The Peninsular & Hong Kong Disneyland

This weekend was one of extremes! After D had had her hair cut on Saturday morning we made our way over to Kowloon to The Peninsular Hotel for afternoon to as a celebration of D finally being given her full-time position at work. As the afternoon tea didn't open until 1400, we decided to head to Ocean Terminal beforehand to have a quick look around. This turned out to be easier said than done, as Ocean Terminal is the biggest shopping centre in Hong Kong and having a 'quick' look around this centre was beyond the realms of possibility. Instead we just set our sights on American Eagle to have a quick perusal and decided that we might come back to Ocean Terminal if we have time before we leave HK. This quick visit to the shopping centre turned out to be a mistake on our part, as when we arrived at The Peninsular there was already a sizeable queue building up around the lobby of the hotel and since the afternoon tea session still didn't open for 30 ,images, we realiesed we might be in for a bit of a wait. Well a 'bit of a wait' ended up being 1 hour 45 minutes and by the time we reached the front of the queue we were verging on ravenous. We were finally shown to our seats and pleased to see that they had put us a long way from the queueing people, so that we didn't sit there for the duration of our afternoon having hundreds of people willing us to hurry up! We decided on the champagne afternoon tea so we could celebrate D's achievement in getting her job and soon enough we we sipping the hotels own champagne (which was particulate good!). Then our afternoon tea tray arrived with a delicious looking array of sweet and savoury treats for us to dig into. The food selection was absolutely delicious and we were soon making our way through all the treats, including a couple of scones each, with clotted cream (oh how I miss clotted cream) and strawberry jam. The atmosphere and food were both absolutely brilliant and we were soon realising that we may have to leave the comfort and coolness of the hotel. It was an afternoon well spent and one of the best things we have done since we have been in Hong Kong. We have decided now that as a measure of all the places in the world we will visit in the future, we will try an afternoon tea in each location. Hong Kong will be hard to beat but I am sure that we will gve it our best as we continue our travels.

Well, Sunday was very a very different day, but equally good fun, but for a few different reasons. We made our way on Sunday morning to Hong Kong Disneyland, which is on Lantau Island, around 50minutes from Causeway Bay on the MTR. As usually Disney in never understated and it started earlier than we thought as we were picked up by the 'Disney Train' to take us the last stage of our journey to the entrance to the park. Once we had paid the exorbitant price for our entry tickets, we made our way to Tomorrowland to join the queue for Space Mountain as we guessed this would be one of the busier rides of the day. Having done my best to persuade D that Disneyland wouldn't be as bad as she thought, I was pleased that SM was more of a thrilling ride than I remembered and I was pleased to come out to find out that she enjoyed the ride on SM. Staying in Tomorrowland we made out way to a slightly less intense rid in Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, which is arcade/ride all in one. After this we headed to Autopia, which is a slow paced driving experience, which I expect when it was devised was what people thought driving would be like in the 21st century.

This was good fun, although the day was starting to warm up and after a 5 minute ride in the sun we wanted to find some shade to cool down. It was time for the first parade of the day so we found a spot in the shade to wait for the character parade to come past us. Having been to Florida, the parade that we saw in HK Disneyland was a lot shorter but it was still good to see most of the character from the Disney films, and made me feel young again seeing it all so long after I last saw them.

 After this we headed for some lunch and having done some prior research we made our way to the Grand Banquet which was one of the main food seas in the park. We were then pleased to see that there was a very un-American choice of food, with burger and fries being replaced with dim sum, noodles and our choice and curry (red than vegetable curry to be precise). This came with steamed rice, naan bread and vegetable soup and was a real nice surprise that it tasted so good. At only 65 HKD each (about £6) it was also quite reasonable priced (I suppose we finally deserved some value for money having had to pay £40 each to get in to the park). After lunch we decided that a slower paced ride would be best so we made our way to It's A Small World for a bit of vomit-inducing happiness. This was as colourful as ever, if a little bit dated in the 21st century and was just what we needed after our lunch.

On our way to the newly finished Toy Story Land we managed to get our photos taken with the Mr & Mrs Mouse as well as Goofy, as I wanted my photo taken with one of the characters that didn't make me feel like a giant.

We then headed to TSL and after having some more photos taken with Woody and Jessie went on the new RC Racer ride. This was a great idea and one of the more thrilling rides on offer at HKD. You are rocked back and forward on mechano track in a giant version of the RC character from the Toy Story movies.

