Ok its Friday 29th October and we are off to The Peak. This for the uninitiated is a place high in the hills above Hong Kong which is accessed via Asia's first ever cable funicular tram. Its been there for well over 100 years.
We didn't bother with the usual breakfast buffet in the Hotel, the kids didn't eat enough to warrant spending nearly 45 quid a head for the luxury. So to seriously punish them and Our Wend for all the scram they have left at previous buffets during the trip, lunch would be the first meal of the day!!
The best way to The Peak we were told was via The Star Ferry, which was a taxi ride away, no problem., taxis are in an abundance and very cheap, never more than about 2/3 quid wherever you go. We did find out later in the trip, when we were having a beer at the roof top swimming pool area, that we could of got a ferry from almost outside the Hotel, to exactly the same point on HK island that The Star Ferry terminates at. This was by watching loads of ferries snaking across up and down, from our roof top vantage. Anyway, no harm done, we duly arrive at the ferry terminal. Kids and Our Wend whingeing like, well you know what, that they were hungry and thirsty. 'It will be lunchtime before you know it I said', 'Its only 8.15 now' came the reply from Little Niamh. I'll kill that Mrs Timmins for teaching her how to tell the time!! After considerably more whingeing, I caved in and bought them a bag of crisps each, Our Wend wasn't that keen, but when she saw that they had octopus feces & blue ink flavour, that swung it for her.(bet you could win a prize with Walkers at home for that one. Might email Gary Lineker meself). Me, as I had been good and eating all my buffet food, I treated myself to a very sugary Latte and a muffin'. You should of seen the looks I got!!!!
Right, a hearty breakfast inside them/me and we got our tokens, 8HK$, for us all, and boarded, what can only be described as a death trap. It had to be the most unseaworthy vessel I have ever been on in my life and I've been on a few. Gotta say, really stroke of luck that the kids and Our Wend had such a light breakfast!!!
The views during the 10 minute crossing were worth the worry, there was so many different vessels, criss crossing in front and behind us, they obviously must know what they are doing.
We alighted, (eh, bin around boats in me time you know) and set off to find the next mode of transport. I did get a bit down wind of Our Wend on the way to the bus stop when she burped and I got a right whiff of them crisps, God she puts away some s**t in the name of healthy eating.
The courtesy bus was gonna be a while, so we headed for the taxi rank, no problem, one was waiting for us, priced him up at 10 dollars, lets get going my little China friend.
Only about a 10 minute cab ride and we were there. I'm pretty sure he could smell them bloody crisps as well, 'cus he kept shifting forward in his seat and glancing around at Our Wend in the back of the cab. As long as he didn't think it was me, I wasn't bothered. It was a bit rich though when you think of the crap he must have shoved down his bone shooter and digested in his lifetime.
I think the cost for The Peak was about 100 HK$, which included access to the restaurant at the highest point. Nothing to exciting or to report about the ascent, other than the normal interest in Niamh, its all very much like boarding transportation that takes you up the mountain when your ski-ing.
At the top there is a series of escalators, probably about 8 in total which take you up again to the most incredible viewing platform. Its ultra modern, again (bit boring for you) but the engineering to build something this vast in this location is quite staggering.
You do though have to run the gauntlet a bit, shopkeepers trying to flog all sorts of electronic gadgets, from remote control helicopters, to cars that can go up walls and along ceilings, flippin' nightmare.
Anyway, now we are out on the viewing platform, gave me the s***s if I'm honest, never really had any problem with heights until recently, but now, I get this urge to jump off, weird eh? Yeah, yeah, know what your thinking!!
Marvellous views right across HK island and beyond, literally dozens of the eagles flying above and below us, everybody swapping cameras and taking pictures for each other, more bloody pictures with Niamh. A couple from Queensland ask us to take their photo, we obliged, they then did the same for us. Turned out that they had been to the UK for a month, for the first time, touring around, thought it was great. Were very impressed at how clean London was.
Its 2pm and time for lunch. So I carry all my lot into Bubba Gump Shrimp Co restaurant, as they have no energy left to get there under their own steam. Bet they will eat everything now. This place is a themed eatery based on The Forrest Gump movie, lots of memorabilia decorate the walls, nothing particularly special other than the food which was far far better than we were all expecting. I would recommend it. And yep, all my troop woofed it down in total silence.
Pretty uneventful trip back to the billet, for a freshen up, kids went in the pool, me and Our Wend had a couple of 'over the yard arm' scoops. Change of clobber then off to see the night life.
We headed for some night time shopping or other. When we got there it was your real market, for hundreds and hundreds of yards, full of the most absolute and utter crap. I was getting bothered by chinkies harrassing me, Peter & Niamh nagging me to death for all sorts of rubbish, Our Wend wandering through stalls full of bags, clothes, belts, T shirts, purses, you name it. I DDS (Don't Do Shopping), here I was in a shoppers paradise and a DDS, HELL. I flipped, so much so I think I nearly hyperventilated, a guy approached me to ask me to come to his diner, he wouldn't take no for an answer, I flipped again. I think Our Wend got a bit worried at that point. So we decided to call that particular sight see, a night.
Now don't get me wrong, I have had the good fortune to visit some very interesting markets, particularly in Bangkok, we all went to this one on that basis. But what was on sale here you could get at any market in the UK.
The only interesting items were various live animals, not sure what most of them were, in various modes of capture, awaiting the general publics stomachs. Ones I did recognise were, various types of fish, crayfish, chickens and TOADS!! Yes, loads of 'em, held together by elastic bands and alive, squirming around in the bottom of a bucket.
