"Around the world for the s ..." a Hong Kong Travel Page by margaretvn

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Hong Kong

Up at 4 o’clock which is not too easy on a cold winter morning. Still everything is better after a cup of tea! Our flight to Gatwick was full but it left on time thank goodness, we had a couple of hours to wait for our Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. We flew first to Paris, then from Paris we flew straight to Hong Kong. At Hong Kong we were quickly through passport control but then we had to wait ages for our cases. We were just thinking they were perhaps left in London when they appeared on the band. We were met by car (a Mercedes) for our transfer to the Royal Pacific Hotel on the Canton road. We had a nice room on the 15th floor. It was a corner room so we reckoned we could only have noise problems from guests on one side of us. Just shows how you think if you regularly stay in hotels! In fact the only problem we had was traffic noise. The Christmas lights are lovely and there are so many of them. Often just hundreds hanging as icicles from a building. Oh I almost forgot our taxi driver from the airport to the hotel and his nasal symphony. Here was a real artist at work - the noises he could produce with his throat and nasal sinuses were wide, colourful and all equally disgustingly sickening. All we missed was the singing hiss as the snot flew through the air (usually along your shoulder)hitting the ground just in front of you with a loud smack. Memories of China came up in us not to mention the waves of nausea. I ask myself is this a Chinese inborn art. They do it so often and so normally it must be in their genes or perhaps they learn how to do it at infant school along with the three R’s!

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It is a 4½-hour flight to Perth, must admit that that surprised us a bit. Don't know why because you are flying from one side of the continent to the other. There is a three-hour time difference as well just to keep us suffering from jetlag. Still its all part and parcel of long trips, perhaps we would miss it if we did sleep all night every night. We hired a car at the airport for three days and bought a map in the airport shop. Then we were away on the highway number4 (the Tonkin highway) and then onto the 40 to Hyden. It's a drive of 350 kilometres from Perth. We decided to go to the Wave rock straight away instead of waiting until tomorrow. It's only a short drive from the hotel. It's really an impressive sight and the view from the top is marvellous. Walked to the Hippos Yawn. Often caves and such sort things are given names but you wonder how on earth they thought them up. Well the Hippos Yawn really DOES look like a yawning Hippo.

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Then we headed north) for the Pinnacles. It was a long travel day to day but it means more time tomorrow for the Pinnacles. After breakfast in the hotel we drove to the Nambung National Park. We stopped at Hangover Bay first, which was beautiful, white sandy beach and a clear blue sea and no one in sight. Then onto the Pinnacles Dessert which is a very strange sight. There are thousands of limestone pillars of all sizes. They are the result of millions of years of erosion. We did the loop drive, which shows you the most beautiful part of the park and then parked the car and walked to the observation point. In the car park there was a huge caravan parked and they had obviously just let their chemical toilet run empty over the path. There was a wet trail running from their caravan across the car park and the place stunk to high heaven. We then found the Thetis lake to look at the strombolite formations. It was a strange sight but not really wildly impressive. Then we headed south again on the 1 until we reached the alternative route to Perth via the Yanchep National Park. We stopped there for a while as an extra to our plans and did the wetlands walk around Lake Mcness. Its a 2 kilometre walk and it was lovely, it shows how the area was before it was cultivated and built up. While walking back to the car we saw and managed to photo-graph a Kookaburra.

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The flight to Alice Springs. It is a 3- hour flight and we got seats on row 1 on the right hand side of the plane. That was marvellous because we had a view out of two windows and we were on the right side of the plane for the rock when we flew over it. We hired a car in Alice Springs and decided to drive to Ayers Rock this afternoon. The Rock is beautiful and so impressive. We went for a walk there and then back to the hotel for lunch and a long drink.. Then we visited the Olgas (Kata Tjula) which are 48 kilometres away from the resort. This morning at Ayers Rock we did the Mala walk, which is about 2 kilometres and shows things about the Aboriginal Mala feast. We saw a cave with paintings, the cave where the women and children prepared all the food for the feast and the cave of the holy wallaby. The Aboriginal people do not climb on the rock and would actually prefer it if the tourists did not. About 20 people fall to their death on the climb each year. We didn't climb at all. After dinner we drove back to the sunset viewing point, it was a beautiful sight as the sun went down. The rock became a deep shade of red and even the sky was a deep colour. It was mag-nificent, loads of people were looking at it and there were a lot of the same pictures taken.

