Finally I am finding the time to post about the final two days of our Hong Kong trip.
Day 5
I think day 5 was my favourite day in Hong Kong. We set out early for a run, and then headed for the MTR after a in room brekky of museli. The plan was to head to the New Territories. We decided to go to Tai Po as we read about some great little markets and a nice temple.
When we arrived after a quick MTR trip, the first thing we noticed was way less tourists. We were the only caucasians around, which was nice. We wandered the streets, checking out market stalls on the way to the Man Mo Yee Tai Temple. The Man Mo Yee Tai temple was probably my favourite experience of the whole trip. We just sat and took in the atmosphere which was very calming. Upon leaving a nice lady came up to me and urged me to hit this big drum 3 times for good luck. It was really nice for someone to involve us.
We wandered the streets a little more, and then headed to Sha Tin to see the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas. This was pretty spectacular however the stairs up to the Monastery were killer. We also saw some nice old buildings with a lot of character and loads of monkeys.
It was getting pretty hot at this stage, we were pretty hungry too, so we headed Mong Kok way to get some food. The Lonely Planet led us on a freaking wild goose chase to a road that just didn't appear to exist, so after some frustration and low glucose level jitters, we headed back to the Home Made Dim-Sum joint that we had eaten at a few days earlier. Once again, amazing Dim Sum, cheap as!
After this we headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui, and our accom at the Hyatt. The afternoon was spent chilling at the pool in the sun. I swam a few laps; the pool was one of those ozone treated pools, so no salt, no chlorine. It was like swimming in a lake.
That evening we decided to spoil ourselves and go to Ozone in the Ritz-Carlton, the highest bar in the world. The view was amazing, and a little bit off putting. Kate ordered a delicious cocktail and I got a craft brew from Italy. It was a strong beer, and 750ml so I managed to make it last a long time, and still ended up with a hangover. Anyways, $60 for two drinks and a few hours later, we headed for the Temple St Night Markets. It was super busy with people and I just had to try some seafood from one of the busy vendors. I got some strange crustaceans that I had never heard of, they were ok, but not much meat. Still the experience was well worth while.
Day 6
Day 6 was a fairly laid back day, preparing for our big flight back to Oz. Firstly, after our coffee run, we milked the late check out and hung out in the room till we were ready to venture out looking for lunch. En route to finding lunch we stumbled across a very cool dragon act with actors dressed as traditional dragons jumping around on top of pillars; it was very cool. We found a nice Chinese restaurant that did amazing roast meat. It sat on a nice public square so lunch was also great for people watching. I got goose and Kate got pork, both were amazing! We then treated ourselves to some delicious little Hong Kong desserts. It appears that Hong Kongers love dessert, and it shows with the amount of dessert places that are open. Each dessert was exquisitely made and tasted like no other dessert I have ever had. My dessert was a black sesame layered mousse, and kates was a similar chestnut layered dessert. We sat on the edge of Victoria Harbour and watched the boats sail by while enjoying them.
Following this we wandered around kowloon, killing time really until out chauffeured vehicle departed to the airport. i bought the biggest carrot I have ever seen for dinner. It was gigantic - I woinder what made it grow that big :-). Our vehicle was already loaded when we got to the Hyatt carpark, and we got a super dirty look when we didn't tip, but I'd already paid $120 USD for a 40min ride which I think is sufficient compensation. Everything went smoothly at the airport and we got all our baggage on the plane with no hassles and only charged the excess baggage fee that we expected. Now the waiting period began, it was about 7pm by the time we cleared customs, and the plane left at 11:20. Surprisingly the time flew by and we were on the plane, headed home finally before we knew it. Only 8.5 hrs, which were sped up with a few movies and zoning to some good trance.
Hong Kong was a cool experience. It was so busy and different to Vancouver so was a bit of a shock to the system. The Hyatt was amazing and we were so glad that we stayed there. It was a really nice way to spend the end of our Honeymoon funds.
Adelaide airport customs went super smooth, and being citizens we were whisked through the e-customs, and didn't have to get our baggage searched, probably the easiest customs experience I've ever had. When we wandered out of customs to see all of our family waiting for us it was like a weight of the past 6 months was finally lifted. We were finally home.
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