Pictures of Hong Kong

To finish off the whole trip here are some pics of our stopover in Hong Kong. The view from Victoria Peak, having dinner at the Excelsior, the Lantau cable, Po Ling monastery and the giant buddha. A beautiful Spring after several weeks of summer and autumn!

Coming home

We headed to Hong Kong airport for the final leg of our round the world journey. We’d been watching ads for a couple of days about ‘the new business class’ on Cathay Pacific but it hadn’t yet arrived on the London flight. Still it was very exciting as I’d never been upstairs on a 747 but the old business class has a very strange seat configuration with tiny cubicles which do not allow for socialising with a partner and are rather claustrophobic. Still the service was excellent and the bed flat so I can’t really complain! After a couple of hours at Heathrow we took the final short hop to Manchester and we were home.
It was really exciting to see spring – we missed it last year being in Abu Dhabi and the daffodils, blossom and light green of the trees looked even lovelier than I remember. It was a really beautiful sunny day to welcome us back and Manchester looked particularly attractive and felt pretty warm. Apart from a strange smell emanating from the main bathroom which will no doubt require a visit from the plumber, the flat was in good shape and we soon had everything stashed away and several loads of washing drying! We managed to get John a new handset, since his phone has been out of action since it gave up the ghost in Argentina and he is now back in contact with the world again.
We’ve had such a marvellous time and created an enormous memory bank of experiences but it is always nice to be home. Despite being 10,000 km from where we were the day before, spending 18 hours travelling and coping with a 7 hour time difference we seem to have managed very well and not been too pole axed by it all. On Monday it poured with rain so more of a return to normal weather but on Tuesday we packed a case again and set off for Skipton and enjoyed the loveliness that is Yorkshire in springtime complete with little bouncy lambs, flowering currant and a heron wading in the stream. It was great to see mum again and enjoy a home cooked ‘British’ meal of cottage pie and apple tart. I’m sure we were able to bore her for some time going on and on about our trip and all the things we’d seen! I took Kirsty for a run in the woods – determined to get fit and trim again after all the good living though I did run quite a bit in Port Douglas and Manly.
Spent a frustrating afternoon printing out the blog and the photos ready for John’s mum – the transfer of electronic material to paper is never an easy experience, I’m sure the techno boffins don’t really believe in paper and therefore don’t spend nearly as long working on the technology! Thursday we were back with the suitcases for our next small trip. Since it was our wedding anniversary we’d decided to pay a short visit to Luton Hoo. Last year we celebrated at the Shangri La in Abu Dhabi so we thought it would be nice to go back and I managed to persuade them to come up with a good package for dinner, bed and breakfast and a room upgrade.
Despite all our wonderful travel experiences Luton Hoo is still one of my favourite places in the world. Clearly it has a step up being associated with the glorious memories of our happy wedding day but it is such a relaxing and charming place. Although it looks very grand, the staff are so friendly that it never feels imposing or stuck up. The gardens looked brilliant and we had a tremendous room overlooking the lake with a small balcony and the usual luxurious bathroom. We had a stunning anniversary dinner with champagne and desert wine and spent the next morning swimming it off in the beautiful pool. It was a heavenly wedding anniversary and a great way to celebrate our return to the UK.
We joined the beginning of the Easter rush on the M25 to head to Leysdown and John’s mum’s for the weekend. For the next couple of weeks we’re rushing around saying hello to family after being away so long, then hopefully we’ll be able to hook up again with our friends. I guess after that we really should start thinking about making useful contributions to society, getting back to some work and even earning some money but for now I’m very happy to enjoy an English spring and reflect on our epic trip.

