Hong Kong with Anna-Maria

Day of travelling 

Spent most of the day travelling to Hong Kong from Sydney. Had quite a long flight of 9 hours so I just watched many films. When I landed it was strange to see Anna-Maria waiting for me land-side! It was so nice to see her looking well and ready for an adventure in Hong Kong. She is moving out there to teach at an international school, in fact she only just landed there only a few hours before I did...so she was not settled in yet. She helped me carry some of my many bags to hers on the MTR (tube) and then down the street and up about a thousand steps before we reached her temporary accommodation. We went out for a quick bite to eat at McDonald's and spent the whole night chatting and catching up.

Day 1
For the morning we went to a shopping centre so Anna-Maria could buy some stuff that she needed for the flat; which contained a double bed, a wardrobe, a shower room and a "kitchen"! This kitchen only had a fridge, a microwave and a kettle.

It was so hot at this time of year in Hong Kong and humid. As soon as you step outside you are wet from the humidity. Going into shops the air-conditioning was so cold that if you needed to warm up you just had to go outside...normally in the UK it's the other way around!

In the evening we went out for Dim Sum at a very local restaurant the menu we got was all in Cantonese. 

We order and hoped for the best. It was delicious but we ordered way too much. We took a quick trip over to Hong Kong Island for some drinks in central; this wasn't a late night, I just took Anna-Maria for a quick look around the night scene.

Day 2
The days were flying by and this one was the same...we started off by visiting the Chi Lin Nunnery. It was a fascinating building with magnificent gardens...you seem to be transported into another world right in the hussle and bussle of the city. 

After lunch we went to meet my friend Luke for a drink and his friend Nathan. It was great to catch up, we invited them to continue the drinks later on but Nathan was too drunk by that point to continue. It was time to head back to get ready for the night out. 

Anna-Maria and I went out for Dim Sum again but met up with some of the other new teachers that she will be working with. Afterwards we headed out on the town. 

This was a very interesting night. We started off in a few bars with good drinks and music, then we tried to look for a club but stumbled upon a bar that was playing some tunes, so in we go! In this bar we met many guys that just wanted to dance with us all night, especially a local called Walter. I also spoke to an American that looked a little lost at the bar with his backpack clipped to him with a drink in hand. The next thing I notice that he had disappeared but I was just enjoying the music. It was finishing time at the bar so we started to make our way home when we walk outside the bar and saw the American holding on to a pole swaying. Some guys walked past and started laughing - Anna-Maria wasn't having that so she told them off and we went to see if he was OK.  His backpack was laying there on the ground and he kept knocking into a moped. The worker from the bar started having a go at me saying that he was knocking his moped...I replied with 'I don't know this person, he is very drunk and we are making sure he gets home safely.' The bar tender really was not happy about his bike and made me look at it. I responded with, 'there is no damage with your bike so what is the problem?' To that he just drove off. We eventually got the American to come along with us to McDonald's...which may have even taken us an hour to get there as we kept stopping to talk to random people and dance in the street. Finally we managed to get in the taxi queue after our burgers and all jumped in one. We were hoping to get the man to say his address to the taxi man but he was insistenting we got home safely when we were the ones trying to get him home safely. Instead of arguing with him we got home, leaving him with the taxi driver...hoping he was going to have more luck getting his address out of him!  That was a great night out arriving in the bed at 6am!

Day 3
Having a short nap that morning we then got up and went to meet with Rachael for brunch. It was nice to see her again, catch up and was a chance for Anna-Maria to have another contact in Hong Kong. 

Afterwards we took the Star Ferry over to Kowloon and walked along the promenade, saw the view of Hong Kong from that side which was even more stunning then from the Island side. 

The statues from the promenade had been moved to a nearby garden as work was being done on the paths. Saw those statues and went for ice cream before earlyish to bed.

Day 4
My last day in Hong Kong...spent the morning packing! Then joined with other teachers flat hunting in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island, I quite liked going around and seeing what accommodation Hong Kong had to offer. Afterwards Anna-Maria and I went to Ikea so she could get some more bits for her flat. After grabbing a late lunch it was time to head back grab my bag then off to the airport for my flight home. I had such a great time again in Hong Kong.

The flight home was fine with a short stop over in Dubai.