We've been in Hong Kong for a week now and have really washed India out of our hair. It is a fabulous city: incredibly high skyscrapers that defy belief rise up on tiny mountainous islands, with tree-covered peaks giving views of the cityscape. Every block is filled with restaurants and shops: the shops, oh my God it is a shopper's paradise here!! There are about 1000 malls with shops from Gucci and Prada to Hello Kitty, to Marks and Spencer's, to cheap tat market stalls: there's shops here for everyone!!
We started by doing the most decadent, silly, western thing we could think of as an antithesis to India and went to Disneyland on Valentine's day which was good fun. Since then we've walked in the hills, taken a tram up the nearest mountain, done some shopping, been to the cinema, drunk way too much coffee in Starbucks, enjoyed the Chinese New Year parade, drunk more coffee in Starbucks where we met a NASA scientist, eaten fab noodles and lots of sushi too: basically we love this place!
It is CLEAN - spotlessly clean, the metro runs like a dream, people are helpful and polite and the only people hawking are Indians interestingly enough! OK our hotel room is rather...bijou (about 6 foot square, no window), but we kinda like it and it is located bang in the middle of town and we have free wi-fi (Internet access) to boot. We're spending money hand over fist but we don't care as it feels like a wonderful holiday!!!
OK it is not really representative of China and we'll have to go there another time to witness the communist regime, but for the moment we're enjoying the city that London should be with all the best of both East and West.
We've still got a visit to Ocean Park - another theme park with roller coasters etc., a trip to the world's largest golden Buddha statue, a day of museums, plus another cinema visit (this time a cantonese action flick) to do before we leave. Frankly by the time we get to Bali on 23rd February we'll be ready for a beach holiday!
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