Day 2 Revisited - Singapore

I took over a thousand photos of our holiday and am currently trying to organise them and select the best ones, or at least the ones that are interesting to us.  It's proving to be very difficult, particularly as I'm not a very good picture editor.  I can hear my mother saying "did you really need to post 14 pictures of the Singapore skyline at night"?  Well, no probably not, but I couldn't decide which one was best so I bunged in all the ones that weren't out of focus, sorry Mum!

 

I plan to post the photos in batches by the day of the holiday in which they were taken.  These are from Day 2 - our first full day of holiday, spent in Singapore.  Revisiting the holiday in these photos is making me a bit emotional - I hope the emotion they stir in you is not boredom (I know how dull it can be to look at other people's holiday snaps!)  By the way, you can click on the photos and view them full-screen too, if you prefer).

 

Raffles Hotel (unnecessary caption)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(There was a wedding, or a photoshoot, or something going on there - all a bit mysterious) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George discovers the joys of Kickapoo Joy Juice

 

 

 

Hindu Temple in Little India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stinky Durians in the Night Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures taken while waiting for our boat trip on the river - by the Merlion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laser Light Show from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boat Trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



On the walk along the riverfront in search of dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 22 - Hong Kong, Last Day of the Holiday...

We're all sitting at the airport in Hong Kong, a bit tired and emotional, having eaten nothing but crappy MacDonalds meals all day and now facing the grim reality that is the end of the holiday and thirteen hours of travelling ahead of us.  

Our last day saw us packed, breakfasted and ready for action by 10.30am.  Apart from a few short, sharp showers the weather was kind to us today, in fact it was very hot, sunny and sticky which made the traipsing along Nathan Road, and through Lady's Market something of an endurance test.   Our mission had been to visit records shops to buy up loads of really rare vinyl for next to nothing and to see if we could get Lily a replacement phone at a bargain price.  Our first stop was the Sino Centre on Nathan Road which is the place where the cool HK kids into music and manga (and pop culture generally) go to buy their stuff.  Unfortunately all the shops inside were closed when we turned up so we went instead from electronics shop to watch shop looking, alternatively, at Nokia Lumia phones and watches for Kent.  It soon became apparent that the idea that HK is the place for bargains is a bit of a myth as even with haggling we weren't able to get anything we wanted even close to the prices we know we can get them for on ebay.  Perhaps we just weren't trying hard enough.

Lily found a darling little make-up shop called "Etude House" and bought, amongst other things some eybebrow scissors which have a little comb attached to the blades and which she used on Kent's Denis Healey-like bushes later in the afternoon to great effect. We escaped the "charms" of Lady's Market without spending any money at all, in fact if I never walk through another Far Eastern market selling fake goods and tourist trash again it will be too soon.  Lily is a bit sad that she never got the fake Rolex she wanted, but as the knob has already broken off her market-bought umbrella it's probably for the best.

After the market we went back to the Sino Centre to find most of the shops now open, but only one of them selling vinyl, and all of it priced way over what I will be selling my records at when I open the shop,  the sniffy proprietor point-blank refusing to negotiate on price.  You can stick your Japanese import of "Koo Koo" for $100HD where the sun don't shine Mr Record Shop Owner (actually I wish I'd bought it now as it was quite a good price, but I was annoyed at his refusal to budge on price).

After another MacDonald's lunch-time pitstop (another thing I am SOOOOO annoyed about is that on our last day in Asia we have eaten at the Golden Arches for breakfast, lunch AND dinner, it's really quite shameful) we went down to the pier to catch the Star Ferry again back over to HK island to visit "Collectables" another second-hand record shop where I eventually parted with some cash (Emmylou Harris, Alan Vega, Pete Yorn, The Lilac Time and Stephen Stills LPs since you ask).  We then headed for a bar on Hollywood Street where we met up with my friend Jane.  Jane and I have known each other for over 6 years but have never met face-to-face before so it was great to finally meet her, her lovely daughter and friends too. 

Jane looking a bit reluctant to appear on the Harris Family In Asia Blog :-)

 We had a good catch-up and a good laugh and managed to get really quite pie-eyed in a very short space of time, worryingly so as we had to find our way back across the harbour, and back to our hotel to pick up luggage, shuttle bus and train to the airport.  Somehow we managed it without losing a child, or a bag, or our tempers and here we are, waiting for our flight to be called.  Too tired now to reflect poetically on the last 3 weeks, suffice to say it has been brilliant and we  are all ever so sad it's all over.   Will leave the final analyses until we get home - the kids want to do a "best / worst" list so that might be interesting.

Us looking very sad.

Bye for now

Maria

Day 21 - Hong Kong

I've just come back to the hotel after an evening of gin and tonics and canapés at the Club Lounge at the Intercontinental Hotel, and a McFlurry at the Nathan Road MacDonalds and consequently my head is rather woozy with all the sugar and alcohol.   This may not be the most coherent of blog entries but I'll give it a go...

Our hotel room does not have blinds or curtains but wooden slidy things which very effectively shut out the world beyond our window.  Hence, it was not until we were showered and dressed this morning that we made the somewhat disappointing discovery that it was absolutely tipping it down in HK.  A quick check on the local weather forecast further compounded the gloom when we saw the black cloud + lightning symbol hovering ominoulsly over today (and tomorrow's) forecast, and read about tropical typhoon Jebi heading this way.  Kent was all for taking the next available flight home but I (uncharacteristically perhaps) refused to let us be cowed by a few raindrops and insisted that we stick to our morning sight-seeing itinerary come hell or highwater (the latter of which, as it happened, turned out to be a very distinct possibility as we were to discover).