We then headed to Grizzly Gulch which was an area of the park which had only opened on Saturday and so was therefore decidedly busy. We decided to ride on the new Runaway Mine Carts ride which turned out to be the best surprise of the day. What started as a rather tame, predictable ride, soon changed and we were being flung back the way we had come and exploded at quite a speed out of an exploding mine shaft. Having had enough sun and plenty of fun we decided to head back home to Causeway Bay and relax a bit before D has to g back to work this week and I have my BTEC schemes of work to write. Whoopdeeeedoooo!!!!!

Long Weekend in Beijing

Last weekend, we decided to make the most oh\f the Bank Holiday in HK to get away for a long weekend in Beijing. D took the Friday off work, which gave us four days to explore the city and the area around it. We flew Hong Kog Airlines early on Friday morning which meant that we were able o check into our hotel (Capital Hotel, Beijing) before 1300 and had the afternoon to see a couple of the sites near our hotel..... Well that was the plan anyway......

Having checked in and dropped off our bags in our room we set our sights for the Panjiayuan Antiques Market in the South-West of Beijing. Having examined numerous maps we were sure that it didn't look too far and we started on our journey. Around 3 hours later we arrived at market, just as the majority of stall-holders were making their way home for the day. This left us with an empty market area to walk round, with the only items left to look at being the huge stone statues that they sell at the market that they clearly expect people not to even try to steal. These were not just your usual garden ornaments, instead they were selling, 16 foot replicas of the Great Wall or a pair of mythical creatures who looked very menacing and stood about as tall as I was. Having decided that these statues wouldn't be withi our 23kg luggage allowance we deicded to head to the Temple of Heaven, which is also in this area of Beijing. However, rather than risking walking their we jumped in a cab instead.

After having heard a number of horror stories about Beijing cab drivers I was pleased to say that we had no problems on this occasion. I decided to follow where he was taking us on the map I had, and I am pleased to say that the driver took us the most direct route possible to our destination and was able to take us right to the main entrance to the Temple Park. This 15 minute cab journey cost us the grand total of 95p, so it was fair to say that we would be using a great deal more of the cabs whilst we were in Beijing.

Having taken us so long to reach the market, we arrived at the temple to find that the main attraction was also closed for the night and that we would only be allowed to walk around the park area. This however, turned out to be one of the quietest areas in Beijijng and Daisy and I took this oppurtunity to sit and relax in the park for a while before heading off to find some food. The park was beautifully maintained, and in the cooler evening air it was very pleasant just to stroll the paths around the Temple of Heaven.

After sitting in the park for a while we headed back towards our hotel via Qianmen Street, which is a pedestrianised (apart from the tourist tram) street which has been regenerated in the style of old Beijing. The street is full of modern shops as well as some of your typical souvenir shops which litter cities like Beijing. Having decided that we should try some authentic Peking (Beijing) Duck we headed for the Qianmen Roast Duck Restaurant. After our afternoon ramblings we were both famished and thought that we would get the chance to try some duck amongst a few othe speciality dishes of Beijing. However, in thinking this we were much mistaken and after having waited 15 minutes for a seat we were rushed in and given aroud 30 seconds to decide what we wanted to eat. This however, was plenty of time as it appeared that this restaurant ONLY did peking duck and there was no other dishes available on the menu. Snce we were already sat down we decided to go with the flow and plumped unsuprisingly for the duck. This came with an 'authentic' duck soup with looked a bit like a cupfull of melted butter, and tasted, I imagine much the same. Well it was not the worst peking duck I have ever tasted, but unfortnately also nowhere near the best. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, which was only about 15 minutes walk we were pleased to find out.

On Saturday, through our hotel reception we had booked a private tour to see the Ming Tombs and Great Wall. Our tour guide and taxi driver picked us up at 0900 and we headed out of the city into the surrounding countryside of North-West Beijing province. It was in this jounrey out of the city that we first got a real feel of the sheer size of the city and the number of people/cars/roads/building it contains.

After about an hour we reached the Ming Tombs at Ding Ling, which is home to the only orginal Temple that peole are still able to enter. The tomb that we visited was that of Zhu Xianjun, and was the 10th of 13 tombs to be build in this area of the Yanshan Mountain region.

