We arrived into Hong Kong Airport almost 30 minutes ahead of our scheduled time of 06.00 after an uneventful flight. The little man with a board bearing our name was present as we exited from immigration and he hustled us into a corner, slapped stickers on our bags and arms. We were then ushered to take a seat and wait for some more arrivals. Just enough time to visit the boys room and a trip to the currency exchange. Soon we were on the bus taking us to downtown Hong Kong, through the tunnel from Kowloon to HK Island. As we exited the tunnel there was the Excelsior Hotel where I stayed 36 years ago, still standing and overlooking the Typhoon Shelter. We had two other groups of people to drop off before we reached the Grand Harbour Hotel, our home for the next three days.
Fortunately for us, we had our room upgraded so we are up on the 39th floor in a very acceptable room. The only problem this morning is that there is a layer of low, dark mist covering Hong Kong, which we were hoping would burn off when the sun came out. - Wrong!!! The mist has lasted most of the day and according to the locals, in spring and autumn, it’s almost unheard of to get a clear day. We got showered, cleaned up and decided to take a circular bus trip on HK Island and extend it over to Kowloon on the mainland.
First of all we had to get to the Central Star Ferry Terminal in Central HK. That involved catching an underground train just down the road from the hotel to Central. Just in time to catch the next bus we were soon off looking at the sights of HK. What is amazing about HK is sheer volume of people and traffic that abounds. Having said that, the population of HK is about 6M, which is bound to create a lot of traffic and a lot of bodies in the street. HK has to be seen to be believed. Part of the bus tour includes a trip up to the Peak on the tram, but as it was still pretty misty, we decided to leave it until tomorrow or the day after.
The tour returned to the Central Ferry Terminal, so we took the top deck on the Star ferry to Kowloon, picked up the bus and toured all round Kowloon. By now it was starting to get late, so we caught the ferry back to HK Island then the underground back to the hotel. The tickets we got for the bus are valid for two day so we can do any of the trips any number of time. There is a laser show at 8pm every evening across the harbour from Kowloon and the tour also includes seeing the show, so we were hoping to get back to the ferry by 6.15pm, to catch the tour. With the time we had it was going to be impossible so we stayed in our room for a little longer and decided to do the evening tour tomorrow.
We dined in the hotel cafe this evening as they had a seafood buffet which looked pretty good. It was good as it included fresh lobster and shrimps for starters, we both had sirloin of beef as a second course. I slipped in third course of Lamb curry and a final one of Bread & Butter pudding, Mango mousse, profiteroles and pineapple. Absolutely delicious.
After dinner we left to go the room, put on our trainers and go for a quick walk. Our hotel is out of the main area of Hong Kong and therefore it was very quiet in the streets so we returned to our room to get an early night.
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