Botanical & Zoological Garden AND Hong Kong Park and Aviary

Our first stop today was the Botanical and Zoological Gardens to see plants and animals from around the world. The park is an oasis of calm amongst the cities skyscrapers and where we enjoyed a nice walk through the greenhouses where they house air plants and many rare flowers.
The pink flamingos looked beautiful but the smell from the cage (stagnant water or bird poo?) was quite potent so it lost its magic a bit for me.
We felt quite sad for the orangutans and monkeys as their cages were too small in our opinion which is partly why you won't find their pics up on the link. However, the park kept up to a very high standard and was lovely to be in such a tranquil place having spent the last 11 days being juggernauted through the city!
Next stop was the Hong Kong Park and Aviary - which is situated next to the Peak Tram station (and Madam Tussauds). We headed directly through the park towards the aviary by climbing up what felt like thousands of steps (thighs and calves have been burning for days now).
You can see the roof of the aviary from far away as its huge. If the orangutans had been given such a space as these birds, we would have been far happier.
Inside the aviary is a wooden walkway that overlooks waterfalls, concrete pools and paths amongst the grass and flowers. Flying around us were all these lovely birds including the white breasted kingfisher, rose ringed parakeets and black crowned night herons! Check out the pics.
We continued through Hong Kong Park to the Tai Chi court where disappointingly, there was an american giving a martial arts lesson to a chinese boy. We went up 105 further steps to the top of the viewing tower.
Tonight on our trawl through a small market on a remarkably steep slope, we found a traditional british fish and chip shop - I was overjoyed to be able to have a bacon sandwich after email conversations with Mum about bacon was driving me crazy. However, as a result of our chippy night, my hair smelt so bad of chip grease, that it is currently tied back.
I left Rus with a fellow Tottenham fan at the Wheel (pub) tonight and headed back up the escalator to do some uni work. Not a complete success but I am getting closer (and i'd better be, as its due in on the 30th March). Great day had by both, and icing on the cake was Tottenham won 3-1 against Blackburn. Emma x x x

MORE PICS HERE

Awesome sculpted wall at Yau Ma Tei

Temple Night Market - Yau Ma Tei

we've just arrived home from the temple night market - the biggest market i've ever seen that seems to stretch on for miles. We got off the MTR at Yau Ma Tei station and walked from Portland Street to the market.

We're such consumers, the very first stall i almost bought some plastic spiderman bobble head but resisted.

The market sells cheap crap but also shoes, leather goods, clothes, accessories and as I found out today, a really old 120 box camera. It was dusty and sad and sat on its own amongst the jade bracelets and boxed sets of chop sticks (please see the picture - I am so excited that 1) it works and 2) its chinese...

I had to haggle with the stall owner and knocked down the price enough that I could not walk away. It seems you get the best price from the street sellers when you say "i'll go away and think about it".

There are rows of fortune tellers - that read faces and palms but I told Rus that I didn't want to know - last time someone professed to be able to read palms, she did everyone else around me and then tapped me on the hand and said something along the lines of "you'll be alright". So as far as I'm concerned, I don't want to know.

After browsing for ages we ate in Reclamation street canteens - an outside area covered with tarpaulin (and probably not the most hygenic place) where we ordered a couple of dishes - rice and noodles, and ended up with the biggest platters of both. We soldiered on with the chop sticks and made the table a mess and we've both been stuffed ever since. We're both really glad to have seen the market - there's a lots of goodies to be had so we curbed our spending.

On the way home, we went to a bar on the mid levels escalator and promptly left after one drink as some English man was chatting up some girls there - professing to be earning 10 million a year as a banker. He said banker I thought he was a moron.

Back home now - busy week had by both so relatively early night tonight (it's quarter past midnight as I type) and tomorrow, we will have a lie in!

Will be back on soon

Lots of Love Emma, Rus and my new, very old camera!!!!

MORE PICS HERE

travelling around by escalator!!! (by emma)

after getting hassled by rus to write a post i thought i'd better do it, just for a bit of peace and quiet!
Oh yes and i've also got to say "i'm so happy that i've got the best man in the world....."

So.... i've not been in the office all week as i've had to go to a hotel in Kowloon. It's a really hectic taxi trip around the island to get there and pretty expensive, so instead i've been catching the ferry to Hum Hong. It's been a lovely way to get to work but its not been so humid so my hair has been behaving itself. Tomorrow is meant to be warmer again but we've been out and about this evening in light weight clothing.

Actually, we didn't get out until late as after I got in from work (and in my eagerness to stay fit, i opted to walk up the slopes rather than take the escalators) I jumped into bed and promptly fell asleep for 3 hours! my nap went a bit wrong but i feel better for it. We popped out after nine tonight and went to the very authentic 'pizza express' and then a meander around the mid levels. We found the pub where rus had success on tuesday night 'the wheel' but when some drunk brits started singing really tuneless karaoke we quickly disappeared.

Tomorrow is the last day at the hotel for a rebranding meeting and then possibly the big budda this weekend dependent on weather / when i wake / how sore our legs are!

Oh yes - final point - i see no one commented on my very well put together 'documentary' about our apartment. I went to a lot of time and trouble (ha ha) to do that - did you all like it? xx Emma xx

Waterfront & Hollywood Rd

Today i visited the waterfront, and stopped by at Hollywood Road, Central on the way back. Emma's routine is back to normal now for the most part and so were looking forward to a nice chilled evening together tonight.

