After dropping the car off at 08:00, and getting a lift to the airport with Jen (a lovely ozzie friend of Gavins (Mhairi’s brother who was here for 5 months)) it was time to fly to Hong Kong. Watching Sin City, Warm Springs (pretty ok film) and The Transporter (fairly awful) made the flight pass reasonably quickly!. Upon arrival found I could check in for my next flight, 18 hours early. Which was handy, met a bloke called Brian from Tallaght (North Dublin) and had a pint with him before he got his flight. Then it was time to curl up on 3 seats for the night.
So up at 6am and took a bus into Kowloon. It really is one massive skyscraper this place..
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Went straight to catch a boat across to Hong Kong island, and to have a look at the Golden Bauhinia Square and the flag raising ceremony. The square marks the return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.
Then I walked through Hong Kong park (really stiflingly hot even at 8am!). One of the things you really notice is that there are hundreds of people all over the place – in all the parks, quayside, etc. exercising. Tai Chi? who knows – but they really are all over the place.
After that I took the funicular railway up to the top of Victoria Hill to look out over the city, and had a nice 3km walk around up there. This next pic is of an India Rubber tree. The strands hanging down are actually roots, which take moisture and nutrients from the air. Once they hit the ground they continue being rootish, but also begin to hold the tree up as well.
Then got the plane to Bangkok, taxi to Khaosan road, and met Mhairi, as arranged, on the street corner. For once I was the late one ;) Mind you, hats off to Mhairi (who hasn’t written it up yet I don’t think), but while my taxi fare was 300Baht (6 Euro), she made it into town from the airport (train->bus) for 7Baht (14 cents). Did take 2 hours or so… but an interesting adventure for sure.
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