Merry Christmas from a very festive Hong Kong! We are with my dad in the very plush Peninsula hotel-It is an amazing treat after the last six months and great to see him of course.We flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok on Sunday afternoon after saying goodbye to the lovely Mr Monn and all the super friendly people at the lovely hotel 89 guesthouse. After we checked into the youth hostel we headed for Siam Square in the centre of town.We wandered around looking at the really nice little shops and stalls until it was time for dinner when we jumped on the skytrain to Asok.We went to an amazing place called cabbages and condoms.It is a restaurant run by a social welfare project who give family planning advice to people in the provinces, including those from the hill tribes.They also build schools, provide access to fresh water and support sustainable farming.It is a beautiful restaurant but when you look at everything a little closer (the lights, Christmas tree, pictures etc) you realise that they are all made of condoms!Luckily the food is prophylactic free though and absolutely delicious it was too…we gorged ourselves, happy to be eating yummy thai food again.

On Monday we got up early to make the most of our one day in Bangkok.We headed to the grand palace to have a look around but when we got there it was closed until 12pm for a special ceremony with the monks so we got in a tuk tuk after speaking to a driver who said that he would take us to see a few other temples that we had agreed to.It started off very well- we went to see he stunning standing Buddha and released 4 birds that we felt very sorry for in a tiny cage which is supposed to give us good luck- I think it's better luck for the poor birds though!After looking around the temple we went back out to our tuk tuk and climbed in to go to the next place.As we are driving along the driver says to us "ok I take you to see some gems to buy" although we wouldn't have wanted to go anyway this is a huge scam in Bangkok that all the guidebooks warn you about so of course we said no.He was very insistent and kept going on about it, saying that if we went he got free petrol.We smiled and said that we hardly had any time and didn't want to go there.Next thing we knew he had pulled over at the side of the road "go, go" he shouted and chucked us out of the back!It was a bit stupid of him really as it meant he didn't even get the money for taking us to the first place- still I guess if the next person agrees to be ripped off he will make it back from them.

By then, after a bite to eat, it was time to take Charles for his Christmas present surprise.I had told him it was a manicure so he was very happy when we turned up at the Blue Elephant Thai cookery school!We had a great afternoon learning to cook yummy food including the best pad thai ever. The best bit was that at the end of the day when we had done all of our four dishes plus a pudding we got to eat it in the lovely setting of the restaurant where the waiters served it to us- I almost forgot we had made it ourselves and said "thank you that was yummy" when they came to collect our plates!

In the evening we went to Raja stadium to see Muay Thai (thai boxing.) We arrived as the first fight was starting and took our seats in the middle of all the locals.They were certainly very passionate about the sport- the noise from the crowd was phenomenal and it was also fascinating to watch the betting taking place- there were no bookies just everyone betting each other.One indicates what you want to bet with hand signals in the air and then look around the crowd for someone holding up the same hand signal but for the other side- a nod at each other and that is the bet placed.In the biggest fight which was seventh in the bill everyone was roaring and jumping around madly with their hands in the air. The place emptied after that fight and there weren't many of us left to watch the last two fights which is when they brought the kids out- boys aged about 13 really going for it. The fighting is really brutal and someone had been knocked out earlier in the evening so it's pretty scary.We headed home feeling like we had made the most of our one day in Bangkok!

On The 22nd we said goodbye to Thailand for the second time and boarded our flight to Hong Kong.When we arrived at the Peninsula it was great to see dad who had only arrived half an hour before us due to the snow in the UK delaying his flight by 2 hours.We headed up to the Felix bar on the top floor of the tower for a stunning view of the city skyline and had a drink before collapsing into an extremely comfortable bed in our beautiful hotel room.The next day we really made the most of it by having a massage at the lovely spa and lunch by the pool before meeting and old colleague of dad's for dinner.We went to a local restaurant where we had great fun trying to find something we would all enjoy from a menu including such delicacies as boiled turtle with bull's penis, crocodile face meat and grilled tendons. At least it gave us a taste of what is coming when we hit China! Of course they also serve shark's fin everywhere which is pretty horrific- when we were in Lankayan Island in Borneo we saw lots of awful pictures taken by the patrolmen of the boats who had been lopping the fins off sharks. Anyway when we had selected some more socially responsible dishes we had a lovely dinner.

Christmas Eve was suddenly upon us and we decided to celebrate by taking the tram up to the peak- a big hill overlooking the city.From the great view at the top we could pick out our hotel and really enjoy the city skyline. Last night we had a gala dinner, again in the restaurant on the top floor of the tower.The food was fantastic and there was a great band playing- even dad was on the dance floor! The bathrooms are also famously stunning up there with a glass wall- the men get to use the urinal against it! We got to bed at about 3am tired, happy and looking forward to Christmas Day.

We were woken up this morning in a fabulous way- with a lovely man bringing us breakfast in bed- what a fantastic Christmas treat.After enjoying that we headed down to Dad's room to open our lovely presents- we all got lovely food and chocolates, Charles got some new earphones and a G shock watch, I got some beautiful earrings and a new camera (luckily as sadly Mr Monn our tuk tuk driver in Cambodia dropped ours and it's a bit broken) and dad got his favourite magnificent men in their flying machines dvd, some reading lessons for people in Africa and a lovely book- how lucky we all are!We enjoyed a Chinese Christmas lunch of Dim Sum and Peking duck and then collapsed in bed to eat chocolates.We managed to haul ourselves up again to watch the lights and laser show put on by all of the buildings along the water and then it was back to bed for us from where I am now writing this blog.What a fantastic day!