MORE PICS HERE

The "Symphony of Lights" filmed from the peak

Hong Kong's 40 minute "Symphony of lights" happens at 8pm every evening.
Music: William Orbit - The name of the wave

The Peak

Today i had my best day in Hong Kong so far, the sun was out again and after clearing my hangover from last night i decided to head for the peak. Or Victoria Peak to give it it's proper name (pic). Emma had to go to Kowloon again but had text to say they were all headed there this evening for a meal with the business partners and so would more than likely be able to say hi at some point. I headed for the peak tram terminus.
The tram has been running up to the peak for over 100 years, pulled up the sheer face by a single cable. In it's time it has a flawless record. with service only being interrupted once due to a cyclone washing away part of the track at one point. It takes about 6 mins to get up (video coming soon). At the top i headed for the viewing platform and the epic view to be found there.
After a coffee i decided to walk the "Lugard Road Circuit". This was definitely the highlight of the day, with awe inspiring views of Hong Kong, Lantau Island amongst others, And the south China Sea. Rarely have i seen sight's of such magnitude. The pics just cannot begin to do this walk justice!!!...Absolutely beautiful.
I hang on when arriving back at the tram station as i knew Em was coming, and also i wanted to photograph the island at night. And the famous "Symphony of Light". I saw Em for a moment before she had to go to have her meal and then went back to the viewing platform to watch the show. Me and Em plan to come up here again together so we can both enjoy a day here. After the show i grabbed the tram back down and walked home. Very happy!!. I have added a gallery of daytime pics as well as ones at night, and also a gallery of the Lugard Road walk.

PICS ARE HERE

Quiz Night!!!

Last night was a funny one. As I knew Em was going to be out for the evening i decided to head into soho for a beer (not that kind of soho by the way). After checking out a couple of the hip bars i finally ended up in a bar called "The Wheel" and it was quiz night!!.
There was an indian guy there called "Ravi", anyway, to cut a long story short he was playing alone and so invited me to join his team. After a great evening and a damn good laugh Em found me and joined us just as i was being very definitely hit on by a Russian girl who asked me for a light and mentioned that she may need my help with something else!!....It was pretty funny watching Em walking up in the background as she said it, and even funnier seeing the look on the girls face when Em walked up and said hi!!.
Anyway after all that and after getting another drink for me and Em we found out that we came 3rd and had won a litre of rum!!!.....We let Ravi have the bottle and came home rather drunk...well i was anyway!!!.......A great first night out in our new neighbourhood!!!
And a cracking hangover to boot!!!

Emma's guided video tour of the new apartment

Our host Emma takes you for a guided tour around our crib in the mid levels of Hong Kong. Including the contents of the fridge!!!!

View from the lounge taken moments ago

10 minute taxi ride from North Point to Mid Levels

Taken this morning on the trip from the hotel to the apartment.
Music: Massive Attack - Future Proof/When your soul sings.

Apartment in Mid Levels

Yesterday was like something out of "Lost in translation". The weather was drizzly although the temperatures were still mild. Emma spent the day and evening in Kowloon and i spent most of the day bouncing between the hotel and Starbucks as it was too wet to really bother going too far out. Emma got back around 9.30ish and we started to pack ready for the move this morning. Oh and guess what, went to make a face at Em through the glass wall between the main room and the bathroom area and "Bonk noise here" smacked my face into the glass. Both me and Em fell about laughing from diffent sides of the pane. Classic!!! So...after laughing at Em's misfortune with the glass door the other day at work, i've only gone and done it myself!!.
Anyway....this morning we checked out of the hotel and immediately got a taxi with our cases to the apartment which is in the mid levels overlooking central. This will be our home for the next 11 weeks. We have now unpacked. It is 12.30 local time and Em has gone to the office briefly and is then off to Kowloon on the ferry again as the business partners arrive today. She will be home sometime this evening after a welcome meal and will be catching up with you (and me) then. We have permanent broadband here and so it'll be easier for us to be online more often and even chat. This afternoon i'm off to the local supermarket to SHOP!!!. As we've been living out of the suitcases so far this has been unpractical. Fried Egg sandwiches later for me!!!!!....YUM. The apartment is great, situated on the 5th floor with full services, maid cleaning and bills included. And at a whopping 24,500 hkd (£2300) per month it should be!!!. But real estate in this area is scarce and apartments are very sought after. I think we'll be very happy here though and we certainly have a lot more space.

MORE PICS HERE

A walk by the elevator in "Central"

This is very close to where our apartment is........
Music: CSS - Alala

New Categorised Pics Gallery

As an improvement to using photobucket or similar i have set up a categorised gallery homepage so i can put more pics up without it being a pain.
In future ALL images will be added here so please bookmark :)
Please note on all the galleries you can press the FF button to view slideshows.

GALLERY IS HERE

Quiet Sunday

Having a quiet one today, I was under the impression everything closed on sundays but i appear to be wrong as i'm happily sat in starbucks writing this. Em is in Kowloon where she will be every day for the best part of next week and so i'm left to my own devices.
I'm trying to catch up with stuff and emails etc, and have managed to put a few hours in already. It's a lot cooler today which is not a bad thing as it's been high 20's since we arrived and it feels a lot hotter when the humidity is up around the 90% mark so it's welcome to have a cooler day. got more pics than i can put up and frankly i'm not impressed with photobucket so will be looking for an alternative as the uploader is rubbish!!
Hope everyone back there is fine and that a few of you manage to make it over here while were here as it really is a wonderful place. Emma has a massive week next week so you'll more than likely have to make do with me but i'll try to keep you up to speed and not bore you too much!!
Getting some great vids too and will post a couple when i get the chance to get a few encoded small enough to upload (As their HD).
Prices appear to be much like UK, although travel in general is a lot cheaper.