Hong Kong heaven

So we said goodbye to the Peninsula Hotel and Port Douglas and headed back along the coast road to Cairns for our Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. John was delighted that they had mini pies with ‘sauce’ (tomato ketchup) in the lounge and was able to indulge in a final splurge on Aussie pies before we left! It was dark by the time we got to Hong Kong but it meant a great view of the skyline on our ride in from the airport. I’d got us a great deal at the City Garden Hotel so I was a bit anxious about what the hotel would be like for under £100 a night including breakfast and complimentary aperitifs. It was really nice and we were on the club floor at the top with a pretty spacious room for Hong Kong. I think it was the location that made it so much cheaper than the usual suspects – the other side of Victoria Park from Causeway Bay in a very Chinese residential district but that made it all the more interesting. There was a little garden outside the hotel with blossom trees – strange to go from autumn to spring in 7 hours, where people walked their dogs and school children hung about. The view was mainly of the residential tower blocks, festooned with washing (clearly a Chinese gene somewhere in the Chambers make up which makes us so keen to do laundry all the time) but we did get a small slice of harbour to watch the boats go by and a glimpse of the taller towers above the flats.
Next morning was a beautiful spring day with hazy sunshine and low humidity so we set off to walk through Causeway Bay and all the way to Central. Hong Kong is such an interesting place to walk around, though quite tricky with such high density buildings and endless flyovers and walkways above street level so it took quite a long time to walk relatively short distances. We walked the length of Lockhart St which is clearly where you go if you’re renovating as every shop offered doors, tiles, bathrooms, light switches, flooring and every conceivable item of household fixtures and fittings. Once we’d had a wander round Central we took the Peak Tram up the hill to enjoy the view during the day. It was a bit hazy but very pleasant and relatively quiet compared with the bustle below. We had some absolutely fantastic Sushi with soft shell crab and avocado in the maki rolls before getting the tram back down and the walk back to the hotel. We walked through Victoria Park which is lovely – blossom trees, azaleas and grasses as well as bowls, tennis, an outdoor pool, a pebble walk, jogging track and people doing tai chi or just sitting eating takeaway noodles or dim sum. After so many hours of walking we decided to eat in the hotel since they boasted an ‘award winning’ Cantonese restaurant. It was tremendous and rightly deserving of award winning status. We had some prawns and then shared a duck, which they carved at the table and then served with pancakes and also minced with lettuce leaves.
Next day we headed out to Kowloon trying out the impressive MTR metro system – I love the interactive on train maps with flashing lights to tell you which direction the train is going in and the interchange stations where you change lines by walking across to another platform. After Kowloon we went up to the viewing platform in the Bank of China tower, there was some kind of demo going on outside but by handing over our UK driving licences they let us in and up to the 43rd floor for the view of the city and the harbour. More Sashimi and Sushi in a small Causeway Bay canteen before the stroll back through the park. We fancied dinner with a view and booked the restaurant in the Excelsior where we had a window seat looking across the harbour to Kowloon and along to Central. A really great spot for dinner and the food was lovely as well. We watched the boats cruising the harbour and also coming in for the night into the sheltered moorings below.
We booked the hotel for another night, even though we were leaving for the airport at 8pm, to allow us to make the most of the final day of our trip, rather than checking out at 11am and then doing a lot of hanging around – the last thing you need before 18 hours of travelling! We took the MTR to Lantau Island and queued up for the cable car at the end of the line. It was all very efficient with timed boarding and a very well organised system. The cable car is terrific, over 5km long, crossing 2 bodies of water and swapping twice onto a different cable as it climbs the hills and swoops back down to the village. As well as the view of the island and the coastline you also get a bird’s eye view of the airport with the planes landing and taking off below. The ‘heritage’ village is very touristy with lots of gift shops and tacky souvenirs and unauthentic looking food outlets (including the ubiquitous Subway). We walked through it to the more subdued and calm atmosphere of Po Lin monastery where the air was scented with incense and blossom. I persuaded John to climb the 200 steps to the giant Buddha which is pretty impressive and has a great view. Then we retraced our steps down on the cable car and the MTR to Kowloon.
We had promised ourselves afternoon tea at The Peninsula and arrived at about 2.30pm. We hadn’t reckoned on that being a popular Saturday choice for everyone else visiting Hong Kong and had to stand in the queue very patiently till nearly 4pm. It was worth the wait though with a tiered cake stand of sandwiches, savouries, cakes and scones. We took the champagne option as well as tea since we felt we’d earned it after all the queuing! One of the UK’s most successful and long lasting exports – the British Empire may be long gone but wherever the Brits were you can still take afternoon tea!
Replete, we headed back to the hotel for the final case packing and bath before taking a cab to the airport for the very last leg of our amazing journey. A 13 hour flight to Heathrow and the short hop to Manchester.

