tacky tourist attractions, the Hall of Fame of Hong Kong, with celebrities such as Bruce Lee and Jacky Chan! After a long day we treated ourselves a bit and finished the day in style with some drinks on the roof terrace of the IFC building overlooking the harbor and Kowloon.

We decided to do the Sunday Hong Kong Style by taking the boat to Lamma Island, where we enjoyed an abundant Chinese style seafood platter (including baby lobster, St Jacobs scallops, squid and gamba accompanied by a bottle of white wine of course) for lunch in a small fishing village. After such an extraordinary lunch we decided to go for a liquid dinner with some cocktails in one of the bars in our neighborhood, where a dumb deaf person managed to sell us some illegal (but very good copies) DVDs.

Again a bit blurry in the head we woke up on our last day. I had to visit the hairdresser as after 3 months of travelling my hair was a bit too much resembling that of Bassie (for the non-Dutch he is a clown). Luckily it turned out to be quite fine so my next cut will probably only be in Australia.

In the morning we saw a worrying message on a screen of a television in a window: A typhoon was approaching Hong Kong quickly. Not very good news when you have to catch a plane the same night. During the day we noticed everyone taking precautions: terraces closed and all chairs and tables were strapped together and people were in a hurry to get home. The HK government had even decided to send all their personnel home early! A bit worried we checked whether our flight was still to depart but we couldn't get an answer on that one so we decided to take the airport express anyway and see what was about to happen. In the meantime it had started to rain heavily and also the wind was getting stronger by the hour.

At the HK train station we discovered a novelty (at least for us). We could check-in our luggage already at the train station so we did not have to carry it ourselves all the way to and in the airport. On our arrival there we heard our plane was departing on time... so we had to go for it. But a pleasant first hour it was not. From take-off the plane was shaking heavily and during the first 30 minutes it was really quiet in the plane. Luckily after an hour this rollercoaster trip was over and we could wipe the sweat of our faces, watch a movie and go to bed, to wake up the next morning almost above New Zealand, our next destination.

Bye!

Jordi & Sharda