Only Westlife fans LIVE IN Hong Kong

Day 1 in Hong Kong...

As much of a shock as it was being dropped off in Beijing and having the world and his wife stare at you quite openly, it was as much of a shock being thrown back into an ordinary western world where you are quite invisible to everyone but the street venders who've picked you out as the type of person who cant live without a gucci handbag or a gold watch.

Breakfast! How much?!! After the initial shock of the sudden price increase we are experiencing, we decide to take a trip to the supermarket and end up with crackers, granola bars and some sort of lemon juice sqaush with added salt?! Good choice Ayms :) Next on the list of things to do is to call Mark, Amy's sister's husband's brother...a tenuous link maybe - but it's good to see a friendly face all the same.

Mark LIVES IN Hong Kong and is studying at the University there. From his oh-so excellent tour guiding skills you may have though he was studying to be a tour guide but no it's more like physics. We arranged to meet him on Hong Kong Island (involves taking a boat to Amy's delight) and have an hour to waste so we go and visit the Avenue of Stars. This would have maybe been more exciting had me and Amy recognised some of the stars aside from Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. We managed to entertain ourselves though by taking some stupid pictures. We met Mark at the boat station and head off into the City for some food which didn't look like bird food (i.e. the crackers) and happily discover the bread hasn't been flavoured with a pound of sugar!

I think Mark soon realised how unbelievably indecisive both me and Amy are...we call it easygoing :) and happily followed him around like sheep for the rest of the day, to Causeway Bay (where the shops are plentiful and oh-so tempting) and Times Square. Then we head back to the University and go on a quick tour of the campus and residencies...the day involved both Amy and me wandering around awed by the size of all the buildings and how much like home it all seemed. We went out for some chinese food and then some drinks on a crazy little street which looked more like it belonged in Spain than Hong Kong.

We arrive back at the hostel to discover we have been moved into the girls dorm and the joy of trying to keep eight girls happy with noise levels/temperature/lights off or on...who ever said girls were difficult huh?!

Day 2...

As soon as we arrive in Hong Kong we leave it to go and visit one of the surrounding islands...Cheung Chan. Mark's friend Kate joins us (we take no responsibility for the decrease in productivity of the students of Hong Kong university over the next few days ;) A trip to the supermarket to stock up on picnic treats and another boat trip and the four of us land on what we expected to be a small, quiet and picturesque little fishing village but are confronted with a Macdonalds as our first sight! Marks 'brilliant' map reading skills are put to the test and we all follow him in blind faith even after Kate's warnings about them being not as 'brilliant' as he makes out...in those moments when we had no idea where we were or where we should go we were just 'taking longer to find the place than normal' in another word - LOST!

We walk around the island, passing a really nice beach (also frequented by sharks according to the sign), many houses, a few too many hills for my liking and then somewhere to eat! Then another route back to the boat passed the dead fish market - which was disgusting. Mark left us to our own devices (=shopping) when we got back beacuse he had some "studying" (=napping) to do and then my wish was granted in the evening and we went for some mexican food...mmmm!

Day 3...

More food organised for today - Dim Sum (I think this was to make up for my lack of trying new things yesterday!) an all you can eat buffet no less...so Mark and Kate ordered just about everything off the menu, including chickens feet, which on first glance look like they could be ok until you pick one up and it really is a whole foot!...a whole chickens foot. Apparently the chinese like chewing in the skin?! Another mystery.

Since Amy loves heights the afternoon was dedicated to going up really tall buildings and the Peak. The building had a museum on the 55th floor but most people just go for the view of the city, a few snaps later and back down we go, bypassing all the interesting monetary facts the museum is there to pass on! We walked around a park, Hong Kong has a distinct lack of grassy areas and walking on the ones it does have is usually forbidden, so is sitting on walls in front of important buildings - you'd have thought we looked untidy or something!

On the way to the Peak, Mark takes us to this dessert restaurant...Amy had some red strawberry goo, Mark had some yellow mango goo and they shared this sesame goo with big lumps in it (it's a good job I'm writing this blog otherwise Amy would have called it Sago and you wouldn't of had a clue what it was, i.e. goo!) The sesame stuff was black like tar and reminded me of sesame seed buns with sausages in them with lots of ketchup cooked by Dad on Sunday mornings - so the experience wasn't all bad ;) At the promise of getting me some real dessert (ice cream) at the peak we move on!

I'd just like to point out that Mark has since told me there is a chocolate buffet restaurant which managed to escape his attention the whole time we were there...cheers dude!

The tram to the Peak was an amusing ride with Mark and me trying to distract Ayms from the height by talking about the highest building we had been in! Brilliant :) The Peak is...as well as a stunning view of the skyline, a shopping centre, a primary school and a home for some people (some rich people). We stayed there to see it in the light and dark and saw the light show - which was good but difficult to know when it had ended. And off back down we go...after the ice cream stop of course!

Our evening unexpectedly turned into a night out when we went to meet Kate and all her friends. One major plus about Hong Kong was ladies night...the ladies drink for free :) Yessss! Not such a happy story for the males of the world, but what can you do eh!? We partake in some frozen margheritas, then some cocktails and then some dancing to an excellent live band :) It's like we never left home. Apart from substitute the live band with Kit and Adam performing Nasty Girl in our living room!

Day 4...

So having seen all the sights worth seeing in Hong Kong (according to the guide of the year) we have to decide do we want to go to Disney Land or to Ocean Park Theme Park with animal attractions. I think this is the only decision Mark left us with for the whole four days and he may have soon regretted it. Finally we decide to go to Ocean Park, cheaper and it has the second longest outdoor escalator in Southeast Asia (Mark is an escalator spotter) The park is excellent fun...and it just so happens this is the hottest day we have experienced on our trip so far, Amy then experiences something a little like heat stroke we think. D'oh. We saw the sealions, the sharks, the dolphins, went on some scary rides and some not so scary ones, rode what should be called the slowest, longest outdoor escalator in Southeast Asia a lot and we visited the Panda park as well. Oh and to keep with the 'let's cure Amy's fear of heights by going on everything that's any sort of distance off the ground' we took the cable car across the park.

Back to Hong Kong and a much needed nap before heading out again for some more free drinks. Being our usual sensible selves though we left around 3am in order to get some sleep to prepare for the flight the next day! We thought we'd be safe going back to the hostel at this time of night since Pervey McPerve would probably be in bed by now (old dude who quite openly looked at porn in the communal internet room at the hostel and looked at the girls in the hostel in a simialr kindof manner...YUK!) turns out we were alone in the hostel apart from the rat which Amy saw run across the kitchen table...I still haven't figured out which was worse, Pervey McPerve or the rat?

Big thanks to Mark for taking us round Hong Kong...it was much appreciated and thanks for putting up with our indecisiveness and my particularly sensitive tastes buds ;) And to everyone else, Mark is neither a Westlife fan nor an escalator spotter (as far as I'm aware, although thinking about it, it's not something people openly admit, is it?)