So, on May 1st, I went to pick my two sisters Sarah and Sammy up from the airport. I was very excited to see them. 8 months is a long time. Plus it meant I got to move to a nice hotel (paid for by sister no. 1. Thank you Sarah). It was great to catch up with them. Sammy had grown so much since I last saw her. She's so tall now, and still only 13. My little mushroom-head, I'd missed her so much.
Anyway, besides the usual family stuff we did a little sightseeing together. This post is mainly pictures from those excursions. Firstly we ferried across to Hong Kong island, walked through the city, paused to rest from the heat in a park, then took the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak, behind the city. This is some peak, and that was some tram. 27 degrees at it's steepest, and we were standing!!
At the top we climbed to a viewing platform above a shopping centre to look across the whole of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we couldn't see very far. One of the world's best skylines and it was obscured by a smoggy haze. A bit disappointing, but at least on that day the peak was free from cloud. We only had two good days of weather while we were there so the luxury of choice was not ours.
Still, the cityscape was impressive enough from ground level. My favourite were the Lippo Towers, which look like they have koala bears climbing the outsides. Most famous is the Bank of China building, which apparently sends out bad Feng Shui across the whole neighbourhood. It certainly does look a little 'Empire Strikes Back', especially at night.
The second major excursion we made in Hong Kong waters was to see the Big Buddha on Lantau island. On a beautiful day we caught the MTR across the city (great transport network) and took a cable car from Tung Chung across the bay and up over the hills for about 20 minutes to the centre of the island where the 26 metre high bronze Big Buddha sat waiting for us.
This Buddha was indeed big and it was quite a climb to the top. The view was great though and when a brief shower threatened to turn things rather damp, the platform cleared of people and I got in a few nice shots of the Bodhisattvas. Pleasant enough but not especially exciting. Unfortunately 'jet lag' prevented us from seeing much more of the local sights. With an average of 3 hours from waking up to leaving the hotel room, this was never a very promising prospect. My sisters and I holiday in very different ways. This became especially apparent on our last excursion, to the former Portuguese colony of Macau.
So, on May 1st, I went to pick my two sisters Sarah and Sammy up from the airport. I was very excited to see them. 8 months is a long time. Plus it meant I got to move to a nice hotel (paid for by sister no. 1. Thank you Sarah). It was great to catch up with them. Sammy had grown so much since I last saw her. She's so tall now, and still only 13. My little mushroom-head, I'd missed her so much.
Anyway, besides the usual family stuff we did a little sightseeing together. This post is mainly pictures from those excursions. Firstly we ferried across to Hong Kong island, walked through the city, paused to rest from the heat in a park, then took the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak, behind the city. This is some peak, and that was some tram. 27 degrees at it's steepest, and we were standing!!
At the top we climbed to a viewing platform above a shopping centre to look across the whole of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we couldn't see very far. One of the world's best skylines and it was obscured by a smoggy haze. A bit disappointing, but at least on that day the peak was free from cloud. We only had two good days of weather while we were there so the luxury of choice was not ours.
Still, the cityscape was impressive enough from ground level. My favourite were the Lippo Towers, which look like they have koala bears climbing the outsides. Most famous is the Bank of China building, which apparently sends out bad Feng Shui across the whole neighbourhood. It certainly does look a little 'Empire Strikes Back', especially at night.
The second major excursion we made in Hong Kong waters was to see the Big Buddha on Lantau island. On a beautiful day we caught the MTR across the city (great transport network) and took a cable car from Tung Chung across the bay and up over the hills for about 20 minutes to the centre of the island where the 26 metre high bronze Big Buddha sat waiting for us.
This Buddha was indeed big and it was quite a climb to the top. The view was great though and when a brief shower threatened to turn things rather damp, the platform cleared of people and I got in a few nice shots of the Bodhisattvas. Pleasant enough but not especially exciting. Unfortunately 'jet lag' prevented us from seeing much more of the local sights. With an average of 3 hours from waking up to leaving the hotel room, this was never a very promising prospect. My sisters and I holiday in very different ways. This became especially apparent on our last excursion, to the former Portuguese colony of Macau.
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