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We headed back to Alice We were stopped once by an Aboriginal with a clapped out old banger who said he had run out of petrol and could we spare him a couple of litres. What could we do... we let him siphon of f a couple of litres. Only hope he didn't smoke a cigarette after that as he waited for the next tourist to come along. Think he was the whole day in that spot getting petrol. Don't know if his car ran on leaded or unleaded pet-rol The next day we were up at 3 o'clock.... Would you believe this was holiday? Our pick up was 3.45 to go hot air ballooning. As we drove along picking up (we were of course the first pick up) some people were still in bed! It was still dark with an amazing starry sky when we had to help get the balloon ready. We had booked for an hour's flight but what we actually got was two half-hours flights. 12 people can get into the basket but that doesn't leave much room for movement at all. Before we went off on the first flight we had to practice the landing position. Before I really realised it we were up in the air and away over the desert. The burners made a noise and they were very hot just above your head (must have been worse for Koos than it was for me) but when that went out it was so peaceful. We saw the sun coming up over the desert; it was a beautiful sight. After a soft second landing we had a champagne breakfast before we headed back to Alice Springs. We were quite glad to sit in the cool of the air-conditioned airport and wait for our flight to Cairns at 14.25. It's a two-hour flight and we arrived at 17.15 While we were having breakfast we heard running water and this went on for ages and ages. Said to each other "our neighbour is a long time under the shower". Then I looked out of the window and it was absolutely pouring it down! It was a real tropical rainstorm. Thank goodness we had bought a brolly in Hong Kong. We had a walk around and then a light lunch before going to the pier for our reef jet ride to Green Island. It was a very bumpy ride on the way out so I was very glad I had only had a light lunch! First we joined the submarine for the coral viewing. It was fantastic, I have never seen so many fish and in so many colours it was unbelievable. The 45 minutes went by so quickly.

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Luckily we had a hotel pick-up today as we were going to Kuranda. It was such a pity about the rain though as it blocked out a lot of the view for us as we were climbing into the rainforest. With all the low cloud we hardly saw a thing and it was pretty miserable. For a summer holiday we seem to be having a lot of rain. We went to the Tjapukai theatre for the Aborigine dance show, which was marvellous. Then after a quick lunch we went to the butterfly sanctuary. That was really fantastic - so many butterflies.

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We walked to the ferry to go to Hong Kong island. We decided to go over on the upper deck for the princely sum of $1.20 (30 cents). The lower deck would have cost us $1. Then we walked to the Victoria Peak terminus; the return ticket for the Peak train costs $16. The railway is so steep in places that the skyscrapers look like they are leaning sideways. Unfortunately the day was cloudy so the view wasn't too good. Down again with the railway, we gave the coffee at $30 a cup a miss, and then with the bus back to the ferry. The bus ticket was included in the rail fare. The bus station and the taxi stand are next to the ferry and there we got a taxi to Aberdeen. There we did a trip through the harbour on a sampan, which was very interesting. Aberdeen though is slowly disappearing as the people come ashore to live in the many skyscrapers looking out over the harbour. The boat people still pay their taxes in eggs. After that we caught the number 23 bus to Stanley market which is supposed to be very interesting and where you can buy everything. We found it a bit disappointing though and much smaller than we had thought it would be.
So after a walk around and a drink we decided we had seen enough of it. Then it was back to the ferry with bus number 6. We were in the bus for a good half-hour for 4~ dollars and it was fun to see the place without pushing through all the crowds. Loads of people were just sitting in sheltered places along the roads with meals and drinks. Almost like having visitors but then in the open air. We thought perhaps people did it that way because the housing conditions are very crowded. There were even groups sitting in the entrance to the public toilets.

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We were picked up at 9.10 for our flight to Sydney. It was a nice flight; there is an hours time difference between Cairns and Sydney We had a really awful lunch - I will advise everyone I know not to go to the Quay Cafe to eat. I ditched my prawns from the roll I had and only ate the bread. Even the bagman just looked at the prawns when he went through the bin and left them there So he had obviously also heard about the Quay Cafe as well. The cruise was lovely, it was good to just sit in the sun and watch the world go by, and what a world - the one house bigger and more beautiful than the other. We went by ferry to the zoo. We went with the cable car to the top entrance. The main reason we went to the zoo was to see the Platypus, so we went to his tank first. The guide at the entrance showed us where the tank was but said that there was only a 100:1 chance of seeing the Platypus and that the best time would be in the afternoon. Well we decided to go there anyway and there he was when we walked in. In good view and swimming around as lively as anything. He was beautiful although a bit smaller than I had thought he would be. There used to be two in the tank but the pregnant female escaped not long ago and now he is alone. Sometimes he is in his pipe system and they don't see him for days. The rest of the zoo, except the koala enclosure, was a bit of a disappointment though.

