Sleepless in Hong Kong

We have arrived in Hong Kong following a sleepless adventure on the sleeper bus to Shenzhen. The bus was late arriving at Yangshou, so we didn’t get on until 11.30pm instead of 10.30pm. The bus has three aisle’s of 2 tiered bunk beds. These bunk beds are about 5 ft in length and very narrow!!! I had to sleep near a man with very smelly feet ( and that is saying something, because at the moment my trainers could walk home by themselves!!! ) and a lot of snoring people. Ellie and Will managed to sleep fairly well, Matt and I dozed on and off arriving in Shenzhen tired and grumpy. ( my daughter will say, what’s new!!! ) The bus arrived at about 9.30 am, then followed several queues for the border.

Eventually we arrived at the MTR ( like the London underground ) having bought Octopus cards for the travel. Now the stress began. We went to the bank to withdraw some Hong Kong dollars ( having changed our last yuan in order to buy the travel cards ) unfortunately our bank doesn’t recognise Hong Kong as part of China, so we are unable to access our money! Fortunately buried deep in the depth of our luggage was some sterling which we could change to keep us going!

We managed to squeeze into a carriage on the train with all our luggage, changed to another line where we met Matt’s friend Michael and his daughter Daisy. Michael took us to a delicious Dim Sum restaurant, and then very kindly brought over on the ferries to Lamma Island where we are staying for the week.

We woke to a warm day. We set off walking through the island, listening to the sea lapping against the shore and seeing pretty birds and butterflies. We came to a lovely cove and beach where Ellie and Will had a wonderful time paddling and swimming in the sea. Having showered and changed ( the beach had brilliant facilities ) we walked back to the village where there are fish restaurants everywhere. Outside the restaurants are tanks full of groper, lobster, prawns, cuttlefish etc all scuttling and swimming around. We caught the ferry across to Aberdeen on Hong Hong Island. Here there is a huge harbour full of fishing vessels from a little rowing boat to a huge commercial fishing boat. Small tub like boats called Sampans dart in and out of the boat traffic and docks.

We caught a bus to Central here the skyscrapers were huge. We felt like tiny ants. The World’s longest covered escalators are here, we travelled up them and then explored the streets and malls, all Christmasy  although it was 20 degrees outside!!! We caught a tram ( the World’s only double decker tram system ) to Time Square where there was a huge Christmas Lego display, and then wandered to the waterfront to catch the Star Ferry to Kowloon. By now it was dark and the city became so beautiful, with all the buildings and transport lit up. As Christmas is approaching many buildings had Christmas lights and decorations up. From Victoria Harbour we watched the Symphony of light and sound show that lit up the buildings and lasers danced to the music. Now very tired we returned via the ferries to our apartment on Lamma Island.