Hong Kong - A week off from scrounging!

No ranting today, we absolutely loved Hong Kong! Mostly thanks to Al's parents who put us up in a very nice hotel with executive lounge privileges! Quite a step away from some of our former residences, encountered in India and Nepal. I dare say we did rather take advantage of the free wine, having been slightly deprived lately!

It didn't take us long to meet up with Turkish (Al's old house mate from Isle of Mann). Who kindly showed us the highlife bars of Hong kong, as well as a few cheaper drinking houses, that were more budget friendly. Ending up in the soho side of town with some very rocking bands and some not so rocking bands (strangling a cat springs to mind!).

The main event and real reason for being in Hong Kong in the first place was Charlie and Duncan's wedding. Al and I had worked especially hard on our wedding attire, modelling full Indian regalia. The reason for this was we don't exactly have room to carry a suit and tie and Indian clothes are cheap and light and can be quite smart, although Al's pyjamas were ripped in half by the end. He blames the material, although I've seen him destroy many a suit at a wedding before!

It was a fab day, short and sweet service followed by in the brides words "lets get pissed!". Lovely setting for the reception at the Peninsular hotel, which gave us a great view of the city with all the buildings lit up and light displays, really magnificent. The wedding party eventually ended up in the Irish pub across the road. We were more than drunk enough by this time so decided to walk home - not such a great idea because even Al's homing beacon was challenged by how drunk we were! We found our road, but unfortunately it was a bloody long road! In the end we resorted to a taxi!

The next day was spent feeling worse for where again. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed to go out again that night though. Another one that started out very tame and turned into a mosh pit, quite literally! We saw a brilliant Chinese cover band who did spot on covers on Hendrix, Pink floyd etc, at one point the guitarist was using a drill! As for our dancing could only be described as "interesting" from the pictures (which I will upload by the way when this sight sorts out its technical issues!).

Four hours after we got in we were being dragged out again for a day on a Junk boat that was part of the wedding celebrations. Al and I were obviously still half pissed so we started on the beers again by 10am, avoiding any kind of hangover that might have been coming our way. The boat docked off a bay somewhere and everyone (well who was still young and spritely enough) piled into the water, lead by the newly weds. I spent most of the day in a rubber ring attached to the floating bar, while Al repetitively dived off the upper deck of the boat. The day was great fun, so thanks again Charlie and Duncan if you're reading!

For some reason we didn't quite make breakfast the next day, yet again! Although we found some delicious Dim sum for lunch at a restaurant called OVOlounge in the soho area of the city. It was cheap too, a bonus as we were paying for a change! Another afternoon of recovery was still needed though, we did get up to say farewell to Al's parents, which seemed only fair as they had put us up for a week in a very nice hotel. Thank you Chris and Stella!

We spent the following day visiting a big Buddha at the top of a cable car a bit out of town near to the airport. We'd forgotten it was a bank holiday there, so we spent most of the day queuing to go up and queuing to go down again. Buddha was impressive though!

After that we celebrated our last night in Hong Kong with an amazing steak at an Argentine steak house, in the central part of the city. Teamed with a nice bottle of Melbeck, it was a dream come true having spent most of India living like vegetarians! At one point we talking sexually about steak!

Last day in Hong Kong was pretty uneventful for the first part. Al stayed in bed, I went out to take "artistic" photos, and eat Sushi. We got packed, found our way on to the train for the airport, everything was going swimmingly until BOOM we got to the check in desk, and discovered we weren't on the flight, Of course we got the itinerary out to prove we were, which is when we noticed we were day late! Panic, panic, panic!

They said we could get on the flight for a £1000.... each! We phoned our travel agent in England who so very luckily managed to get us on the flight leaving that night for a minor upgrade fee (well it was minor compared to two grand!). I don't know if any of you have ever traveled on Ethiopian airways in business class, take it from me, don't bother the only advantage is your seat stands a greater chance of being nailed to the floor!

So that concludes an eventful week in Hong Kong, tune in next time for some more adventurous disasters!!