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We had breakfast in McDonalds (not risking another cafe at the quay this holiday). Then while Koos went to the Harbour Bridge to climb the Pylon I settled with a book, "The Happy Islands of Oceania" by Paul Theroux, for a quiet morning. I was sitting by the ferry for Taronga zoo and it was lovely and peaceful. Then just as I was settled into the book a family with four small children came and sat next to me and I mean next to me - the youngest had his hands on my knee. Then they started quarrelling and crying so I called it a day and moved along the quay. As I was walking along a bag lady asked me for $1 because she had swallowed some poison and was now worried about the effect it would have on her. She got very abusive when I didn't give her anything (for the simple reason that Koos had all our money with him). So I moved away from her and chose another spot. Unfortunately another bag lady decided to sit next to me and I was down wind from her so that meant another move. Koos came back, by then I had only managed a couple of pages of Paul Theroux, and we had a light lunch before going back to the hotel for our things and the taxi to the airport. Our flight to Hawaii was at 17.35. We had confirmed the flight the day before and were told that we had a window seat and non- smoking, but it was not in the computer and so we had to check in again. The woman said we had seats in the non- smoking area but in fact we were on the first row of the smoking area. The people around us smoked one after the other the through the night.

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Hawaii

12th Jan (again):
We arrived in Hawaii at 6.15. The US immigrations were a bit awkward, as we had no hotel booked, think that they thought we were trying to get into the land and then stay there. We checked in for our Aloha flight to Maui. The man behind the desk asked if we wanted to go on an earlier flight, so we got the one of 7.40. It's only a half-hour flight to Maui. We hired a car from Dollar and drove to Kihai. There we managed to get a hotel for one night but it was a bit of a problem, as they only really want to hire for a minimum of three nights. Koos phoned and booked a hotel in Lahaina for the next day and also for a whale-watching cruise. Then we went to bed for a few hours, its tiring doing a day twice over! Went out for a late lunch and a walk around. Strange we had thought of the Hawaiian Islands as being a bit like Tahiti and they are not. We decided to drive to Lahaina and see where the cruise went from, Lahaina looked like a nice placeCouldn't be with doing a day twice too often, its exhausting.

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We drove out to Lahaina and booked into our hotel. It came as a bit of a shock to see that it was the hotel where there was very loud music yesterday. So I reckon it will be earplugs in when we go to bed tonight. We went for our tickets for the whale cruise, it was very choppy and cold on the water, thank goodness I had taken a sea sickness pill. We did see whales swimming and jumping. They were not as close to the boat as we had hoped they would be though. The Pioneer hotel where we stayed was used in the days of the whale hunting and there was a set of rules in the room from 1901. I think the air conditioner dated from then as well as it sounded like an outboard motor when we switched it on. Add to that the toilet flush that ran all night and a baby crying and I think the loud music may have been quieter. The blankets were also air-conditioned -although they were clean they were full of holes. We were up and away by 9.30 this morning. We drove first to the volcano crater, the Haleakala; it's a very twisty road, which climbs 10,000 feet in 38 miles. It was cool at the crater and you really did not need the sign that warned you to walk slowly as you had no puff to run and jump. Had a light lunch on our way back to the airport for our flight to Honolulu.

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We today and got the bus to Pearl Harbour. No matter how far the ride is, or how short, the fare remains the same. The film about 7th December 1941 was very interesting and the monument over the USS Arizona is beautiful but awesome. You stand there in the viewing room above the ship, which is easily visible just under the surface of the water. Almost 1200 men are buried at sea there. After that visit we got the bus to Honolulu and walked to Waikiki again. We had thought about going swimming but it was cool and rained a bit - the only day we go to the beach and that happens. We saw the former palace of the Queen draped in black in remembrance of the invasion of Hawaii by the U.S.A. The actual date of that was the 17th. We got the bus to Honolulu again and then the one to Sea Life Park and that also showed us a bit more of the island. Sea Life is a small park but it is very nice. The reef tank is marvellous; you go down on a spiral walkway around the outside of a large glass tank, which shows the different levels of the sea. The dolphin show was very amateurish though