The main framework of the building was constructed of single cedar trees fom Southern China and the entire building still stands without the support of a single nail or supporting bracket. The inside of the temple has now been turned into an exhibition, showing a tiny proportion of all of th gold that they excavted from the tomb itself when it was first discovered. Within the collection are some exqusitie examples of chinese arts and crafts, including a gold head dress worn by the Emperor made of gold so thin that it looks moe like lace than strands of gold. Here you are also able to walk around the base of the vast hill which was place over the tomb in order to incraese its Feng Shui. The location was first chosen because of its good Feng Shui, the mountains behind it to the North and supposed to protect it from the evil spirits carried on the North Wind, whilst the river to the South is also desgined to protect it from unwanted spiritual visitors.

After our visit to the tombs it was time for the usual trip to a Jade Museum/Factory Outlet, I understand that this is so that the tourists can see how one of China's biggest industries work, but also get annoyed at how you are harrased and harranged into making purchases, just so that the tour guide can make a bit more comission from the sellers. However, this was also the location of our lunch stop so D and I politely refused any attemps to extract money from our wallets and instead just used the stop as a chnace to cool down and have a bite to eat, whic was actaully quite tasty.

We then made our way though yet more of the stunning country to the north of Beijing with our final destination of the day being the Mutianyu Great Wall. This is the 2nd or 3rd area of the Great Wall of China to be redeveloped and was set amongst some of the most amazing scenery that both of us had ever seen. After a short (rather dodgy) looking chair lift ride, we were stood on the Great Wall itself. I don't quite think either of us had prepared ourselves for what we were goung to see and we were both struck by the sheer enorimty and scale of the Wall. It was a crystal clear and extremely hot day and on either side of us you could see the wall snaking its way along the ridges of the mountians, which a small watch tower every 200 metres or so along its length. After taking lots of photos and just trying to take in as much of the scenery as possible, it was time to head back down to the waiting car.

This gave us 2 option 1) take the rather dilapidated chair lift back down or 2) take the much more fun, but potentially life-threatening tobogaan ride. After deciding that if we were going to die, we would want to die whilst having some fun we chose to take the toboggan. This was a great idea, and we both had a good ride down. Although this would have been more fun if the person in front of D and I had decided to try and go more than 10mph all the way down. However, with some tactical hanging back both of us were able to get up some good speed on some of the steeper sections of the descent.

On our second full day in Beijing, we decided to visit The Forbidden City anf Tian-an Men Square, both of which were located quite close to where we were staying. Perhaps Sunday was not the best day to do this as when we reached Tian'an Men Square we realized quite how popular these two destinantions were with Chinese tourists. Unperturbed, we headed into The Forbidden City and had a long wonder amongst the temples, gardens and courtyards that it contains. I must be honest that it wasn't quite as amazing as what I had imagined, but it was still great to see for myself the splendour in which the previous Chinese used to live.

On our way to visit the National Museum of the Chinese People's Republic, we were to see another side of China which is not often seen. Whilst walking along (rather ironically) Tian'an Men Square we found ourselves in the middle of a fountain of leaflets, as from all around us a group of older people started to throw leaflets in the air. As you can imagine this sent the nearby police and 'secuirty' officials into over-drive and as soon as it had happened there were uniformed officials appearing from all directions around us. I didnt manage to get much on camera but I did manage so serrupticiously get a few candid photos of the immediate aftermath. We do not know what this small demonstration was about, but we were both left with the idea that it is probably not that uncommon in a country that it so tightly restricted when it comes to freedom of politcal expression. It seemed all the more ironic to us as politcial freedom and it's suppression was the main reason that had brought us to Tian'an Men Square in the first place.

After this we headed for the Chinese National Museum , which paints a very 'interesting' picture of the country's history and pays quite a lot of attention unsuprsingly to Chairman Mao and the growth of modern Chinese political philosophy.

On our last morning in Beijing we headed back to the Temple of Heaven to have a look around the temple itself. It was one of the hottest days we have had since we had been in Asia and the temple looked stunning in the sun, with its coloured tiled roof and multicoloured laquered paintwork exterior. We also took the oppurtunity to have another walk around the gardens, but unfortunately they weren't half as relaxing as they had been on Friday as now they were filled with an assortment of groups practcing everything from ballroom dance to Tai Chi.

