Day 1-2 - Hong Kong
We began our adventure with a memorable flight from London to Hong Kong under the care of Captain Brian (a friend of a friend). After a night of sporadic sleep, we awoke to the noise of the city. Hong Kong is a vertical playground of steel and glass skyscrapers encased in a rainbow of neon lights and towering green mountain peaks. It is extremely beautiful but extremely busy with an overwhelming sense of organised chaos; the kind of city that smacks you round the face and conducts a ferocious assault on your senses. The kids were in for a large dose of culture shock!
We had an ambitious first day planned visiting the Peak, the Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery and a night-time tour of the harbour. We hadn’t quite planned on the queues (Hong Kong has lots of these) and our journey up the Peak Tram was quite literally packed like sardines. The weather was hazy but the views were astounding just the same. We escaped some of the crowds by doing a quick circuit of the Peak Circle Walk before heading across to Lantau Island for the cable car to the Big Buddha (who we can confirm is indeed rather large). After side-stepping the free roaming cows (a bit of a surprise!) we found solitude in the Po Lin Monastery with its beautiful Buddhist temples and statues.
As evening closed in, we heading across to Kowloon for our night time tour of Victoria Harbour to coincide with the Nightly Symphony of Lights show. The city skyline looked spectacular from the water and the lasers were great but we were less than impressed with the music (Prodigy or Orbital would have been the preferred choice). After dim sum and ice cream it was time to rest our aching legs (days step total=21,000=large gin)