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We had a wake up call at 6.15, which comes a hard when you only fell asleep at 1 o'clock! We sat on the bus by the hotel waiting for people who weren't on time, then we drove to the exit and the other man on the bus realised he had forgotten his golf clubs so we had to go back for them. We were a little late leaving and the flight was bumpy at times. We arrived at Vancouver just after 4 p.m. It was a Vancouver covered with snow. The skies were clear and the view of the surrounding mountains was beautiful. We booked into the Days Inn in downtown Vancouver and got a taxi there. After checking in we went out to get a meal - it was not very easy finding anywhere though. At last we found a lovely little pizza place called "Stepps" and had his dinner menu. That was clam chowder, pizza sticks, lasagne and cheesecake. It was without doubt the best meal of the holiday.It was amazing! I slept last night without earplugs. Sleeping in the hotel on Oahu was just like sleeping on the runway of the airport. Here in the middle of downtown Vancouver it's so quiet. We woke up to awful weather -rain - what a good job we had decided to keep the brolly we had bought in Hong Kong. We decided to go to the science museum. That was marvellous - it's a museum where you can try things out from puzzles to mazes to touching tournedos. We saw the film about the tropical rainforest as well there.

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New York

We woke up to rain and more rain and grey skies. We watched a bit of the inauguration of Clinton. Then we went out to breakfast and to the skytrain and the planetarium. Only to find out we were going in the wrong direction. So back to downtown and another try. Ended up a block away from the hotel where we had to get a bus. After about an hour of travelling back and forward we finally got to the planetarium only to find out the next showing was at three o'clock. So we decided to go to the Vancouver museum instead. That was a wise decision as it was a very interesting museum and showed clearly how the city of Vancouver was born. After that we went by train to the sea bus and crossed to the other side of the bay to take a picture of the skyline of the city. By this time it had stopped raining and we did at last get a glimpse of the snowy mountains. Walked around the city centre, which was very pleasant in the sun. We had a meal and then went back to the hotel to pack for an early start tomorrow.

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What joys a holiday brings with it! Why do we have to go away from home? Just when we needed and wanted to sleep early the central heating went on the blink. Made awful and frequent cranky noises. The decibels were high as well so earplugs didn't work at all. Koos had put the heating on when we went in but it was so hot he tried to put it out and that's when the problems started because the tap was so worn. In the end we just left it on and opened the window. We tied the curtain back with a sock! Then we slept until 4.30 when the alarm went off. Up and away to the airport where we had to wait a ½ hour before the check-in desk opened. The journey was pretty awful as there was a small child screaming the whole way. Lots of Continental staff were flying as passengers on the flight. Strange, they all had brought their own lunch with them. That must say something about the food on the airline. We slept well although at times it was a bit cold - I didn't dare tough the central heating. Especially after the fact the 100 did not flush and Koos had to repair it. Breakfast was at the hotel, included in the price. This was our most expensive hotel (180 guilders per night) and to think for that we have a tiny room with two single beds, a shower and toilet and no room to swing a cat. Still we are right in the middle of Manhattan and that is what you pay for. After breakfast we went out and with the subway to Chinatown. Then we walked to the south street seaport where warehouses at the port have been converted into shops and museums. It was lovely there. After a look around and a drink we walked to the Staten Island ferry and crossed with it. It is said that the best view of the Statue of Liberty is from the ferry and its true. The journey to Staten Island costs nothing, which is always good, and the journey back costs 50 cents so that does not break the bank either. Then we went to the World Trade Centre. First to the loo, all this cold weather does affect your bladder. Luckily I remembered where the toilets where from our last time at the centre. We went with the subway to 67th street. By this time Koos was really on tenterhooks and had the shakes as we were heading for Tower Records! What a choice they have, never seen so many classical CDs. Of course Koos was like a child in a sweet shop. I could have left him there and collected him the next day. He did start off by the B for Beethoven and then the B for Brahms but it was soon "oh yes I have to look for this or that" and he was back and forward in the shop. More than two hours later he emerged with a pile of CDs Mind you he was not so bad as the Japanese who had two shopping baskets full! Even as the cashier was ringing up the prices he was putting more in the basket.

