3 March 2017
We have seen our families, had our medical and dental check-ups, arranged our affairs with our lawyer, completed our tax returns, re-registered our vehicles, discovered that everything we thought we knew about Carnets has changed, booked our tickets…...And we are off again to Europe after a great break in Australia.
To break the long haul flight we have stopped in Hong Kong. This has been a great experience, with such easy travelling here. Nearly everyone speaks English and they are very helpful to foreigners. We found that we were often offered assistance by strangers if we stopped to look at a map or looked confused in any way. This is one of the small things that makes us like a particular city.
One of the highlights of Hong Kong is its colourful night scenery. The harbour front buildings light up in a display which is quite spectacular. We chose to see it from a night-time dinner cruise on Victoria Harbour, and found it gave a us a much better view than we had from our hotel.
However the effect of the boat rolling even very slightly in the swell made night-time phography unpredictable. A tripod wouldn’t have helped either.
We took a trip up to “The Peak” (Victoria Peak) behind HongKong to see the view. The trip up the mountain is via a rail line which goes up at a 40 degree slope. The rail ride alone is quite spectactular, and one of the experiences of Hong Kong not to be missed. But the view from the top! Oh my….
The population density in HongKong is one of the highest in the world. And cost of real-estate is also extremely high by world standards. Air polution was very obvious to us but we were told that it was coming accross from mainland China. Hong Kong does have coal fired power stations though and they must be contributing. There are also quit a lot of cars, although most cannot afford the parking space required to have one. Apparently 1/10 cars are Teslas (electric) because electricity is cheaper than petrol. And all taxis are run on LPG (Gas).
The airpolution gave us interesting sunsets though…. This photo is of the Sun, not the moon.
I liked the contrast between the Sampans and the high-rises.
And finally, a taste of life for the “haves” of HongKong - the very wealthy ones who can afford a piece of land all of their own. Check-out the size of the fish in that pond! This house was very high up on Victoria Peak and surrounded by vegetation, so was very private - except for those of us with lenses looking down from the lookout above! :)
3 March 2017
We were so close to Macau that it would have been wrong not to go and see it- even if only for 1 day. So we took a ferry (1 hour) arriving in Macau late in the afternoon.
Macau was a Portugese colony for many years and still has plenty of place names in Portugese, Portugese restaurants, even a wine bar selling esclusively Portugese wines, and tapas. The central square is cobblestoned, but the stones are glazed- more like tiles. This gives the place a sparkling quaint feel. It is very appealing.
Of course the place is dominated by the Casinos. We had intended to take in the Casino aspect of Macau, and took our dress-up clothes to fit in. But we needen’t have bothered. Many people were not dressed to any high standard, and once in the Casino we rapidly lost interest in any gambling, even the $10 we had intended to play with! We were in the Lisboa Casino, not the most modern or the largest. But the atmosphere was quite seedy. In addition there was nowhere to sit down except at the gambling tables. So we left and went back to our hotel.
Next moring we had planned to go up the Macau tower. But in planning our day out we found that the ferry to the HongKong International airport sailed only twice per day and if we wanted to get there in time we needed to leave immediately! So we found ourselves with no time to see Macau in daylight! What we did see of the town outside the Casinos was interesting, so we will be back.
This photo shows a bridge under construction (sine 2009) from Macau and Zhuhai (southern China)to Hong Kong airport. It is 50 km long and expected to cost US $10 billion, and includes a tunnel. It is epected to open in Dec 2017. It will give southern China access to Hong Kong and thus improve its economy.
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