Five static-free days in Hong Kong
We have just celebrated the changing of the year here in Korea. I say 'we' but since I was in Hong Kong at the time it doesn't really count. Yep, me and Sam headed south for the winter in the hope of finding a place warmer than here with some proper honest to goodness celebrating to see in the year of the Monkey. Five whole days out of Korea, well, three whole days and two halves. This is something that we have been planning since the sumo trip in November.
I have to admit to being extremely excited about going away (not just because it took my passport well past the halfway stage stampwise) last week. I could hardly control myself at work on Tuesday and actually told a couple of the students what my plans were. I zoomed out of school so fast I was only a blur on the stairway. And promptly arrived at the bus terminal over an hour early- now that's what I call keen(!) I gulped down some rice, changed my ticket to an earlier time and headed off on a mostly empty bus. Sam woke me halfway through the journey with a phone call and when I looked out of the window I saw that it was snowing.
But that didn’t slow the bus fortunately and we made it in a very respectable three hours. Sam was there to meet me at the bus terminal in Seoul and it seemed only right on such a cold night (it was FREEEEEZING) that we head to the bar for a few before doing anything else. Two pitchers later and time to try our luck at getting a taxi out to the airport village where we intended to stay the night to miss the bulk of the new year traffic. Everyone else had the same idea and we slipped along a very crowded road out to the airport. We found a hotel, ignored the funny smell and bedded down for the night. The next morning we got up and ventured out to get some food- snow everywhere and the ice made things hazardous. As we turned a corner to the shop an artic gale took my breath away and we headed back to the hotel to thaw out and await the arrival of the shuttle bus.
The bus was waiting for us when we ventured downstairs. We clambered aboard and off we went- into the biggest skid that I have ever had the misfortune to experience. 360 degrees of skidding later and we were again facing the airport and we continued on our journey. It took about ten minutes before we could talk again though.
An uneventful flight later and we were in Hong Kong. Almost too quickly- it took around four hours to get there. A short flight but a lifetime away from Korea. It took us some time to pull ourselves away from the chocolate counter in the airport (Maltesers, mars bars, milky ways and other such long missed items) but we made it out to the bus station. Where a double decker bus was waiting for us! Another taste of home. We sat on the top deck at the front of the bus so we could ‘drive’ it to Causeway Bay and our hostel. The hostel was fine and so centrally located that we got off the bus and straight into the crowds heading to the park for the New year late night flower market. It would have been churlish to ignore them so we dumped our bags and joined them. The flower market was incredibly crowded and very exciting. So many people! And so many hot men!!!!!!!!! But I digress. We didn’t buy flowers and just indulged in a little cuddly toy monkey buying- year of the Monkey after all!
The next day we headed to The Peak- a mountain offering amazing views of the city and incredible looking apartment blocks. Dreaming of living there we got off the bus at the Peak and luxuriated in the view of the famous Hong Kong skyline. Skyscrapers lined the river and we could see out to sea a short way. It was breathtaking. We also did some shopping there too- we are girls after all! We got the funicular back down to earth and headed to Kowloon Park ready for the New Year parade. The parade was disappointing in that we couldn’t see anything over the crowds but exciting in as much as we had spent the previous three hours indulging in some Happy Hour binge drinking (UK government ain’t here anymore and can’t stop us) at a great Irish bar. That night we went off to a nightclub but had misjudged the day and walked into something resembling a badly organised school disco. We beat a hasty retreat.
Friday morning saw us up early and on a ferry heading to Lantau Island and the Po Lin monastery. It was cold on the ferry journey which lasted much longer than we had anticipated. The day before we had spent a very exciting five minutes on a ferry and hadn’t really considered that this day would see us on a forty five minute journey on a cold and shitty day. Getting off the ferry (and buying some more Cadbury snacks and maltesers) we got on the bus to the monastery. The clouds were really beginning to descend but we still had amazing views from the bus and all of the passengers let off an excited eeppp when we saw the Buddha at the monastery perched on a hill in the distance. However when we got off the bus we dashed to the loo and then to the veggie restaurant there. By the time we had taken care of our needs the clouds had engulfed the Buddha almost entirely. We climbed up the hill anyway and got some great atmospheric photos of Buddha in the swirling mists.