On our way back to the airport we paid a visit to the Olympic Park from the 2008 olympics and most impressively the Bird's Nest Stadium which stands as a hallmark to the work and money that was put into staging the games in China. It is simply a stunning stadium, with its huge metallic bird's nest structure freestanding around the bowl of the staium. We were also able to see the Water Cube, home to the swimming events as well as see the Olympic Wall, onto which they have engraved the names of EVERY gold, silver and bronze medal winer from the Olympics and Paralympic games. All I can say is that the London Olympic park is going to have a lot to live up to after seeing the development that has, and STILL IS taking place in Beijing because ofthe Olympics.

I will leave it at that for now. Hope you are all well and that you are enjoying the lovely British 'Summer' along with Wimbledon and all of the preparation for London 2012.

Catch up again soon!

J

Ocean Park

After our trip to Shenzhen, we decided this weekend not to venture too far out of the city for something to do. However, with yet more good weather forecast, we didn't want to do anything that would keep us indoors for too long. After much discussion we decided to visit one of Hong Kong's two theme parks. The fact that Ocean Park is a lot closer than Disneyland was a big factor in the decision and we decided that Disneyland was best saved for a day later in out trip.

Front Entrance of 'Ocean Park'

Ocean Park, is part-them park/part zoo located in Aberdeen, just over the other side of Victoria Peak and reached easily from Causeway Bay (we took one of the about 12 different buses that could get us there). Once we'd brought our ticket from the 7Eleven store right next to our flat we jumped on the bus, and headed straight into the park on our arrival.

Having studied the map closely, we decided that we would start off by heading for the theme park rides at the top of the park. This separate part of the park is located at the top of the cliff overlooking the South-China Sea and is reached via a huge cable-car system which ferries visitors from the lower zoo part of the park to the theme park area on the top of the hill.Once we got off the cable car we realised what a good idea it had been to head up here straight away. The place was dead and we quickly strolled straight onto the first roller-coaster of the day. This was the newest addition to the parks armoury of rides, and 'HAIR RAISER' was definitely one of the most intense roller coaster experiences I have ever had, I would say even the G's felt during the ride compare with Stealth at Thorpe Park. The ride takes you on a breakneck journey right over the cliff-face and delivers all the thrills and spills you'd expect from a modern coaster with the added thrill of being able to see for miles around as your pelted at 60mph around the track. Having been a little dubious at first about the safety of our ride (after our death-defying cable car trip earlier in our stay in HK), D was soon asking when we would have another ride on Hair Raiser. Even though we could have walked straight on again, we decided best to head to some of the other big coasters that the park had to offer.

Hair Raiser

The first being 'The Dragon', which was a little more aged that Hair Raiser and although it again was a good enjoyable ride, with age, came a certain 'ricketyness' that you  get with old rides, and we soon dismounted, both feeling like we had been in a minor car crash. But as they say, 'no pain, no gain'. We swiftly moved on to Runaway Train, with who's rusting tracks we could not tell if they were painted to look in an awful condition or if they were ACTUALLY in a state of disrepair. This ride was absolutely atrocious and apart from thinking that it would be the last thing I ever did in my life also left us both battered and bruised.

View from Ocean Tower (Revolving Viewing Platform Type Thing)

We then headed to the show-piece of Ocean Park, which is the dolphin and sea-lion show in the massive Ocean Theatre. We were treated to clapping Sea-Lions, one of which seemed to love the attention, leaving the other looking like he would rather be anywhere else that debasing himself in front of 4000 cheering, camera wielding Chinamen and women. The stars of the show were the four trained dolphins, who unlike the sea-lion seemed to love the attention and were soon flipping, splashing and zooming all around the huge outdoor pool area.

Dolphins at Ocean Theatre Show

Dolphins at Ocean Theatre Show

A Couple of very talented sea-lions

After another ride on Hair Raiser (which we still only had to wait 15 minutes for AT THE BUSIEST TIME OF THE DAY, THORPE PARK TAKE NOT!!!!) and a light soaking on the white water rapids giant-donut ride, we headed back down on the cable car to the zoo area of the park. Once we grabbed yet more noodles for our lunch we headed to the Asia animals enclosure for what was the best part or the day and one of the most incredible things I have/will ever see.

