Honkers

I had never been to Hong Kong before unless you count walking across the tarmac at the old airport to change planes on the way to Vietnam for the first time in 1997. So, when Joel suggested he would like to see Hong Kong, I thought, yes, why not, let's do it.

We both found it to be underwhelming, claustrophobic, so many high rise apartment blocks which would be awful to live in. The air was horribly smoggy. The people were efficient, business like, generally polite, occasionally impatient and they don't smile - not friendly at all.

It is hard to find the old among the new in Hong Kong, but there are some British remnants - trams and the town hall.

Bamboo is still often used for scaffolding. This one looks like a porcupine.

There is construction everywhere, especially along the harbour front. It was also very smoggy which did spoil the views. Apparently it is like this 30% of the time.

Not sure I'd want to eat fish from Victoria Harbour.

Can you "see tomorrow clearly"?

A short sampan ride amongst fishing boats, house boats and million dollar yachts.

We rode the old and very steep cable car to the summit of Victoria Peak for the smoggy views. That's not quite true. The very touristy full-of-shops centre is not quite on the top. Someone with a lot of money owns a residence at the very top.

Man Mo temple is frequented by many locals and tourists. Not very big and not very old, built in 1847 but in an ancient style.

Lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe

Hong Kong is proud of its nightly light show. Sorry, Hong Kong, but Da Nang's night lights are better.

The famous ferry across the harbour which at 900 metres, is not as wide as I expected.

Kowloon is a similar mix of old and massive glitzy new buildings.

We used the Big Bus hop-on-hop-off bus tour to explore the city for the two days we were there and it was very good value and easy to use. I am glad to have seen Hong Kong but I do not need to go there again.