Hong Kong
A straight forward flight saw us arrive in Hong Kong with some relief. We headed straight out to explore this truly fascinating city with many familiar touches, going straight to the waterfront to gaze across the water at the impressive landscape of financial buildings on Hong Kong Island.
Discovering that the Museum of History had free entry that day (thanks to my trusty Which? Holiday guide!), we headed there to find an extremely well designed museum with excellent exhibits taking us through the history of Hong Kong from first settlement to the Opium Wars and British Rule right up to the present day and the reunification with China. We were slightly rushed as closing time was approaching, but this seemed to suit David as 45 mins is apparently the optimum visit time as far as museums are concerned.

That evening we went back the waterfront to watch the impressive if slightly strange spectacle of the laser light show where the buildings are supposed to 'dance' with light. It was certainly a sight to see, though not as impressive as the blurb led us to believe. As for the buildings being made to dance, that obviously takes imagination that is beyond both us.
The next day we took the famous Star Ferry across the water to Hong Kong Island to appreciate the central area of the city. A maze of overground walkways caused us to lose our way a little on more than one occasion, but it was good to see so many of the buildings up close, including Norman Foster's HSBC building - that man certainly gets around the world.
Taking the Peak Tram up the 45 degree slope gave us impressive views over the city and also gave David his latest fix of funiculars. A marvellous 45 minute circular walk around the Peak allowed us to get away from the crowds and showed a very different, peaceful side to Hong Kong.
The Temple Street Night Market wasn't far from our hostel so we headed there for the evening and our first taste of street food, We had fun browsing the stalls and soaking up the atmosphere with the other tourists and locals alike.
Next stop a short flight to Hanoi…
P.S. We were having some technical difficulties when we uploaded the Beijing photos and have now reordered them and added captions