Hong Kong

So I left Australia and set out on the 2nd half of my trip - on my own through Asia. First stop Hong Kong, where I was met at the airport by Susan, a work colleague who moved from London to Hong Kong over 2 years ago. She took me back to her great apartment with a water view, set me up a sofa bed, and gave me her laptop with wireless internet - a definite luxury! So I wasn't quite roughing it yet.



I had changed my flight to arrive in Hong Kong a day early, because I needed to get a visa for Vietnam. I was at the consulate at 9:01 to arrange the visa and spent the rest of the day exploring the city. I had visited Hong Kong for a few days last summer with Rick, Maureen, Tim & Brendan, but it was fun to be back. And it was definitely a different feel than Australia!



After walking around a while I spotted the trams going down some of the streets, and decided just to jump on the next one that came by. It was fun exploring without really having a destination.

I visited a temple, a few markets, took the miles of escalators up (and then tried counting on my way down, but tired after I got to 500), passed a movie set, and then had some lunch in the park.

Friday night, Susan & I went out in the city, it was fun being out somewhere that felt familiar- it felt it could have been after work in London or NY just as easily as Hong Kong.

Saturday we had lunch on the waterfront near her new apartment and then took a cable car up to the Big Buddha.

That's me before climbing all the steps up to visit the Buddha.

Afterwards we took a taxi to the beach and had dinner at a South African restaurant on the beach. Susan is South African, and I had never tried any South African food, so it seemed like a good idea, though strange to be in Hong Kong on the beach at a South African restaurant!

And Sunday morning I was off at 6:30am to the airport to fly to Vietnam!