Hong Kong

We loved Hong Kong, think Jason could see himself living and working there. There's a little bit of everything...

We'd booked ourselves into a little guesthouse in the heart of Kowloon, literally in the middle of all of the hustle and bustle. We stayed within the Mirador Mansion building, but there's also Chungking Mansion which is similar. They're worth visiting anyway...a collection of counterfeit goods, Indian food stalls, dodgy guesthouses and locals flats. When we first arrived we both thought "oh no, where have we booked?!". We had to work our way to the fourth floor and asked numerous people where to go through the maze tower block...we found our room and it was actually nice and clean (if a little small). The mansion block was really busy when we left our room, people hanging out over the edge of the balconys, peering down at the police below. We wondered what was going on and then Jason pointed out a small tent and when we asked a local lady she informed us that a lady had thrown herself off the top of the tower block right in the middle of the building in everyone's view...grim! What a first welcome to Hong Kong.

Once we'd got over the shock of what was on our doorstep we went exploring around Kowloon. There are lots of shops and restaurants, very busy and VERY expensive. Hong Kong was going to stretch our purse. In some respects its like shopping at home, with good old Marks & Spencer and other familiar UK stores. We had heard that there was some of the best food to be had in Hong Kong, unfortunately not much of it was in our budget. We managed to find a little cafe that served us prawn wontons in noodle soup and chutney pork & noodles. Later in the evening we walked along the avenue of stars...a bit like the Hollywood stars,but with an amazing skyline view. It's worth going to this area for the view and we heard that at 8pm the skyscrapers put on a free light show. We missed it on Kowloon side and it wasn't very impressive from the other side of the sea, Hong Kong side. Nevermind...maybe next time.

Luckily for us I'd managed to save some points and got us two free nights accommodation at a nice hotel, the Cosmopolitan Hotel, on Causeway side of Hong Kong. It was really nice, and I was particularly desperate to get out of our other accommodation. In our room we had a free smart phone with information about tourist atractions , restaurants and transport. The phone also meant we could phone the UK for free so got to catch up with those that don't use Skype and my brother on his birthday.

Causeway and Central side of Hong Kong were fantastic, I liked it here a lot. There's an area with an escalator that goes right up through the skyscrapers and through cute little streets filled with gorgeous restaurants. I'm not sure how long we can keep using the 'its nearly our anniversary' card, but we treated ourselves to an Italian meal complete with a lovely glass of prosecco! I could have spent days window shopping and eating at different restaurants. Due to our budget we got a bottle of wine from M&S food and took it back to our hotel to enjoy...its a lot cheaper than Hong Kong restaurant prices.

Hong Kong is very busy, so it was nice to get away from it all and catch a ferry to Lamma Island for some beach time. We thought it might be busy because we chose to go on the weekend, but because Asian people generally don't like sunbathing the beach was relatively quiet. We'd both been nominated for the ice bucket challenge and it had caused us a bit of a problem. However problem solved...a hot beach and a refreshing bucket of ice water to cool us down...perfect. I think if we had moremore time we would have spent time exploring the different islands, apparently the islands have some good trekking routes on the coast.

Our last night in Hong Kong and we wanted to enjoy it...Lan Kwai Fong is the place to be. There are loads of bars and restaurants; we had a delicious Thai meal. The nightlife spills onto the streets and it can be relatively inexpensive if you want it to be (which we did). The local 7Eleven shop turns into a bar itself, where you queue to get your beers from out of the shop fridge to drink on the street outside the pricey bars. We were happy as we found a place showing Premier League football. It was a great night and Jason had a hangover to match.

Asia has been incredible, but now it's time to head to the middle east... can't wait! Asia, we'll see you in November.