Friday 23 September 2011

Our flight was OK although I had difficulty getting comfortable and therefore didn't sleep too well. I took a half a sleeping pill but this didn't seem to help. Kev had no trouble however and slept the entire journey! We lost about 6 hours in time and most of Thursday on the trip so were hoping to sleep well.

We arrived in Hong Kong a little ahead of schedule and made our way through the formalities, picked up our bags and headed for the express train. The airport was surprisingly empty in fact there were no queues and the whole process probably only took 15 minutes! The new airport is amazing and it was very simple to purchase a ticket for the train into the city. The train was very new and smart and the trip fast and smooth.

At Hong Kong station we grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel which is in Wan Chai Road on Hong Kong Island. The hotel is a little different in that it is on floors 9,10,11 and 12 of a multi storied building. It seems that it has only recently been turned into a hotel and perhaps eventually the building will be hotel on all floors. Reception was on level 9 where we found a young lady at a desk who had all our details and sent us up to level 12 to our room. The room is lovely - very new - an enormous bed and all mod cons. Once we had showered and changed we headed out to find somewhere for a light meal. We eventually found a café where we were able to order a couple of small plates to keep us happy. Along with Kev's beer I had a glass of sparkling wine "on tap". Kev would have had a sparkling wine also however it was the last one in the tank! By this time it was around 7.30pm Hong Kong time so we headed back to the hotel to watch a movie and have an early night. Neither of us could last the movie which we would have liked to have seen as it was "Pillars of the Earth" a book we have both read by Ken Follett and we didn't wake this morning until 9.30am! Great bed and great sleep!

Today we have spent the day exploring the city. We walked to the Star Ferry and did a trip over to Kowloon where we managed to find a coffee shop - McCafe actually! It was quite a feat finding somewhere for coffee as there are very few of these - contrary to what we found in Europe. The coffee was good however and set us up for more exploring. We eventually dragged ourselves back to the hotel at around 5pm.

Tomorrow our flight leaves at 9pm so it will be a big day but I'm sure we will cope. We are looking forward to getting home and catching up with everyone again. It's hard to believe we have been away 4 months and we are really going to enjoy reading through our notes and reliving all our experiences once we get home. We have met some lovely people along the way and this experience has provided so many memories and images; memories of exploring gorgeous old cities and towns and images of the wonderful architecture that exists in the world. Having said that, we think that we are so lucky in New Zealand in so many ways and now that we have the time we will be spending it exploring more of our own country.

Goodbye, Au Revoir, Arrividerci till next time!