So the last day of the holiday has arrived. What seemed so long before we left home now seems so short. We went first to Chinatown, we stepped out of the subway car and heard loud bangs and as we walked along the platform we smelt smoke and burning, also a bit of the plaster from the roof fell on our heads. I had forgotten that it was the Chinese New Year today. The streets were covered with a thick layer of red firework paper. The noise of the crackers hurt your ears. Then it was back to the Lincoln Centre with the subway. We wanted to do the tour around the centre but there was an opera matinee. I had wanted to see behind the stage of the opera house and Koos had wanted to see the Julliard School. Neither were included in the tour so we decided not to go. After that and an awful lunch we went to the Guinness Book of Records museum which was fun All too soon it was time to go back to the hotel for our luggage and our taxi to the airport. We had thought that we had booked a sharing taxi but it was a limousine driven by an uniformed chauffeur. So it was in style we rounded off our stay in New York.We got our flight to Amster-dam, it was on time and full. We dug our way into the house through a pile of post and papers. The holiday really is over!

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We woke up to a grey and wet day. So our first stop after breakfast was to buy an umbrella! Then we went to Hong Kong Island and there we got the ferry to Lantau Island. That was an hour journey from Hong Kong. There it was if anything even wetter and greyer. We took the tour bus and not the local bus to the P0 Lin temple and the Buddha. The return trip cost us $40 per person and the journey was 40 minutes each way over very steep and windy roads. We chose the tour bus and not the local one because it went directly to the temple and it went more often. The statue of Buddha is beautiful but they were then still building the steps and the road up to it, so you could not get very near it. It was a pity that there were no blue skies for the photos though. After a walk through the temple, that is run by shaven-headed nuns we caught the bus back to the ferry. With the mass Chinese we were pushed onto the ferry back to Hong Kong Island. The Dutch can push but these people are the real experts at the art of coming last and getting on first. They can even manage to get 20 people alike through a gate meant to let two people through at a time. There was a tiny frail looking granny of about a 100 (guessing from the rimples on her face) behind me in the queue but she was and sitting there before I was pushed onto the ferry. Dropped our things at the hotel and then went to Temple street for the evening market. Some of the smells from the street cafes were really awful and really so penetrating, they seemed to follow you for ages and people were happily eating this stuff.

We checked in our luggage for tonight’s flight to Sydney. Then we went by tram to the Macau ferry where we had to search for Ladder Street, which is one great big second-hand market - usually from stolen things, and Jervois Street, which we had read about. It has a snake market. Well after a long search we found Jervois Street with all the shops closed! Mind you on the way we had found a lovely temple and seen skyscrapers being built in a framework of bamboo scaffolding held together with rope. So we went back to the centre with the tram, no visit to Hong Kong is complete without a ride on the old trams, and into McDonalds for a drink. Koos asked the manager about the snake and bird markets and we were told that they were closed because it was Sunday. Most of the other shops were open though. So our next visit to Hong Kong will have to include both markets. We decided to go with the tram to the Causeway Bay, which cost us a dollar each. It was a ride of about 20 minutes and it gave us a very good view of the streets of the island. It also took us right into a very busy shopping area with lots of little alleyways and tiny shops and markets. So then we just walked back along the road the tram had taken which took us much longer than 20 minutes. The car to take us to the airport was on time and we already had our boarding passes. So we went straight through to the departure lounge and used the last Hong Kong dollars to have a cup of tea.

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Australia

Arrived in Sydney at 10.20 to a temperature of 23c Centigrade. We had a really good view of the Opera House as we came in to land. Again we were reasonably quick getting through passport control but again we had to wait ages for our cases. Changed money and then went to the hotel infor-mation desk to book a hotel. It was chaos there, waited about an hour before we were helped. One woman let the assistant book and hotel for her before she decided that she liked the look of the other hotel better! Then when that was booked she was amazed and quite put out that she would have to cross the road from where the shuttle bus stopped to get to the hotel. How on earth could she do that with 10 pieces of luggage? Amazing but although the hotel is on a very busy road I slept well. We set off for the Botanical gardens because we knew that from there you have a lovely view of the Opera House and the bridge. Walked through the gardens, there are so many beautiful flowers and flowering trees in Australia. We took our pictures and then walked on to the quays and back to the Rocks. After a drink we went back to the centre and then with the monorail to Darling harbour. It's only a short ride with the monorail thank goodness as it was very busy. After that we walked to the Chinese Garden which is really beautiful. It is an oasis of quiet in the middle of the city. It's beautiful and the air there was heavy with the scent of jasmine.