Hong Kong seems to be the most sociable venue on our trip so far. Last time we came here about 2 months ago we met up briefly with TJ. This time, Gary’s parents came out from the UK to join us for a short holiday. We convinced them to travel around with us for a bit – from Hong Kong to Macau, and then flying on to Bangkok before they returned to London (with a short stop over in Bombay for a few nights). In other words, their own mini world tour! One of Gary’s dad’s first encounters in Hong Kong was from a shifty bloke who offered a “Punjabi Luxmi” – clearly Gary’s mum wasn’t sufficiently visible since, as it took some time for Gary’s dad to realise, the shifty guy was offering a Punjabi virgin!
As you might have gathered from our previous entries, we love Hong Kong. The vibrant life this city has is amazing. But we were a bit worried that retuning here at this time of year was a tad risky as it’s meant to be the rainy season: very hot, very humid, and very, very wet. But I think Gary’s parents worked some sort of miracle, giving us the best weather we’ve had on this trip so far. Beautiful sunny days, cool breezes, brilliant blue skies with little fluffy white clouds – gorgeous. The only time we thought we’d get rained on was when we took the tram to the top of Victoria Peak for a walk around the mountain. Then the clouds rolled in from the sea in a really ominous way all around us, but still managed to leave us with lovely glimpses of the city below. Very odd views! Even then if only spotted with drizzle for a minute or so before clearing up again to give us the most beautiful night-time panorama across of Hong Kong we’ve seen yet.
One drawback of Hong Kong is that it is expensive to fly out of the place. Luckily the neighbouring gambling haven of Macau is presently taking advantage of this, offering cheap flights to other places in Asia. I managed to wangle flights to Thailand for less than £50 each, so we popped across on the ferry to see the bright lights and glitzy fountains – and yes, the giant golden pineapple casino the ‘Grand Lisboa’ is as hideously fascinating as ever. Oh, and the silly fountain outside the ‘Wynn’ Casino seems to have a bigger repertoire of cheesy songs with choreographed water / light / fire shows than we thought. Our favourite this time was a rendition of an 80’s hit which came complete with fireball eruptions during every chorus: ‘I need a Hero!’ WHOOMPH!!!
This time we managed to stumble upon a dancing festival in the middle of town, near the façade of a famous Portuguese Church that burnt down in the last century. Pure skill in our timing as always! We saw a Chinese Dragon Dance, and then watched as troops of girls from different countries marched past in fancy national dress, posing for photos. The best was the group from the USA. They went Hawaiian style – i.e. dressed in only streamer skirts and bikini tops made of coconuts! The UK girls were much more boringly outfitted in black trousers and T-Shirts with ‘London’ written across the front. Very dull.
Our luck with the weather held out beautifully. It was gorgeous the day we walked around Macau, fine when we got to the airport the next morning, a bit cloudy when we boarded the plane… and THEN the rainy season hit with a vengeance! Our plane was stuck on the runway for about half an hour in a torrential downpour with winds so strong you could see and feel the wings shaking. The very competent pilot managed to take off quickly in a break in the weather, but it was a pretty shaky, turbulent flight. We seemed to escape Macau in the nick of time!
Anyway, on to Thailand. We’ll let you know how we get on in Bangkok. Perhaps we’ll have more offers of ‘massagee?’ from some Thai Luxmi! You never know your luck!
As you might have gathered from our previous entries, we love Hong Kong. The vibrant life this city has is amazing. But we were a bit worried that retuning here at this time of year was a tad risky as it’s meant to be the rainy season: very hot, very humid, and very, very wet. But I think Gary’s parents worked some sort of miracle, giving us the best weather we’ve had on this trip so far. Beautiful sunny days, cool breezes, brilliant blue skies with little fluffy white clouds – gorgeous. The only time we thought we’d get rained on was when we took the tram to the top of Victoria Peak for a walk around the mountain. Then the clouds rolled in from the sea in a really ominous way all around us, but still managed to leave us with lovely glimpses of the city below. Very odd views! Even then if only spotted with drizzle for a minute or so before clearing up again to give us the most beautiful night-time panorama across of Hong Kong we’ve seen yet.
One drawback of Hong Kong is that it is expensive to fly out of the place. Luckily the neighbouring gambling haven of Macau is presently taking advantage of this, offering cheap flights to other places in Asia. I managed to wangle flights to Thailand for less than £50 each, so we popped across on the ferry to see the bright lights and glitzy fountains – and yes, the giant golden pineapple casino the ‘Grand Lisboa’ is as hideously fascinating as ever. Oh, and the silly fountain outside the ‘Wynn’ Casino seems to have a bigger repertoire of cheesy songs with choreographed water / light / fire shows than we thought. Our favourite this time was a rendition of an 80’s hit which came complete with fireball eruptions during every chorus: ‘I need a Hero!’ WHOOMPH!!!
This time we managed to stumble upon a dancing festival in the middle of town, near the façade of a famous Portuguese Church that burnt down in the last century. Pure skill in our timing as always! We saw a Chinese Dragon Dance, and then watched as troops of girls from different countries marched past in fancy national dress, posing for photos. The best was the group from the USA. They went Hawaiian style – i.e. dressed in only streamer skirts and bikini tops made of coconuts! The UK girls were much more boringly outfitted in black trousers and T-Shirts with ‘London’ written across the front. Very dull.
Our luck with the weather held out beautifully. It was gorgeous the day we walked around Macau, fine when we got to the airport the next morning, a bit cloudy when we boarded the plane… and THEN the rainy season hit with a vengeance! Our plane was stuck on the runway for about half an hour in a torrential downpour with winds so strong you could see and feel the wings shaking. The very competent pilot managed to take off quickly in a break in the weather, but it was a pretty shaky, turbulent flight. We seemed to escape Macau in the nick of time!
Anyway, on to Thailand. We’ll let you know how we get on in Bangkok. Perhaps we’ll have more offers of ‘massagee?’ from some Thai Luxmi! You never know your luck!
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