Hi everyone, well I certainly have a lot to fill you in with today.... had an action packed couple of weeks... to avoid inducing a snore fest I have decided to break it down into some bite sized portions for you.

1st up: Paula's visit - Asian sights & delights:

It was so nice to have Paula come visit me, to see a friendly face and be able to have someone to come home to, as well as speak english fluently to! I think a couple of times I reverted into broken English or Chinese by mistake!

I managed to book a couple of days off work so that we could do some good old fashioned tourist trips together, and you my lucky readers get to hear all about our escapades!

First stop... Victoria Peak - this is a must do for anyone who is visiting Hk, need to go on a clear day and then you get the tram up the steepest hill in history (thats not an actual fact, but just wanted to express the steepness... in the tram it felt like we would fall off the side of the hill at any moment!). Once at the top the views are amazing (see pics attached). You can see for miles, we managed to go on the hottest day of the year (also not an actual fact but it felt like it!).

Afterwards we took a stoll through the HK zoo / botanical gardens which is a free park with monkeys, a jaguar, birds etc etc Walking around, it didnt even feel like we were in HK... so tranquil.
We followed this up with a trip on the star ferry, which is also something you must have on your ticksheet when visiting, just to say that you have done it.. a bit like riding a red bus in London. Crazy cheap, only $2 to cross the harbour which is around 12pence!

Also achieved on the Hong Kong sightseeing tour was a harbour trip on a pirate-esque boat, we were planning to take the star ferry tour but then found the pirate ship and before you could say ‘arrr! ahoy me matey’ we decided to board. Three times the cost of the star ferry but defo worth it. The boat had a beautiful interior and old fashioned red sails. As we boarded there was already one other couple on the upper desk, relaxing and thinking that they had the trip to themselves (cosy romantic sail around the harbour) wo ha ha! Added to this amusing fact was that they were playing the cheesiest smoochy smooch love songs! The couple were very much British and looked a bit money money, so we decided to nickname them the ‘goldplated couple’ thats still making me chuckle!!

In the afternoon we took a tour around the HK art museum… lots of traditional calligraphy, watercolours and ceramics. I could have spent the entire day wandering around, especially the room containing the Chinese figurines.

What else to mention… we went to the Science museum also which was fun, lots of interactive features (geared towards children so plenty amusing for us!). We only discovered the best floor right at the end however and didnt really have time to properly explore… we wasted too much time in the ‘electricity & telecommunications’ (So be warned of my tourguide skills, or lack there of hehe!)

Paula, Im sure I have missed quite a lot out?... like when we walked down the avenue of stars in Tsim Sha Tsui and got mobbed by loads of schoolkids doing surveys on superstition, having our picture taken a lot, thus spawning our self allocated nicknames: Britney & Cher on tour! hehe

If you think of anything else I need to update the people with send me an email to remind me, we dont want them to miss out!