Our arrival in Hong Kong began with a full health declaration form, and two green blobs for heads as we walked past the thermal imaging camera's and an airport full of people in masks, handing out free masks! On the bus ride to the city we saw a sign that pleased us greatly " Smoking and Spitting Forbidden - $1500 fine" Ahhh finally.....
We hopped off the bus two stops after the one we were supposed to get off at (the usual...) and were met by a fair amount of humidity and a lot of people, wow a crazy crazy amount of people crowding the sidewalks! To check-in we went up to the 8th floor in a broom cupboard (although it said 6 person lift.. yes... 6 very small chinese people stacked on top of each other!) and then moved across the road to our luxury caravan sized room (check out the pic).
Eish this is a big city and things are expensive...then there it was a big yellow M in the distance...One Big Mac meal, One Grilled chicken meal please.... and no guilt as it is the cheapest food around...OH YES IT DOES NOT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS !
We were happy to finally be in a city with a church and on a Sunday. We went through to catch the morning service at St Andrews church (after our McSausage combo and hotcakes). Great message on Matthew 5, even though the pastor was an Aussie and we had coughing sniffing swine flu victims on either side of us !
Then we hit the streets for a day and a half of solid shopping, and it is unreal shopping (imagine 4 cresta centre's on top of each other and that is just one centre) and each with different boutique's selling different brands & electronic goods by the ton. Lisa bought some Gisele Bundchen sandles and I got bored - remote control helicopters don't fit in a backpack :-(
Caught a bus up to The Peak for some great views of Hong Kong, had our most expensive cup of coffee there...but lisa got free internet and I read the paper with a view!! That evening (after double cheese burgers) we saw the free building lights & laser display in the harbour, it was pretty impressive.
Interestingly enough we met our first other South Africans whilst getting our second chinese visa's ( buggered up cause we did not realise that Hong Kong is a separate autonomous state of china and we would need a another visa to get back in), a classic large african lady who funnily enough had also made the same mistake as us and a guy who had been working in Beijing for 4 years. Made us really miss home !!
you both looking good - love the masks? Lets hope they help
ReplyDeletehi maj! we couldn't bring ourselves to wear them once! We maybe saw 1 out of 50 people wearing one... was a pretty strange sight!
ReplyDeleteWhy why WHY!!!! i cry in broken Swahili....Why did you shave the beard off.... As i have no facial hair to speak of you were the closest thing to a beard for me....If you thought you looked ridiulous you should have got rid of the shoes....
ReplyDeleteFrom Grant (your brother) and Ange (your sister)
Hi grant, this is lisa (your sister). Well it went like this. The story of The Beard and The Chin: One day Lisa woke up next to steven and could not recognise who he was. All she could see was The Beard. The Beard followed her around all day, and was continually getting offered 'ganja ganja' by all the ladies on the street in Dali. And so the decision was made. And now The Chin is back.
ReplyDeleteAHHH i see. not sure if that story has a happy ending though. So tell me what is the tactic to get rid of the shoes, I am suprised he got offered anything wearing those things.
ReplyDeleteFraom Grant(your brother) and Ange (your sister)
ha ha!! maybe the beard can do a second appearing for Italy?? Please pretty please!! Love a
ReplyDeleteMacDonalds can be such a life saver. When we were in the USA, MacDonalds was our Christmas lunch!! Loving the photos
ReplyDelete