Pics of our rain forest adventure

Enjoying the scenery at Mossman Gorge. Some of the creatures we met on the way: a croc, a golden orb spider and a rainforest dragon. John in the rain on Cape Tribulation beach.

Daintree and Cape Tribulation

The next day we’d booked to spend with Tony’s Tropical Tours, exploring the rainforest to the North, so at 7.30am the eponymous owner and our guide for the day turned up and we were off, complete with insect repellent, umbrellas and plastic ponchos. We picked up a couple from York, who are currently living in New Zealand and an American couple from Lake Tahoe, who made pleasant company, along with Tony, who clearly loves his work and was knowledgeable and incredibly enthusiastic about the local inhabitants of the rain forest.
We stopped at Mossman Gorge, where we took us for a guided walk through the forest and along the river bank, pointing out lizards (a large breed called a dragon) and other creatures. The local mosquitoes were clearly impervious to the jungle formula repellent and we did end up with some spectacular bites. The area also lived up to its name in terms of rain so the ponchos and umbrellas came in handy.
Next stop was the Daintree River where Tony left us with Bruce for a croc spotting cruise on the river. We pottered along, admiring a tree snake (apparently harmless), a tree frog and a spotted frog mouth (a large bird) before the highlight of the trip. A large male croc, probably about 30 feet long swam upriver and alongside the boat, surveying his territory and ensuring no other dominant male was planning to move into his patch. It looked very scary and whilst the locals seem quite blasé about snakes, spiders and other potentially threatening species, there is huge respect for and fear of crocs. Warning signs are put up by creeks and on golf courses if anyone spots one and if a boat sinks in the river it is not salvaged if it would mean going into the water to get it.
Tony picked us up further down the river and we drove on to a coastal look out point. The lookout was obscured by rain and fog so, after a morning cup of tea, dripping under a wooden shelter, we continued to Cape Tribulation (named by Captain Cook after running aground there and taking some months to get his boat mended and sorted out) where the beach is absolutely lovely. This is where the barrier reef meets the rain forest and it is the picture perfect idea of a tropical beach paradise. However on this day the sea was grey and the waves were crashing on the sand so we didn’t mind too much that we couldn’t go in the water due to the box jelly fish! Tony took us to see the golden orb spider which had made a huge web just outside the men’s loo and which was definitely the record breaker in terms of size. They have been known to eat small birds which get stuck in their webs. Surprisingly no-one felt the need to visit the conveniences at this pit stop!
The streams we’d crossed on the way up had become raging torrents by the time we returned, Tony told us that they frequently used to get stuck between creeks for hours at a time before the new fords and bridges were put in. We walked through a beautiful bit of forest to a small shelter where Tony served meat, fish and salad for lunch with ‘damper’ or bush bread (much tastier than the ones we used to make at guide camp). We were most impressed as to how he’d managed to conjure up this feast in the middle of nowhere, but when we walked back on a different path we discovered several ladies busy under a large wooden A frame with a semi permanent kitchen! Just below us was a swimming hole where we had intended to swim in the crystal clear stream, where the water is too cold for crocs though not for people. However, this too had become a raging torrent and we would have been downstream with the crocs in minutes so we just admired it from a safe distance.
After lunch we drove deep into the forest and once again donned our ponchos for a walk on a tiny path exclusive to Tony’s tours. Before setting off Tony pointed out a plant that if you brush against it will fire small spikes into you which will cause huge pain and discomfort for as long as 6 months – even the plants here are out to get you it seems, but at least they stay in one place so they’re easier to avoid! We took a walk through the forest, admiring the lizards, insects, trees and flowers and saw some of the damage done by Cyclone Yassi in February and how the forest is already starting to repair itself.
Our final stop was for some home made ice cream and a look at the wild orchids. We were lucky enough to see a Cassowary which wandered onto the next field. These are huge, flightless birds, bigger than an ostrich with incredibly colourful blue and red heads and a horned helmet. They are direct survivors from prehistoric times and are now very rare, even in this corner of the rainforest which is about their last remaining home. We’d seen them in Sydney Zoo and in the wildlife park but it was amazing to see one in the wild. Apparently they can give you a nasty disembowelling with their huge claws if you upset them and get too close – it’s a wonder anyone survived here long enough to colonise the place!
Thoroughly warn out we headed back to Port Douglas, over the chain link ferry across the Daintree River (hoping it didn’t break down having seen the size of the crocs in the river) and narrowly avoiding a tree which fell onto the road in front of us with all the rain and wind. We were lucky this time in that the cloud had cleared so we could admire the view down the coast from the look out point. We made it back with just some mosquito bites from our adventure and had avoided being bitten by snakes or spiders, brushing up against fearsome plants or being disembowelled by a cassowary. It was a fantastic day but I’m really glad I live in Manchester!