After such a spiritual day it seemed only fair that we reward ourselves with a couple of pints in the bar at the ferry jetty- such a joy to order actual real pints!! Back to Causeway Bay and some stunning fireworks then onto the nightclub which proved to be all that we had asked for and more. Saturday was a quiet day. I spent most of it in the park reading my book. Great to be in an actual park- there really aren’t that many in Korea. Also I had got up that morning and gone to a coffee shop and read the newspaper- again something that we really miss in Korea. Saturday night we had our last dinner in Hong Kong.
On Sunday we got a bus to Stanley- via the bottom of the Peak. The weather was the best that it had been for our last morning. Stanley was amazing. There is a great market there where I indulged in some heavy duty purchasing of hippy clothes. We sat by the ocean for a while. Then we sat outside a bar by the ocean and ate pizza and drank pints of Stella. Happy? Couldn’t have been more so to be honest! But all too soon it was time to go back to the airport. Which proved to be exciting enough since we were able to got to WHSmiths and buy some books. Two and three quarter hours later we were back in Seoul and four hours after that I was at home in Gangneung looking at my photos on my computer.
We had an incredible time and some of you will appreciate that a trip to the Marks and Spencers sale was more exciting that it would have been if we were both back home. The joy of standing in a clothes store knowing that there were loads of clothes to fit me- that I actually had a CHOICE was quite a heady feeling. Both Sam and I had to work hard to control the tears of joy as we skipped between the clothes rails. We also had a look around Ikea and HMV and did a whole host of other retail things that can’t be found in Korea. The static was gone from my hair for the whole trip and I wasn’t stared at once in whole time I was in Hong Kong. Overall I would have to say that what little we saw of Hong Kong led us to want to stay there forever, it seemed (at surface level at least) to be the perfect mix of the Asia that we so love living in and the UK which we miss so much.
Now I am back at work and only four weeks away from the one year mark. What happens next? Well, that is up to my boss and I am waiting to hear if she wants me to stay on. Everyone cross your fingers for that one. Miss Kim has certain bitch like tendencies so I need all the help I can get! I’ll let you know the outcome when I know. Can’t say fairer than that,
Love
H
xx
I have to admit to being extremely excited about going away (not just because it took my passport well past the halfway stage stampwise) last week. I could hardly control myself at work on Tuesday and actually told a couple of the students what my plans were. I zoomed out of school so fast I was only a blur on the stairway. And promptly arrived at the bus terminal over an hour early- now that's what I call keen(!) I gulped down some rice, changed my ticket to an earlier time and headed off on a mostly empty bus. Sam woke me halfway through the journey with a phone call and when I looked out of the window I saw that it was snowing.
But that didn’t slow the bus fortunately and we made it in a very respectable three hours. Sam was there to meet me at the bus terminal in Seoul and it seemed only right on such a cold night (it was FREEEEEZING) that we head to the bar for a few before doing anything else. Two pitchers later and time to try our luck at getting a taxi out to the airport village where we intended to stay the night to miss the bulk of the new year traffic. Everyone else had the same idea and we slipped along a very crowded road out to the airport. We found a hotel, ignored the funny smell and bedded down for the night. The next morning we got up and ventured out to get some food- snow everywhere and the ice made things hazardous. As we turned a corner to the shop an artic gale took my breath away and we headed back to the hotel to thaw out and await the arrival of the shuttle bus.
The bus was waiting for us when we ventured downstairs. We clambered aboard and off we went- into the biggest skid that I have ever had the misfortune to experience. 360 degrees of skidding later and we were again facing the airport and we continued on our journey. It took about ten minutes before we could talk again though.
An uneventful flight later and we were in Hong Kong. Almost too quickly- it took around four hours to get there. A short flight but a lifetime away from Korea. It took us some time to pull ourselves away from the chocolate counter in the airport (Maltesers, mars bars, milky ways and other such long missed items) but we made it out to the bus station. Where a double decker bus was waiting for us! Another taste of home. We sat on the top deck at the front of the bus so we could ‘drive’ it to Causeway Bay and our hostel. The hostel was fine and so centrally located that we got off the bus and straight into the crowds heading to the park for the New year late night flower market. It would have been churlish to ignore them so we dumped our bags and joined them. The flower market was incredibly crowded and very exciting. So many people! And so many hot men!!!!!!!!! But I digress. We didn’t buy flowers and just indulged in a little cuddly toy monkey buying- year of the Monkey after all!
