We arrived in Hong Kong after a very good flight from Bangkok. We didn't even have to leave the HK International airport and we were on the airport express which delivered us to HK Central within 20 minutes, so easy and so efficient! We had to find Kitty's workplace, which again was easy with the help of a taxi! We are staying with Kitty, one of the NZ girls that we met whilst riding elephants in Thailand and travelled together through Laos. She lives in a flat in SoHo, in Cnetral HK Island where there are loads of restaurants and bars and a perfect location for us to explore HK!

HK is an immense city, everything is massive or has to be the biggest or the longest! The first thing that struck us was the massive skyscrapers, you can hardly see the sky for all the high rises. I don't think anyone lives in a house, its all flats here and small ones at that! HK is also very hilly, we seemed to constantly be walking either up or down a very steep hill, hard work! Any flat land is that which has been reclaimed over the past 100 years! It is also pretty pricey here, probably the same as at home, which is a bit of a shock for us after lovely and cheap South East Asia! There are also a huge number of expats, mostly working in highly paid office jobs, you see them everywhere, mainly in the bars later in the evenings though!!

Our first afternoon we explored the Central area. We went to the Man Mo Temple which was so filled with burning insense, it was hard to see and breathe in there! We walked down Ladder Street, which as the name suggests was as steep as a ladder (nearly!) we went along Hollywood Road which is full of antique shops, not really our thing, so instead we explored the streets where you can buy all the Herbal medicines, Ginseng, Birds Nests, Dried Seafood and in fact pretty much anything dried, some of it looked very disgusting but I'm sure it has its uses!!

Tuesday night we went out with Kitty and a friend of hers in the Lan Kwai Fong area of Hk, which is the place to go at night for drinks and dancing and to spend a fortune!! It was very much the "in crowd" there, the place to be out and to be seen! We had dinner and a few drinks whilst people watching, a good night, completed by a trip back to Kitty's flat on the world's longest escalator!!

Wednesday we headed out early for a hardcore day of sightseeing! First we caught the tram up to Victoria Peak, the highest point on HK Island. Unfortunately it was an overcast day so the smog had not been burnt off from the sun so we couldn't see much but it was a nice walk back down the hill. We then wandered around the HK
Zoological and Botanical Gardens, which was a lovely green area amongst the skyscrapers. We then headed amongst all the suits up to the 43rd floor of the Bank of China Tower where they have a free observation deck with an amazing view of the city.

After lunch we into the Wan Chai area to the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre, right on the Victoria Harbour, which was the sight of the HK handover to China in 1997. There was a monument and the Golden Bauhinia to commemorate the event.

After all that walking we were exhausted so we headed back to Kitty's flat for a rest and to get glammed up ready for heading out in the evening to the races at Happy Valley Racecourse, which is a very popular thing to do in HK. It was a great evening, we had a few drinks and placed a few bets, unfortunately only one came in for us so we were well down on our money (not that we bet much in the first place!)but that was exciting enough cashing in the winning ticket!

Thursday was a slow start to the day after our night out at the races so in the afternoon we decided to head across the water to Kowloon. We caught the Star Ferry across, which has been running for many years, the distance it has to travel gets shorter by the years as more land is reclaimed. Kowloon is the peninsula facing HK Island and is quite a touristy area.

We did a massive walking tour taking in the Clock Tower, which the only part left of an old railway station, the Avenue of Stars with plaques dedicated to celebrities we had never heard of, except for Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee! We then wandered around Bird Garden, Flower Market and Goldfish Market, selling exactly what they say!! Down the massive Ladies Market, which sells all the fake designer goods, not as good as the ones we saw in Thailand!

We met up with Kitty for dinner and then watched the amazing Symphony of Light show, which is the world's largest permanent light show, projected from atop the buildings of HK Island to music, quite a sight! Just looking at all the skyscrapers lit up was amazing enough but when you add lasers and music its pretty incredible!!

Friday and our last day in HK, we decided to go to Disneyland HK! We had changed our minds about going several times as it is pretty pricey to get in, considering the budget, but Andrew had never been to a Disneyland before and it is over 10 years since I went to Disneyland Paris, plus we can both be such big kids when we want to that we thought it would be a great day out! It certainly was!

We caught the MTR over there which didn't take long and was fairly cheap, the connecting train had had the Disney treatment and had Disney character models inside, curving seats and mouse shaped windows and hand holds!! The park itself was everything you would expect, the magic was there, the Princess Castle, the themed areas. It was very clean and tidy and well put together, the staff were
really friendly and helpful, Andrew said it was everything he had expected.

We spent the first hour or so and most of the day having our photo taken with the Disney characters - Mickey and Minnie, Goofy and Pluto, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie from Toy Story, the costumes are so good and we got to pull some great poses with them, Andrew gave Minnie a kiss while i got literally snogged by Goofy! The park is much smaller than I remember Paris to have been and there were not that many rides, the ones that there are, are more designed for children, but we went on them anyway!! Space Mountain however was great fun
so we went on it twice and at least the queues were not very long as it was not a peak day!

The Parade was excellent with the floats and characters and there were also shows to go and see. We went to see "The Golden Mickeys" a show with songs from a selection of Disney films and also "The Lion King Tribute" which was again very good, the performers would not have looked too out of place in the West End! We decided to leave before the fireworks, we had been there for 9 hours by that time so were pretty tired and wanted to beat the rush back on the MTR to Central HK. Our last night in HK was fairly quiet, a pizza and a film, preparing ourselves for heading
to "The Mainland" as it is referred to here!

Hope everyone is well!

Lots of Love

Sarah and Andrew xxx