Hong Kong and Kowloon

Now I must apologise for having been away from the Blog. It's amazing how life catches up with you and what starts as an adventure quickly becomes every day life...and doesn't get blogged! However, amazing trips have not been in short supply and I will do my best to still record them.

Although Singapore and Hong Kong are often dismissed as being a bit 'samey' we thought we would check the facts for ourselves. Therefore, October found us in the Grand Waterfront Hotel in Kowloon - the mainland area of Hong Kong. The first thing that struck us was the temperature difference. It was freezing! Well at least 23C and with no humidity. Hong Kong is a much older city than Singapore and you quickly feel the history seeping through your feet. It is seems more chaotic, but also more established. The Kowloon part feels very Chinese whereas Hong Kong island feels more Western. As we are lucky enough to have many Chinese things to experience here in Singapore, we thought we would take advantage of the parts of Hong Kong that are definitely different. There are many other small islands around Hong Kong and we took a day to walk around the island of Lamma finishing up with freshly caught seafood as the sun was going down. We also took advantage of some of the open spaces near to Hong Kong. It was hard to imagine that the city was so close when you were wandering through hillsides next to blue sea with a feeling that you were on an island in the Med. Of course, if that doesn't take your fancy you can remind yourself of who used to own the island and stop off at the town of Stanley where the seafront seems to have been modelled on Blackpool.