Results tagged “Shopping” from East Asia 2017

So my morning started at 4:44 when I got a couple of smses from Optus welcoming me to Hong Kong. #grunt Of course there was no getting back to sleep after that, what with having to disembark and all. And at 5:30 I got hungry so it was all over. Saw us spinning around at Kai Tak, to have us facing the city. And then the sun rose. We didn't have a single good day of weather the entire trip, and we get a perfect one the day we go home. Doh!!

Hong Kong at dawn

Hong Kong at dawn

Hong Kong at dawn

Hong Kong at dawn

Got ready, and brought some breakfast down the room, but never did get around to download photos (which haven't been downloaded since before Shanghai).

Rex Fortune cruise ship and Hong Kong

Apparently they wanted us out of the room at 8:30 so we did that. But we had different pieces of conflicting information telling us the disembarkation procedure. One said just get off 40 minutes before our car was due (we decided to get a car back into Hong Kong so we didn't have to battle trains and taxis and get all sweaty). Another said wait with the rest of deck 5. I asked at the pursor's office and they said go with the rest of deck 5. But that made no sense because people with earlier cars would then be late. At around 9:20 we went and asked the lady in the theatre and she said we just needed to go get off in about twenty minutes. So that turned out to be quite simple and no queue. I just wish they could have been more organised in their literature. So that was the end of that. We left the ship. Sad times.

In the terminal we just walked out. Noone even looked at our passports (that we'd picked up yesterday afternoon). Then into the baggage hall to get our bags, which was all organised nicely and super simple. They called our car (we ended up being very early) and we did a survey by some local travel type people.

Our car came and we got driven across Hong Kong. And dumped at Kowloon station.

*blink*

When I'd booked the car, I filled out "Hong Kong Station", and the guy who took my booking appended Central. So how they translated that to Kowloon I have no f#$%ing idea. So I was pretty pissed off about that. Thanks Cunard. How to leave a bad taste in our mouth as a parting gift.

Anyway Stu just said we would be ok, so we got out, and checked into our flight and checked our bags at the in-town checkin. We'd been planning to have Tim Ho Wan at Central, but we decided instead to go to the one in Sham Shui Po, and go to the Golden Computer Arcade to pick up a couple of little micro usb cables (I really love the 20cm cables you can get two for $5AUD, and only currently having one is a bit of a pain sometimes when there's multiple devices to charge).

So two trains later we got to Sham Shui Po and walked along Fuk Wing Street until we found Tim Ho Wan. It's a lot like the organised chaos we first experienced at Din Tai Fung in Taipei, so we didn't feel too threatened by the little crowd of people milling around and the procedure to get a seat and order food. We were there primarily for the crispy pork buns (which they call baked bun with bbq pork) and they were every bit as awesome as we were expecting. We also had a few other things which were nice too.

Baked bun with bbq pork - ftw!!!

After lunch we walked back to the Golden Computer Arcade and got our cables.

It was such a beautiful day I couldn't stand the thought of just heading out to the airport - I felt liked we should be looking at the city or something. So I convinced the sweetie that we should get the train to Hong Kong station and just take the ferry over to Tsim Sha Tsui and back. Simple and cheap and we'd get a great view of the whole harbour (and the Queen Mary 2). So we did that. And it was awesome :)

Hong Kong Observation Wheel at Central

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak through the Hong Kong Observation Wheel

Central Ferry Pier

Xin Guang First Ferry and Stonecutters Bridge

Kowloon from Central Ferry Pier

Hong Kong from the Star Ferry

Night Star ferry arriving at Central Ferry Pier

Super Star Virgo in Hong Kong

Twinkling Star ferry departing Tsim Sha Tsui

Shining Star ferry and Hong Kong

Hong Kong from Victoria Harbour

Hong Kong from Victoria Harbour

Queen Mary 2 at Kai Tak

Then back to the station, one station hop under the harbour to Kowloon, and onto the airport express train. Of course it would have been easier to go straight from Hong Kong since we were right there, but they charge your Octopus card when you go to check in to the flight, and we weren't sure what would happen if we then got on at a station further away.

Quick train trip out to the airport, through security and immigration, and into the Qantas club. I downloaded all my photos since Shanghai and the GPS, and we both had showers and felt much better. Then it was more catching up on the laptop.

USB charging on the Airport Train

Champagne in the Qantas Club at sunset

Sunset over Hong Kong airport

We had the exact same seats on the 747 on the flight back as we did up. One of the two-seater seats right up the back, so the sweetie didn't have anyone next to him.

I was pretty tired so attempted to sleep. And failed. Just lay there with my eyes closed for three or four hours. I didn't have any dinner, just a couple of bread rolls which were a bit awful actually.

Gave up trying to sleep when my legs got restless, so watched Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Which I found to be extremely confusing (maybe it was just that my brain was mush). The kid is asking questions and keeps getting told not to ask questions and it's like well how the heck are *we* meant to understand what's going on? Tried again to sleep after the movie but legs were still restless, so watched Bridget Jones' Baby, which was all a little silly, but that took us up til landing time in Sydney. Breakfast was this little pizza thing, but I'd been starving for a while so my stomach wasn't ready for food (don't ask). Just had the yoghurt and juice.

Rodd Point, Sydney

Parramatta Road, Sydney

About to land at Sydney Airport

In Sydney there was a bit of a queue at the e-tickets, and then a bit of chaos going through the gates due to people having issues getting in the way of people trying to get through. Then picked up our bags and off we went to the domestic terminal.

Flight to Canberra was in a dash 8. Could *almost* see mum's place but it was directly underneath us. Came in from the north into Canberra.

Lake George

Touchdown at Canberra Airport

Chrissie very nicely picked us up from the airport and took us home. I went and got some supplies, then crashed for a couple of hours, at one point waking up and taking a minute to realise where I was. Stu slept most of the afternoon heh.

Have mostly unpacked and done a load of washing of all the fancy new clothes.

And I've also been fighting with our internet which is completely unusable at the moment, as well as downloading photos, gps etc.

So all in all a pretty good holiday. The cruise was pretty awesome for the most part, with just a few things that really pissed me off. The weather was crappy for almost the entire trip which was a bit sad. I think Nagasaki was the highlight of the ports for me. I loved the fine dining, and the buffets available pretty much all day. I dread to think how much weight I've put on! Cruising is something we'd definitely consider doing again.