We arrived in Hong Kong at 8 in the morning, and were quite proud of oursevles that we managed to work out the busses to take us to Kowloon, rather than opting for the easy way out of a taxi. Immediately it looked completely different to India, the biggest difference being that there was not a cow in sight! Every building was much higher and it was a lot cleaner. Quite a culture shock. when we got checked into our hotel, we headed straight don to the harbour and found the nearest McDonalds to get our 3 weeks deprived beef fix! After resting in our room for a while, we headed down to Hollywood Avenue. The view here was breath-taking, overlooking the harbour at Hong Kong Island. We watched the light show, which incorporated all the buildings, and is on every night, the walked along the avenue of stars, to see all the famous Chinese people's hand prints. We did recognise a few, namely jet lee and Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. That night we went to a murphy's bar and had one of the best pints of Tetleys ever! Only we hadent really got used to the currency yet, and it turned out to be one of the most expensive pints ever! It was definately worth it though.

The next day we went to Kowloon park which was kind of like Central park in New York, with lots of high rise buildings around the edge. It was fascinating to see all the signs telling you not to do someting. Some of the things, you wouldn't have even thought of doing until you saw the sign! We the walked along Peking road where all the fancy and expensive shops were, then decided to get the ferry over to Hong Kong Island, which turned out to be just in time for happy hour! It looked quite easy to navigate form Kowloon, but the buildings were so big, it was easy to get lost, especially with all the high buildings. We decided that we wern't going to go clubbing, as it was $500HK each to get in. On the night we found a kind of fast food chinese, where you have everything you need handed to you on a tray in a matter of seconds! It was on this night however that we realised the noises we heard in the night were rats crawing over the roof tiles, and that flying ants were flying in through the air vents!

The next day we got up early and headed straight to Hong Kong Island to explore it in more detail. W saw the oldest road in Hong Kong, Hollywood road and a cool teple that had giant incense coils hanging from the ceiling. We then had a little ride on the longest escalator, then stumbled upon a park that was basically a free zoo! There were loads of animals including a chimpanzee. As it was getting later, we decided to go up to the Peak where you can see over the whole city. The tram ride up there was literally at a 45 deree angle, and you had to hold on tight if you wern't sat down! When we go to the top, the view was out of this world. It was so quiet ans really surreal seeing it from such a height. It was like looking at a painting it was so still.

The next day we had a lot of exploring planned. We got on the metro for the first time to north Kowloon, and went to the feng shui park, where every plant and stone and building had been placed according to feng shui It was really nice to walk around and it had a big monastry insde where you could hear monks chanting. We then went to the biggest and oldest temple, although unfortunatly most of it was under construction. It was still weird to see this old building nestled amongst the modern sky scrapers. Then, as it was Wednesday, all of the museums were free to enter, so we headed to the Art museum first and got in on a free tour, then to the space museum, which was a lot more entertaing as it had buttons to press and a thing that made you feel like you were walking on the moon. The we ended up in the Science museum, which we practically had to ourselves so there was a lot of button pressing going on. After we checked out the Ladies market, which was a big street market.

This day, we went to Lantau island which is the largets of the islands, then got the bus to Tai O which was a fishing village built on wooden stilts. We got a boat trip here that took us out to see the white dolphins. We then go the bus to see the giant Buddha made of Bronze, but unfortunately it was clsed when we go there. Luckily though, we were just in time for the last cable car in the 'Ping 360' tour. The view was amazing and you could see the Big Buddha with the mountainous backdrop.

The last day, we treated ourselves to a pizza hut, and had a few beers watching the rain in a pub that called itself 'an eating and drinking establishment'. We then orked out th bus that took us to the airport, and had one of the fastest check ins ever, even through security. We had just enough time to get some beef noodle soup before getting on the plane to Phuket!