Animals and scenery

The amazing train from Kuranda and the desolate beauty of Low Isle as well as some pictures of the wallabies, crocs (these are freshwater and less likely to eat you), koala and John talking to a pair of Kookaburras.

Back to the reef

It would be very easy here to just slip into totally lazy holiday mode, run beforehand and a bit of walk after breakfast, beer at lunchtime and a nice swim in the pool before a Jacuzzi bath and dinner, but there is so much to see and do we just keep on booking more exciting trips in an effort to pack it all in.
After a chilled out Saturday we booked a second reef trip for Sunday, this time on a sailing catamaran to the Low Isles, which are just 15km out from Port Douglas. It was incredibly windy which made for a very fine sail and an exciting ride – fortunately for us we have very strong constitutions when it comes to rough seas. It also meant that the large contingent who were due to join the boat from a cruise ship were unable to come as the captain felt the tenders which would have brought them to shore would be unsafe in the conditions. A shame for them but it meant we had the boat almost to ourselves, apart from a family of very large Liverpudlians and a group of Chinese who were making a promotional film about North Queensland. The star of the film is apparently the most famous person in China and even bigger than Justin Bieber but I’m afraid that not being on top of Chinese teenage pop idols the awe inspiring nature of our fellow passenger was lost on me!
I decided to take the guided snorkelling tour with Erica, the on board marine biologist, whilst John stick to the glass bottom boat tour. So it was back into the lovely, lycra stinger suit and on the small tender to the island where we snorkelled from the beach. Unfortunately the wind, which had given us such a nice ride, had stirred up the water so visibility was very poor, you could only really see the reef by diving down and it was hard work swimming against the waves and the current. John had much the same experience in the glass bottom boat. After lunch we took the tender to the small island and took the guided walking tour around it as the tide was going out which was lovely. We saw a pair of Ospreys watching us from the top of the lighthouse and a shark cruising the reef. Apparently it gets pretty crowded on the island in peak season so we were lucky to see it in a fairly deserted state as it certainly wasn’t very big.
Another exciting ride back and we were in port and washing the salt off in our huge bath. Our air conditioning unit decided to give up which made it very sticky and hot. As the hotel was not too busy Phil gave us the key to the next door room so we could get a decent night's sleep. They managed to come and fix it the very next day which was impressive – our dishwasher in Manchester gave out in October and, despite 2 visits from an engineer, it’s still not working!

