HONG KONG TRIP - DECEMBER 2008

My father and I had a most enjoyable short break of five days in Hong Kong just prior to Christmas. The weather was perfect, with blue cloudless sky throughout and a very comfortable 21 to 23 degrees centigrade each day. As this was my father's first trip to the former colony, we did the usual tourist things - firstly a ride on the Peak Tramway up to Victoria Peak to see the view over the harbour, by day:-

and also by night (although this time we cheated, beating the queues for the Tramway by taking a taxi both ways):-
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One day we did a full day excursion onto Lantau Island to visit the largest Buddha in the world. This involved a quite spectacular 4.7km cablecar ride:-

The monastery was surrounded by a very colourful display of flowers. It was easy to forget with the colours and the weather that this was the week before Christmas.
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The Buddha itself is set on the top of a small hill giving a excellent viewpoint over the island. It is one big buddha (to paraphrase my father).

We had another full day out at Ocean Park. This amusement park combines fun rides, excellent aquariums and shows. My 78 year old father went on the triple looping roller coaster. He was easy to pick out on the ride as everyone else had dark hair and they were at least half his age! He's on the back row of the third car.

We spent a pleasant hour or more, every morning sitting by the hotel swimming pool getting a bit of winter sun and having a daily swim. My aim was to combine the sightseeing with a bit of rest and relaxation each day. This is a view of the pool from the hotel bedroom window.
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The next photo shows my father relaxing by the harbourside near the Exhibition Centre that was used in the 1997 Handover Ceremony. The office buildings of Central are in the background. The tallest tower is "IFC Two" which at 1,350feet tall and 88storeys dwarves the other buildings.

The view of the Hong Kong Island skyline at night from Kowloon is quite unique. We sailed over on the Star Ferry but we also used the MTR underground system extensively to get around. The MTR is cheap, efficient and air-conditioned. If only London's was half as good.

Overall we had a most enjoyable and relaxing break whilst fitting in an active daily amount of sightseeing. Despite the eight hour time difference we had minimal jet-lag thanks to Virgin's flatbed seats. We can thoroughly recommend Hong Kong as long-distance city break destination or, perhaps more sensibly, as a stop-over to break one's journey on the way to the Antipodes.