The Penultimate Stop - Hong Kong

The next stop on the way home was Hong Kong. It was fun being back in Asia. The ridiculous humidity, all the Asian treats and bubble tea (see below)! We also met up with two of my bridesmaids, May and Wayne and also May's friends from Canada, Greg and Nicole.

On our first day there we went to the markets and found a tail being sold at the butchers!.Not so uncommon I guess but this one was still covered in hair! eek.

Then we found a fruit shop selling May's favourite fruit Durian. If you're not familiar with the Durian then you may be amused to know that it smells so putrid that some countries ban people from eating it in public places like hotels and on public transport.

It is sometimes described as smelling like rotten flesh but having never smelt that I can't really comment, but it is certainly not pleasant. On the boat back across the harbour I saw two girls on the other side of the boat holding their noses and looking disgusted. It was because we were carrying Durian! I hadn't noticed the smell so much at the market because there were so many other pungent smells but once we got it back the the hotel room it all got a bit too much and Wayne had to dispose of it outside the hotel once we'd tried it.

Here's a picture of May purchasing the Durian. The guy is cutting it open and taking out the fleshy parts.

And here's what the fleshy parts looked like. They have a big seed inside them too. And the taste... well May said it wasn't a particularly delicious one and I would have to agree with her there. To me it tasted like burnt hair. Yum.

We went up to Victoria Peak which is a popular tourist spot for views over Hong Kong. It's also popular with the clouds too and the day we went was no exception but we didn't think the weather was going to get any better. We got the crazy peak tram to the top which is a very steep funicular railway. There's a Madame Tussauds up there so I snapped this picture of Wayne with his and his mate Bruce.

So back outside in the humidity. Here is a picture of the boys using the binoculars to check out the view (yes, clouds).

And here's a pic of Hong Kong from the Peak. Still pretty cloudy but that's fairly good considering the weather at that time of year.

This is a picture of the Peak Tower which was designed to look like a noodle bowl (or so I read in my crap guidebook) but wikipedia is calling it a wok, so who knows!

Another day we went out to Stanley markets to partake in more shopping. On the way back we stopped at Aberdeen harbour to go on a Sampan ride. A Sampan is a flat bottomed boat and looks like this...

And here's a picture of some of the incredible apartment buildings around the Aberdeen harbour. It is amazing how many there are and how close they are to each other.

Then we found this little thing. It's basically pebble walking path that massages your feet. Kinda like those masseuse thongs if you ever had them. Strange and fairly painful after more than 30 seconds.

The other cool thing to do in Hong Kong is watch the light show over the city. Every night. And we did. The music is unbelievably cheesy yet so good. I would probably listen to it if I had it on my iPod. haha. And the lights on the buildings dance in time to the music. Brilliant! Genius! You can probably watch it on YouTube if you actually care. Anyway, here is a terrible picture that I took. Sorry but my camera does not like the dark.

And what better to go with a light show than a 1 litre can of Asahi. Did I mention it was good to be back in Asia?

On our last day there we all went out to a restaurant for Dim Sum. We ordered a ridiculous amount of food (well Greg ordered it for us so I blame him. haha). Here's a sample

And how cool are these things? They are crab dumpling things. Not that amazingly tasty, but look at them! They are little crabs!!

Speaking of cool. Wayne found the Charlie Brown Cafe. Here's our coffees. How cool is that?

The next stop is Perth. Well in fact we got back 2 months ago and how time flies. I will do the occasional update if anyone is still reading. I'll still try and keep it to "Laura and Nate in Places other than Perth" but that does mean that Western Australia outside of the metropolitan area is still ok:P