In the huge indoor pavilion are two of the cutest Pandas you will ever see, who look extremely happy and well looked after and just sat there eating bamboo whilst we were with them. These amazing creatures have been bred in the park and looked like giant teddy bears in their individual areas of the pavilion. Also in the enclosure were two Red Pandas which resemble a mixture between a panda and a fox. I know that the pandas were not in their natural habitat but that certainly did not take away from the majesty of the creatures and the sight of them for the first time will certainly be something that we will both never forget. I just pray that during my lifetime people do all that they can to save this hugely endangered species and also that I may also have the privilege to see one in its natural habitat.

Ying Ying the Panda (so cute they named him twice.....)

Lee Lee the panda

Red Pandas

After this treat we had a look around the huge, modern indoor aquarium which is home to a collection of the most amazing underwater creatures that I have ever seen, from some of the most eye-catching -glowing fish' to some of the most deadly Stone Fish and Sting Rays (killers of the legend that was Steve 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin).

Cool Illuminous Fish

Deadly Lion Fish

Hammer-Head Shark and assortment of other fish in main (HUGE) tank

Outside of Aquariam

Scary-Looking Giant See Spiders (Look like something from Harry Potter)

That's enough from me for today I think. Tune in again soon for another edition to The Rayner Travel Chronicle.

We love you all!!!!

J x

Shenzhen, China (Twinned with Rotheram)

Last weekend, on recommendation by a few guys in D's office, we decided to head into China for the first time since our arrival. Our destination was Shenzhen, which is a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) which sits on the Northern border of Hong Kong mainland and China.

First a bit of background on Shenzhen. About 30 years ago was a small village with a population of around 6,000 people, however, in 1979 the Chinese government, in their plan of self-titled 'openness and opportunity' decided to create a number of SEZs around the country, with Shenzhen strategically chosen for it's locality near a sea-port as well as conveniently located for its proximity to British-run Hong Kong.

Shenzhen Urban Metropolis

Well from a population of just over 6,000, Shenzhen, in 30 years has now grown to an urban metropolis of over 10,000,000 people, with money coming in from all parts of the world, largely through factories and raw material production, but more recently through technology and financial institutions as well.

Once, we had made our way from to the border with China on the HK MTR, we just had to buy a visa from the Chinese, which thanks to its special denomination as a SEZ we were able to get without all of the normal hassle involved in getting a Chinese visa. From the Chinese side we headed straight to the Shangri-La hotel (just next to the station) to grab some lunch in what had been recommended as one of the best Dim-Sum restaurants in Shenzhen. Add to this the fact that they had an all-you-can-eat lunch offer on and it didn't take us long to decide this was the place to eat.Well, we made sure we tried as much as possible off of the menu and we found most things absolutely delicious, with a couple of exceptions I might add, which I will definitely be giving a wide berth next time we decide to have dim-sum.

Dim-Sum Lunch at Shangri-La Hotel

After our huge lunch, we decided to drop our bags off at the hotel before hitting the shops. And after a short ride on one of the most confusing underground systems I have ever seen, we arrived at our hotel, the 33 story Huaqiuan Plaza Hotel. This hotel was again recommended to us and on our arrival we realised straight away that the guys in D's office had pulled another rabbit out of the bag. With the lobby of the hotel located on the 23rd floor, it was a stomach-churning lift ride up to check-in. I am normally fine with lifts, but the designers of this building had decided to put their lift system on the outside of the building, so it was with my fists clenched tightly around anything I could find in the lift that we ascended to the reception.

Our HUGE, extremely vertiginous hotel room

Once checked in we headed to our room on the 25th floor, and the scene that struck us as we entered our room was utterly breath-taking. The outside wall of our room was a floor-t-ceiling glass window which gave us a absolutely stunning panorama of Shenzhen city centre and the urbanised areas all around it. Also, our hotel room was about 8-10 times bigger than our flat in HK, so both of us couldn't hold back the urge to just run around the room enjoying the space. The room was also very nicely decorated and had everything we would need for our stay. But we didn't wait around in the room for too long as their were other things we had come to do and see.

Street-view from our room

As you can probably guess from what I have already said, our trip to Shenzhen was not to see wonderful cultural sights or explore its meandering city streets. No. Our trip to Shenzhen was based around our wish to explore the HUGE bootlegging and knock-off malls which are located all around the city.These vast indoor shopping centres are home to the biggest collection of small vendors and market stools that I have ever seen and they were selling every piece of fake merchandise from handbags to watches to DVDs to headphones.