The next day we headed to The Peak- a mountain offering amazing views of the city and incredible looking apartment blocks. Dreaming of living there we got off the bus at the Peak and luxuriated in the view of the famous Hong Kong skyline. Skyscrapers lined the river and we could see out to sea a short way. It was breathtaking. We also did some shopping there too- we are girls after all! We got the funicular back down to earth and headed to Kowloon Park ready for the New Year parade. The parade was disappointing in that we couldn’t see anything over the crowds but exciting in as much as we had spent the previous three hours indulging in some Happy Hour binge drinking (UK government ain’t here anymore and can’t stop us) at a great Irish bar. That night we went off to a nightclub but had misjudged the day and walked into something resembling a badly organised school disco. We beat a hasty retreat.
Friday morning saw us up early and on a ferry heading to Lantau Island and the Po Lin monastery. It was cold on the ferry journey which lasted much longer than we had anticipated. The day before we had spent a very exciting five minutes on a ferry and hadn’t really considered that this day would see us on a forty five minute journey on a cold and shitty day. Getting off the ferry (and buying some more Cadbury snacks and maltesers) we got on the bus to the monastery. The clouds were really beginning to descend but we still had amazing views from the bus and all of the passengers let off an excited eeppp when we saw the Buddha at the monastery perched on a hill in the distance. However when we got off the bus we dashed to the loo and then to the veggie restaurant there. By the time we had taken care of our needs the clouds had engulfed the Buddha almost entirely. We climbed up the hill anyway and got some great atmospheric photos of Buddha in the swirling mists.
After such a spiritual day it seemed only fair that we reward ourselves with a couple of pints in the bar at the ferry jetty- such a joy to order actual real pints!! Back to Causeway Bay and some stunning fireworks then onto the nightclub which proved to be all that we had asked for and more. Saturday was a quiet day. I spent most of it in the park reading my book. Great to be in an actual park- there really aren’t that many in Korea. Also I had got up that morning and gone to a coffee shop and read the newspaper- again something that we really miss in Korea. Saturday night we had our last dinner in Hong Kong.
On Sunday we got a bus to Stanley- via the bottom of the Peak. The weather was the best that it had been for our last morning. Stanley was amazing. There is a great market there where I indulged in some heavy duty purchasing of hippy clothes. We sat by the ocean for a while. Then we sat outside a bar by the ocean and ate pizza and drank pints of Stella. Happy? Couldn’t have been more so to be honest! But all too soon it was time to go back to the airport. Which proved to be exciting enough since we were able to got to WHSmiths and buy some books. Two and three quarter hours later we were back in Seoul and four hours after that I was at home in Gangneung looking at my photos on my computer.
We had an incredible time and some of you will appreciate that a trip to the Marks and Spencers sale was more exciting that it would have been if we were both back home. The joy of standing in a clothes store knowing that there were loads of clothes to fit me- that I actually had a CHOICE was quite a heady feeling. Both Sam and I had to work hard to control the tears of joy as we skipped between the clothes rails. We also had a look around Ikea and HMV and did a whole host of other retail things that can’t be found in Korea. The static was gone from my hair for the whole trip and I wasn’t stared at once in whole time I was in Hong Kong. Overall I would have to say that what little we saw of Hong Kong led us to want to stay there forever, it seemed (at surface level at least) to be the perfect mix of the Asia that we so love living in and the UK which we miss so much.
Now I am back at work and only four weeks away from the one year mark. What happens next? Well, that is up to my boss and I am waiting to hear if she wants me to stay on. Everyone cross your fingers for that one. Miss Kim has certain bitch like tendencies so I need all the help I can get! I’ll let you know the outcome when I know. Can’t say fairer than that,
Love
H
xx
posted by Helen @ 11:10 AM
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