First stop Maccy Dee's for breakfast (they do a nice pancake or 3 for hardly any money at all), then onto a bus to the Star Ferry Terminal.   As I mentioned on Facebook, The last time I was on a Star Ferry crossing over to Hong Kong Island the Beatles were still together, man was about to set foot on the moon for the first time, the Vietnam war was in full swing and Jimi Hendrix was still alive.  This revelation totally blew the kids' minds and made me feel positively ancient, however the interesting thing is, that in a place where the skyline has undoubtedly changed completely since the late 60s, the ferry crossing was reassuringly old-school  - in fact the boat we travelled on was built the year I was born (just imagine, it must've been cutting-edge nautical technology when I first ventured forth on it!)

On landing at HK island we took a bus to the equally old-fashioned funicular railway for a steep trundle up to the Peak.  Wasn't overly keen on that journey I must admit (and I say that as one who still has nightmarish flashbacks to the Langkawi cable car trip).  Wasn't expecting to be nervous on such an apparently tame ride but I think I have developed something of an aversion to travelling upwards at a 90 degree angle to the ground.  At the top we were ejected into the maws of a great big emporium selling loads of tacky tourist junk, with a Madame Tussauds thrown in for good measure- fortunately, just before claustraphobia took hold we found an exit into the fresh, open air.  A fabulous view of the harbour lay at our feet but in the time it took me to get my camera out of my bag and the lens cap off the entire view had been completely obscured in a vast swathe of low-lying white cloud.  Thankfully, owing to the high winds the cloud drifted out again as quickly as it had rolled in so we enjoyed fabulous but intermittent views of Kowloon and the island. 

(I accidentally got the King of Pop's finger stuck up my nose whilst searching for the exit).

Back down to sea level and the weather took a turn for the worse with torrential rain falling on and off for most of the afternoon and evening.  This tested the Harris Family Resolve to the max and I think it's fair to say that the next few hours were not the absolute pinnacle of our Far Eastern Odyssey.  In fact I think at one stage x had managed to upset y who had royally pissed off z and all 3 of them were in danger of being pushed off the top of the tram by Psycho Maz.  Isn't it funny how a little rain (or even 3 inches in an hour of the wretched stuff) can dampen the mood so?  And even odder how, the worse the rain got and the more puddles we waded through and the more umbrella spokes we had jammed into our hair, the more amusing the whole thing became - well you have to laugh don't you?  The rain really was ridiculous.  I had to blow-dry George's sneakers when we got back to the hotel.  

We had hoped to meet up with one of Kent's colleagues this evening but he has unfortunately been detained in China so we decided to bring forward our visit to the Club Lounge at the Intercontinental Hotel - a place that Kent does the music for, and whose General Manager had kindly invited us to sample the delights his special lounge has to offer.  It overlooks the harbour and we discovered the good news that there is an amazing light show every Friday at 8pm , when all the buildings get lit up by  lasers, a scene so awe-inspiring and magnificent it's even in the Guinness Book of Records.  How fortuitous that we decided to visit tonight and not tomorrow night - except, they don't run the light show when there's a Level 3 Typhoon Warning in place, so instead we watched Typhoon Jebi (or at least the tail-end of it) roll across the water, magically making all the neon lights completely disappear and bringing with it more inches of torrential rain.  It really is no wonder that so much of HK smells musty, with this much moisture around!

(Watching the cars and the rain).

The forecast for tomorrow is not great either so we have decided to concentrate on visiting record shops and meeting up with my friend Jane later in the afternoon.  Tonight is our last sleep in Asia, we fly out of here tomorrow at midnight and it's straight back to Blighty for us.  We will be so sad (but I have to admit, a part of me is looking forward to Home Sweet Home too).

Night all!

Maria

Day 20 - Bangkok to Hong Kong

Today we managed to catch a bit more sleep then the past few days as we decided we didnt need to get a big breakfast and could just catch something at the airport. So after a leisurely wake up we headed down to check out. We each had a fruit smoothie which were lovely and I admit it, I had a chocolate brownie. 

We thought that instead of going on the train back to the airport we would take a taxi. So after a bit of queing we got to the airport where we checked in our baggage, got through security fine ( apart from mum who had her nail scissors confiscated ), and made our way to the departure lounge. Reflecting back on the little time we spent in Bangkok I have to say that I found it the most interesting city we have been to. I loved how the river was the main form of transport, how there were so many markets and there were colours everywhere. 

After a very boring and uneventful flight we arrived in a new country and a new city. We had bit of a scare when we went to collect our luggage when we had recieved all of the bags but George's, however crisis was averted when Mum found it. 

On the drive to out hotel, which is VERY nice, we got to see the first neon signs of Hong Kong. Here is an interesting fact for you about the neon signs that Dad told us, The neon signs on buildings are not allowed to be flashing because planes flying over might mistake it for a landing strip, which would not be very good!

The only interesting thing we did today was go to a night market that was just around the corner. First we had to find food though which turned out to be quite a task. Finally after lots of wandering we were persuaded to sit in a Local restaurant. We ordered garlicy green veg, garlicy prawns, thick noodles with vegetables, fried noodles and beef and I had a mixed vegetable rice pot. Mine was disgusting. So, to keep up my sustanance we stopped at a seven eleven to get an ice cream before heading into Temple Street Market. We didnt buy anything in this particular market but the alleyways we looked down were a sterotypical image of Hong Kong.

Now we are back and about at the hotel about to get rest for our big day tomorrow.

Bye Bye for now 

Lily