We were able to pick up a few absolute bargains here and there and the English spoken by the people running the shops was good enough to also allow a lot of good humoured bartering to take place, which I thoroughly enjoyed, mainly because in the end it saved us quite a bit of money.

Well, after heading back to the room for a good nights sleep, we finished off our stay in Shenzhen with one of the best hotel breakfasts I have ever seen. With everything you could ever want, including a delicious selection of small cakes which wouldn't have been out of place on a top London Afternoon Tea menu.

Well, we are off to Ocean Park next weekend, so I am sure I will have plenty more to say then.

Tarah for now!

J x

Art, Antiques, A Night-Out & an Enormous Escalator

Over the last couple of weekends, having not had any trips organised, we have been able to stay on Hong Kong Kong explore more of what this amazing city has to offer.

On Sunday a couple of weeks ago, we had tickets to the Hong Kong Art Fair 2012 which is the city's biggest art fair and brings together pieces from different art galleries all around the world. This trip was definitely an example of quantity over quality, and despite there being a few interesting pieces of art, the majority was a bit too niche for my taste. I have tried to take a few pictures of the most interesting pieces, but to be honest, my photos make most of the pieces look more artistic than they were in the flesh.

HK Art 2012 Fair Entrance Hall at The Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Centre (HKECC)

Is this really art?

Jurassic Park meets Full Metal Jacket

More people tripped over this piece than actually looked at it with any interest.

Not sure if this is a piece of art, or just some interesting dividers

Interesting piece, but not hard to put together really???

One way to use your old Super-Soakers!

The weekend after our trip to the art gallery, we decided again to stay on Hong Kong Island and this time, explore the area around the Mid-Levels and Soho.

On Friday night we were invited to the birthday celebrations of one of D's colleagues, and on leaving the flat at 22:00 headed to Fly Bar in Lan Kwai Fun or LFK as it is known to the Chuppies (Chinese Yuppies). LKF is the equivalent of the West End, but is probably one of the few places in the world that makes a night out in London look good value. 

Fly Bar (Lan Kwai Fung)

It was definitely not this quiet when we left.

However, Fly was a great place to start the evening and we were soon into the swing of things getting our groove on, on the quickly filling dance floor. All, was good until I spotted a few of the kids that I had spent the previous day teaching. As well as making me rather uncomfortable, it also made me feel VERY VERY old. However, we were enjoying ourself too much to let this ruin are night, and we swiftly headed to grab something to eat before making our way to Dragon-I nightclub. A good time was had by all and we were soon once again getting our groove on in somewhat more rowdy conditions than Fly.

The following day, having had a bit of a lie-in we headed back to the Soho and Central area to have a look around the winding streets of the mid-levels. The main tourist spot in this part of town is the Mid-Levels escalator which winds it way up the hill from the hustle and bustle of the business district into the more secluded and relaxed Mid-Levels. We decided to ride the escalator to the top and then make our way down via the winding streets ad alleys that style this part of HK.

The Central to Mid-Levels Escalator

What we discovered was one of the most beautiful and interesting areas of Hong Kong, filled with antique filled market streets and hidden temples that defy the growing metropolis all around. An example of this, was the Man Mo Temple, which is a small, incense filled monastery dedicated to two very different Chinese gods, Man Cheong the God of Literature and  Kwan Yu, the god of war or martial valour. It was a beautiful and serene place, and for a while we felt like we had left the city only to be brought back to earth upon looking through the open roof of the temple, through which you could see the vast sky-scraper tower blocks which make up the residential estates of the Mid-Levels.

Inside the incense filled Man Mo Temple

More incense....

Our restaurant of choice for a VERY tasty lunch!

A 20-day incense burner, this has got about 2 days left

After our visit to the temple, we spent the rest of our afternoon wondering and perusing the antique stalls around Ladder Street and Cat Street. I use antiques loosely, however, as a number OF stalls were also selling broken Casio watches and pre-Nokia 5110 mobile phones (Proper Gordon Gekko-style bricks). Having earmarked a few items for purchase before we head back to the UK, we headed back to Causeway Bay for a good nights sleep and another couple of episodes of The West Wing.

We also discovered Elgin Street in the mid-levels,a tiny street packed with a great selection of restaurants. We decided to give the lunch menu in Bouchon a try and we were not disappointed, with both of us having a starter, drinks and a prime piece of fillet steak each, for under 25GBP.

That's all for now folks!  Catch up again soon. J