Our Travel Blog: April 2013

28 Sleeps to go

With only 28 sleeps until our next trip - I thought I'd better finish off the last trip. So all the Hong Kong trip info & pics are now here to see!

We were due to fly out tonight, and had to head out to the airport in the afternoon. We had a slow morning, before checking out. We left our bags at the hotel while we made one last stop at the markets to buy the last minute things. By this stage we were pretty much done, but it wasn't time to head to the airport yet, so we found a little bar in an alley way, where we had a few drinks and Wade watched the Formula One. I got bored with that pretty quickly so I headed off to do a bit more shopping before we left for the airport. I got back and that is when things turned bad!! While I was gone, Wade had gotten a message that there was a Qantas strike and that we should get to the airport ASAP. So we raced back to the hotel, trying to find out some more information along the way, but in the end decided to catch a cab to the airport and work it out when we got there. When we arrived it was chaos. We spent hours in the line, and when we finally got to the front they told us there were no flights leaving and there were no hotels left in Hong Kong to be able to put us up in (the same thing they had been telling the hundreds of people in the line in front of us). They told us to come back in an hour for another update, at which point we did, for them to tell us that they were putting us up on the floor of the airport hotel conference centre (men in one room, females in another). Clearly that wasn't going to happen for us!! At this point, we were over it, so we headed over to the airport hotel, found some decent internet connection, booked flights on Cathay Pacific for the next day and went to the airport lounge where we pushed some chairs together and attempted to sleep for the rest of the night! We got breakfast here in the morning, had showers and headed back to the terminal to wait for our flight home (which was also delayed a couple of hours as well - but we made it home safely)!! While it was a crappy end to a holiday, we still had a great time in Hong Kong together (and me in China) and it definitely didn't ruin it. Although the fun continued when we got home trying to deal with Qantas to get a refund of the costs we incurred to get home (months later we finally got our money back - better late than never I guess)!!

Hong Kong - 28th October 2011

Today was our last full day in Hong Kong (or so we thought). This morning we decided to head up to the Peak and check out the view. It was lucky we waited until today, because it was the clearest day since we had been there and the views of the city were great! While we were over on Hong Kong Island we did a bit more wandering around the streets before heading back to our hotel. Just after lunch we decided to head out to Hong Kong Disneyland for the rest of the day/night. Again everything at Disneyland was decorated for Halloween (which was great except for the random people dressed up who jump out of no where and scare you!!). It is a much smaller park than the others we have been too, but was still alot of fun. We did all the usual rides and watched the fireworks and night parade. We stuck around until pretty much park close time and caught the train back to our hotel. For a portion of the trip you are on a dedicated Disneyland train, which is decorated with all things Mickey!! One thing we found about Hong Kong and the area we were staying in, was that it didn't matter what time it was (in this case midnight) there were always alot of people around and it always felt really safe.

Here are some pictures from today:

The Peak

Disneyland

Hong Kong - 27th October 2011

There are no sleep ins when we are on holidays! This morning we grabbed some breakfast and headed to the outlet shops near our hotel (we were there before the shops actually opened, so had to settle for some window shopping at first)! Wade and I both bought some new shoes and then it was off to Ocean Park (this also involved catching a train and a bus - lucky Wade loves Theme Parks or we might not have gone!!). Ocean Park is a mixture of rides and animals including seals, penguins, birds, fish and of course - the Pandas! It is set around a mountain, with most of the rides on the far side and most of the animals closest to the entrance. To get to the other side involves either a cable car over the top, or a train through the middle of the mountain. We ended up taking the cable car over and the train back. The highlight for me (of course) were the Pandas, who put on a good show while we were there. I'm pretty sure if you asked Wade the same question he would say it was one of the rollercoasters! We also ate lunch at a restaurant which is essentially on the inside of an aquarium. While the food was pretty ordinary, watching the fish, sharks, sting rays and turtles go past while we were eating was fun. Once we were done we headed back to the hotel for a little while. Tonight we wandered down to the waterfront and watched the Harbour Light Show and then walked along the Avenue of the Stars. After another huge day, we decided for an easy dinner! We found a little Pizza shop in an alleyway on the way back to the hotel, grabbed a Pizza and coke and took it back to the hotel to eat in our room!!

Here are some pictures from today:

Turtles in the park near our hotel