Tropical North Queensland

We took a trip with Glenn to see some of the wonders of the area on a mini bus with 8 other tourists – 4 Brits, 2 honeymooners from Melbourne and the chef from our hotel and his wife on their day off. Glenn could talk the leg off a chair (to use one of his own expressions) so we got plenty of commentary as we headed on the coast road south towards Cairns.
We arrived at the Skyrail and took the amazing cable car ride over the tops of the rainforest and into the hills. At over 7km long it must have taken some building, as the pylons seemed to be fixed into dense rainforest. At the first stop we took the board walk through the forest before the next leg which took us right alongside the river gorge, plunging deep below us. The next station was a lookout over the falls and the hydro electric dam above before continuing to the village of Kuranda. We had a bit of lunch and wandered around the village, which seems to cater specifically to tourists with exhibitions of local flora, fauna and Australian wildlife, as well as numerous tourist shops which shut at 3pm when the last train/cable car leaves. It was very pretty, even in the rain (well it is rainforest), but I think for this trip the journey was more important than the destination.
We went back down on the scenic railway, which was built to service the gold mines beyond Kuranda and is an absolute wonder of 19th century engineering. With nothing much apart from picks, shovels and manpower they built a railway which climbs 1000 feet, along the side of the gorge, with tunnels, cuttings and 180 degree bends. At one point they even had to cut back to the bare rock in order to create a stable ledge wide enough to hold the track. It was amazing and the views were incredible. We didn’t opt for the first class option, since the view was the same from coach and we could actually see better from the back of the train, as you could see the rest of the train snaking away in front on the longer bends. The members of our party were decidedly jolly when we regrouped for the mini bus ride into Cairns so the alcohol consumption must have been pretty significant!
We spent an hour in Cairns, wandered along the boardwalk, past the swimming lagoon and into the town. It was enough to convince me that Port Douglas was the right place to stay since Cairns didn’t seem to have much to commend it in comparison with our bijoux resort.
Next day we headed up to the wildlife sanctuary on the local bus, which gave us a chance to see some of the other resorts along 4 mile beach and closer to the Captain Cook Highway. All very nice but not nearly as handy for the town centre for an evening wander.
The wildlife sanctuary was brilliant, divided into 3 areas – forest, wetland and grassland, it was able to show case Australian animals in something close to their natural habitats and they all looked pretty relaxed about being there. The keepers showed us a black python and a baby croc and talked about the lifecycle of snakes and crocs (including what to do if bitten by a poisonous snake which is always good to know). There were photo opportunities which we declined but it was fun watching a family of 3 small boys engaging with the animals. The eldest must have been about 6 and was extremely confident and keen to get stuck in, the middle one was more measured but still very calm and relaxed. The little one, who can’t have been much more than 2 was much more nervous but wanted to stay close to his brothers. He was watching the eldest being photographed with the baby croc (with its mouth carefully taped shut) when a large bird, keen to get involved in the action, popped out from behind the screen and gave the little one an inquisitive prod with his beak. This completely spooked him and he ran screaming for his mother. I was tickled by the irony of bringing up Australian children – snakes and crocs, just fine but birds, now there’s something to be scared of!
We had a close up look at the Koalas, pretty easy since they sleep for 19 hours a day. John has taken to call me Koala Perkins, because of my propensity to fall asleep at the drop of a hat or given a comfy enough perch! The birds in the rainforest and wetlands were beautiful, especially the kookaburras, sitting on the railing and there were some lovely miniature kangaroos (musky rat kangaroos) hopping about below. In the grasslands there were lots of different kinds of kangaroos and wallabies and, as you’re allowed to feed them, they come right up to take a look at you. I can never get over the way they hop about. I’ve been reading Bill Bryson ‘Down Under’ and he says the Australian mammals evolved so far away from everyone else that they didn’t read the manual about how to run and took to hopping instead! There were also saltwater crocs lurking in a large pond and the less aggressive freshwater crocs sunning themselves on the bank of the lake. Apart from the different types of water they have to be kept apart as there’s nothing a crocodile likes eating as much as another crocodile though I think fishermen come a close second.
It was a great way of seeing the wildlife close to and it felt like the animals were enjoying being there, except for the tree kangaroo who looked a bit miserable but then the female was being kept in a separate enclosure as she was finishing bringing up a baby one so that might have something to do with it.