Feeding time again, decided on Angus Steak House, great food, v v busy, chinkies drinking in this place, very unusual.
Saturday 30th October
Kids have finally had it with the sight seeing, they want fun fun fun.
Dad wants to go to see the final Bedisloe Cup game (there were four in total, the All Blacks have won the previous three) which is between The Wallabies and The All Blacks ( for all you ladies out there that's a rugby match between the Australians and The New Zealanders) at The Hong Kong stadium. So, there's a place called Ocean Park, which is a fun park for all age groups of children which is also marine themed for our underwater fishy friends. Which, just happens to be a stones throw (in HK terms) from the said stadium. So lets go.
Courtesy bus, Star Ferry, taxi and we are there. Talked Our Wend out of the crisps this morning, but did go through the 'we ain't having a buffet this morning either' I 've never had this much power in my household!!!!!!
Its great news when we get there as its really not very busy, so there are no queues for anything. First up, acrobats, very good they are too. The main park and rides, were a vertical tram ride away, at the top of a very large hill/mountain. Very pleasant ride in a funicular tram that they were trying to make you believe you were travelling underwater in a submarine, even had a bride and groom in our carriage and two stills photographers and one video camera man. We exit this, ride I suppose, then they spot it, a sign which said, The Dragon (roller coaster). That's it, there off, but so is Mom and Dad. So we all line up, no problem, but there is a bit of a wait!! S**t, I wanted to get straight on. Now I'm regretting getting in the line, Our Wend is too and there is no way back as there are chrome tubular rails both sides of me, keeping us all in line and I can just about fit between them. There is a smell, it can't be the crisps this time. Eh up, its our go, Peter & Niamh are beside themselves with excitement, I'm just glad we missed breakfast!! Well, I've been on one or two roller coasters over the years and I mean one or two. Never been fan of up & down or round & round, but this. I was suddenly very aware, not only were we going to be climbing up in the air, very steeply, veering left to right, arse over tit and plummeting down, we were also perched and I mean perched on top of and on the edge of, a bloody mountain. It was really frightening, so much so, I put my head down and closed my eyes, otherwise I would definitely have thrown up. All I could here for the entire ride was Peter saying, 'Dad look, Dad look, Dad look', Our Wend screaming like a banshee, and Niamh laughing her head off. The best way to describe where this ride was built is, if you have not been ski-ing you might not relate to this but, it would be like building the biggest roller coaster you have ever seen, where they have built the Top Mountain Star restaurant in Hochgurgl. Go online and check it out, I kid you not.
Anyway, we got off ok and left the kids to another, God knows how many goes, whilst we set off for brekkie. Spicy noodle soup, with meat and chicken dumplings for me, when in Rome I say, only took about 10 minutes for that to take effect!!! Don't know what Our Wend had, it hadn't arrived when I did me Hussain Bolt impression and it was gone by the time I got back!
Kids had reappeared about 45 mins later, wanting to try the other rides now, Abyss Turbo Drop (plummets downwards from a great height), The Eagle (high level fast spinner), but not before I had looked around the aquarium (God bless spell check). Very impressive.
So off we trot to the Raging River (log flume), yep and we had a go as well, much more to my liking, Our Wend got slightly wet, well, soaked actually, Peter convinced her the dryest place was at the back, fell for it HL&S. Her hair, got the worst of it, which 20 minutes later when it was dry, looked like an explosion in a mattress factory. She kept asking what we were laughing at, we hadn't the heart to tell her.
Kids than did The Eagle (low level spinner) and then spotted The Mine Train (another roller coaster). Well, I thought The Dragon was precariously balanced. No way was I going on that. Kids, at least 20 times. We have got some photo's, when I figure out how to attach them we will send across, as we tried to get a pikkie, but it doesn't do it justice. You could have a look on the website http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/
Well it was time to get moving for the stadium, kick off was 5pm. Had a bit of a wait for a cab, but it paled into insignificance, when we had to tackle the traffic. It was so bad that we had to give up and just went back to the hotel, bugger. If your interested The Wallabies won 26-24.
Yeah, you've guessed it, back to the billet, kids have a swim we have a drink. Kids don't wanna swim really, but we force them!!!!!
After much debate we decide to Salman Rushdie (stay in) tonight and enjoy the wonderful buffet. I had developed a taste for the noodles in some sort of soup with dumplings and spices, bloody marvellous. We had been seated next to a young Chinese couple, probably no more than 20/21.He and the girlfriend arrived back from the buffet and proceeded to take the customary pikkies of the food. We couldn't resist asking, and if my memory serves me right it was actually this guy who told us about putting photographed meals on Facebook As you can imagine, little point in eaves dropping, but they did, at one point disappear to the 'meet and greet' lady at the front desk to have some photties taken. When they came back she had a bouquet (love ya spell check), well, it was but the flowers were all fakey, plasticy things with flashing lights!! You know them things the kids pester you to buy at fun fairs that have multicolour flashing lights, it was a flashy (excuse the pun) one of them.
Our Wend couldn't resist it, 'congratulations, whats the occassion?'
It was the guy that replied 'vkjgk hlfkvh, hgb,jdh hcd,h.dbdb cbjb sjvsb jvjhvsb, bsv hb hbvvb erhhg wjvgkgfhbvhbh bvhbvvjhg cwh jghjbv jcvjrgrhgjgrjg.'
If anyone out there can translate, we'd love to know what they said!!!!!!!!!!
The Skerritts
Next time, last day in HK and arrival in Perth.
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