BA Boomerang, Bratwurst and Buddha - Berlin to Hong Kong - Day 5 (The Peak)

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BA Boomerang, Bratwurst and Buddha - Berlin to Hong Kong


CAST LIST

Me (Shaun): 50 something, loving all the travel
Alison: 50 something (just!), also loving all the travel
Link to trip report index: Here

Sunday 18th September 2016
After a few hours sleep, we were both wide awake – that’s the good news. The bad news is that it was only 2.30am! Obviously our body clocks thought we just had a afternoon nap! We had tea and biscuits and went back to sleep eventually, sleeping until around 8am.

We went to the club lounge for breakfast after being enthusiastically greeted by the desk staff, which was nice.

The breakfast buffet was an interesting mix of some hot items, cold buffet and some Chinese style items along with the usual cereal and bread options. It was all quite tasty, and we had the delicious coffee from the Illy machine.





That done we walked down towards the harbour area towards the Clock Tower that once graced the Kowloon – Canton Railway Station but is somehow now overshadowed by the port area and other new developments.

Once at the port we picked up a bunch of tourist leaflets and looked at the various bus tour options for the day. We chatted to one of the agents from the Big Hus Tour company who were excellent when we were in Washington and he cut us a small deal for taking the tickets off him rather than the office. Bizarrely, the ticket machine spewed out a number of separate tickets for each of the attractions offered rather than just a single card for the lot of them. The agent stapled them all to a leaflet and handed them over.

We paid around HK$1000 for 2 premium deals (which covered us for unlimited tours on 3 different routes, 1 night tour, 2 ferry rides, a return ride to the peak, a sampan trip and tickets to the maritime museum).

I let Alison take care of them so that way I wouldn’t take the blame for losing one on the way as I probably would given my track record. Anyway, first port of call was to take the iconic Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. However, nothing wrong with that, always good to do these and get a different perspective on the landscape from the boats.



We disembarked at the Hong Kong side and picked up the Big Bus red tour to the base of Victoria Peak.

We offered up our leaflet complete with the multiple passes and were ushered through to the queue for the tram. Quite a few tourists here but kind of as you’d expect really, but not a great deal to see in the waiting area. The trams run quite frequently so it wasn’t too long to wait before the next one arrived before people politely pushed and shoved their way on. Crikey, this is a very, very steep incline, reminded me a bit of Mission: Space where you can’t move your head off the rest once the ride starts moving.

Slowly the tram wound its way up the hill and the views got better and better the closer you get to the top although it’s odd how the housing developments come right up to the trackway on either side giving you a little glimpse of everyday life.



Finally we arrived at the top and it was straight through the gift shops and assorted knick-knackery on display. We worked our way up a series of escalators and finally found ourselves at the entrance to Sky Terrace 428 (as its 428 meters above sea level). I noticed that there was a barrier here so we queued up at the ticket counter but luckily they said our current tickets were good to go so up we went.

The view was amazing from the top and I lost count of how many selfies were being taken at this time. It’s one of those site where if you capture the weather right it’s absolutely amazing but today was a bit hazy, but that’s just luck of the draw.







We worked our way down from the top and stopped for a drink and a snack at Pacific Coffee (Ha – Not Starbucks!). I had a hot cheese and ham sandwich and a Walnut coffee and Alison had a muffin and vanilla latte which came to HK$120.



We worked our way down through the various levels, stopping here and there but Madame Tussaud Hong Kong wasn’t really a draw for us. Anyway, down at the bottom we queued up at the Big Bus green route bus stop and waited for the bus to take us to Aberdeen and Stanley via Golden Bauhinia square.

We drove out of town on a very twisting and turning road from Central, past Happy Valley down to Ocean Park, Repulse Bay and onto Stanley. Not much to say about this part of the journey apart from it was interesting to see other parts of Hong Kong Island and that the road twisted and turned its way around the coastline.

Right by the bus stop at Aberdeen was the landing point for the Sampan ride, managed by a very grumpy Chinese octogenarian lady who wasn’t going to stand for any nonsense. Interesting looking harbour here, certainly not gentrified for tourists in any way and very much a working port.





We and other members of the tour bus made up a motley crew as we took to the sampan and let the “captain” take us on our tour, weaving in and out of the small fishing and house boats, attempting to point things out in very broken English.







After a while there it was, The Jumbo floating restaurant in all its glory and it is massive! We floated nearby and took some photos and we decided to come back another day for a meal (we didn’t in the end!)


After the trip we strolled along the harbour side for a while taking in the atmosphere before heading back to the bus stop to make the return trip and making sure that we didn’t miss the last bus home.

Back at our start point on Hong Kong Island we made our way to the pier and caught the Star Ferry back to Kowloon and then headed back to the hotel.

We showered and changed, then headed into the lounge for evening drinks and canapés. We ate too many again – along with some very strong G & T’s!



Then we headed out to pick up the night tour which was included in our ticket for the day. It was ok – not too much to say about it - we wouldn’t have paid extra for it. We were taken round some of the main sights – The Peninsula Hotel and some of the night markets amongst others:








It dropped us off just in time for the symphony of lights so we thought we’d give it another try. Nope – still underwhelmed!

By now, I was a little peckish but not starving so we went to a small restaurant/café whose name we didn’t take for a snack. I noticed there was beef ramen and noodles, looked tasty enough and just the job from the picture on the menu. So I had that (together with a beer) but Alison wasn’t hungry so just had a diet coke. When the food arrived it wasn’t quite as I’d expected, the beef hadn’t been fried or roasted but just boiled in the ramen water. Well, I ate most of the meal anyway and it did the job although a little bland for my taste. It was very cheap at just under HK$100.



On the way back to the hotel we bought some essentials; booze, crisps, milk and biscuits for those late night / early morning snacking.

We just about had time to head into the lounge for a few drinks and a chat with the lounge staff, and made plans for the next day, before heading back to the room to crash out.

Datapoints:
Starbucks count today: 0
Starbucks total for trip so far: 2
Steps today: 10561
Steps total for trip so far: 62811
Miles today: 5.3
Miles total for trip so far: 31.5

[disneyme]

Amazing photos from the Sky terrace!