Early start again, as have to get down to the harbour area for my pick up at 8am. Thankfully that was straight forward!

Crossed over to Hong Kong Island proper via one of the tunnels under the harbour, the oldest and the cheapest - so needless to say it was the busiest. Hong Kong Island at first glance doesn't appear to be quite so cramped or run down as Kowloon or Mong Kok where I'm staying. We whizzed along the harbour front and past Happy Valley Race course - which I really wanted to stop & see, but no luck.

Our first stop was Aberdeen Harbour, where we took a Sampan for a very brief tour around the harbour, past the largest floating chinese restaurant in the world - apparently it can seat over 2,000 people in one sitting. It was pretty impressive. The sampan ride was good, as you could see the boat people and their boat houses, except they are fairly modern these days. But they looked antique beside some of the very large, incredible, modern yachts moored up in the marina - there are some seriously wealthy individuals living around here!! There were some kites flying around - least I think they were, the tails were quite forked, but they were fishing, so thought maybe they were some kind of fish eagle. Anyway, there's quite a few of them around, which is nice to see.

From there we drove round Repulse Bay to Stanley, which is really beautiful. This is where most of the ex pats live and I can see why, far nicer than being in Central Hong Kong. The beaches were lovely and it was green and scenic and about as far from the hustle & bustle we just left as you could get. We stopped at Stanley Market for some tourist shopping and haggling and I was hoping to get my Hong Kong picture. I thought I did pretty well, although I bought from the very first picture shop I came across - it was beautiful scene of Hong Kong side of Victoria harbour, painted on velvet and really captures the colour and vibrancy of the city. They had a huge version, but it was just to big and a little too expensive for me, but I managed to get the mid size one for about 30 quid less than the asking price. Not sure how much was due to my haggling skills, but never mind. Think I will have to ship a bunch of stuff home when I get to Sydney......

From there we drove up to the Peak, which I was looking forward to, to get some great views of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, you don't actually go all the way to the top and the view is of the Harbour/Kowloon side and not the more picturesque Repulse/Stanley side, but the views are still amazing. We took the Funicular down the side of the Peak back into Hong Kong which was the end of the tour, as it was only a half day (and it started late again).

It was a good tour, though the guide was a little cheesey and I felt slightly cheated we didn't go right to the top of the peak. I also thought it would have been nicer to maybe have a full day tour and go to some more key landmarks, like Happy Valley Racecourse and some of the old colonial buildings, but hey.

Back to the hotel for a couple of hours and changed for my Sunset cruise of the Harbour. Definitely a bit of a misunderstanding here, I was expecting a dinner cruise in slightly elegant surroundings, with dinner and some sundowners, what I got was a cruise on an old, but beautiful wooden ferry/sampan thing, with no dinner (snack pack available if requested) and definitely not any sundowners. Aside from that, this was, I think, a good time to take the cruise, as it starts out light and you can gradually see Hong Kong start to light up over the course of your hour & 40 mins, so actually I didn't mind that I hadn't got what I thought I had booked. Hong Kong at night is amazing viewed from the Harbour. I'm sure it will still give light pollutionists the heeby jeebies, but it's really lovely to just chug along and look at all the amazing buildings and the clever light effects thay have built into them. Pictures were fairly pointless after a while, so unfortunately you can't appreciate it the way I did.

Back at the Hotel, was foiled in my attempt to eat in the bar at the back - some private company do, so I had a huge burger in the main restaurant, which was fab!! Updated the blog, but haven't been able to upload any pictures as yet. I refuse to pay 10 quid for one hours' internet access - think I didn't make the best choice regarding hotel here, as anything additional is on the pricey side. Will upload them all when I have my Singapore stopover. Next time I come to Hong Kong - going to stay on Hong Kong Island, and choose my hotel with a bit more care!

Last tour tomorrow, over to Lantau island and thankfully the pick up is at my hotel, so don't have to try & get somewhere else for stupid o'clock. 8am will do very nicely thankyou!!