Day 5 - Temple of Heaven

Ominous looking day with all of the smog around the city.  The Temple of Heaven, well it is not every day that you get to stand on the very spot that the Emperor did to pray for a good harvest. The walk through the outer layers was certainly interesting, and hard to imagine the formal procession, lighting of fires and animal sacrifices on the altar.

And here is the magical spot that you have to run into and pose for, quicker than trying to time the two skipping ropes flicking around at the speed of light!  Everyone wants to stand where the Emperor did.

What about being a gardener at the Temple of Heaven, always prestigious for the resume?

Even the trees looked ancient.

As we wandered out of the temple, it is after 1:30 pm and I haven't eaten lunch.  I am hot, tired and hungry.  Perfect spot to land a tea house I say.  It is a tourist dream, multiple rounds of tea served with free nuts, all in the hope that you will buy some expensive tea or china to take home.  Our lovely guide joined us for tea.

Very serious routine that the tea maker goes through.  I reckon she may have done it a few hundred times before.  To my surprise, the youngster did all rounds of the tea drinking as well.

 

Day 5 - Beijing

As we drew back the curtains this morning, we were delighted to see the King Parkview.  The scenic view complete with rolling smog ;-)

I picture of true delight for as far as the eye can see.

Breakfast was a large "buffet" room with catering desperately trying to please the international audience.  Big sigh from the youngster and I, this may be a long day and thank goodness for the snacks squirrelled away in our back pack.  The youngster is suddenly aware that she is the centre of attention and starts squirming around.  Apparently an international rock star has arrived at the breakfast hall, cameras are out and Chinese people are starting to make a bee line just to touch or have there photo taken near the blonde haired child.

Our first stop after 5 days was to try and find somewhere to get some laundry done.  After some very questionable directions from the hotel lobby, we headed off down some alleys to try and locate the laundry.  So far in our travels we have not seen very many animals.  So when we passed this little guy, there was a squeal of delight from the animal lover.  A wry look passed between the adults as we noted that this was unlikely to be a long living pet.

After trying to have conversations with several local people about where the laundry might be, and knocking on some random doors, we give up the search and head back to meet up with the guides.  First stop is a local park.  It was fantastic to see everyone out exercising, young and old, people everywhere.  Yep, just taking my sword down to the park to practice my moves.

Aunty Helen thought she would bust a move with some very accommodating people kicking around a large shuttle cock kind of thing.  Unfortunately plenty of air swings and giggles all round.  I was impressed by the efforts, as the youngster and I hung back skulking by the camera.

Practicing your writing was also a popular activity, little brush, some water and away you go.

 

Day 4 - Travel to Beijing

We left the hotel and Hong Kong enroute to Beijing.  We decided to grab some lunch in the airport, Aunty Helen has purchased some dumplings.  The youngster looks over with an interest and then decides she is going to give them a try.  This is quite a large step for the perennial fussy eater, but the look of joy upon tasting said dumpling was joy.  So I was promptly departed to pick up a tray of dumplings!

After 3 hours flying we were desperate to use a bathroom.  Remembering that bathroom facilities will be an issue, I decided to use the airport ones before we left.  After lining up for five minutes, we arrived at the head of the queue.  Just before we were about to step into the toilets, two elderly Chinese women cut in front of us.  Not really knowing what the rules were, we decided that age had right of way.  Now the next issue is the squat toilets, thankfully we manage to find one that looks like home.  With the youngster needing a bathroom 100 times per day, the squat toilet use is only a matter of time.

We meet our new guides and arrive at the King Parkview Hotel in darkness.  Knowing that we had an early start in the morning, we went for a quick walk through what felt like the Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.  We needed to pick up some travel snacks for tomorrow, and I passed over some currency to the locals.  With no translator present and no English spoken there was a flurry of words being thrown around us.  The note was passed along to each of the staff members and then back to me.  After pausing for a short while trying to figure out what was wrong, it suddenly dawned on me that I had used Hong Kong money.  In my defence, I think they looked similar, ok well they were both red with a 100 on them!  What was interesting was that the Chinese people had no idea what currency I was trying to give them.

After a long day travelling, we found a quaint little bar to source some refreshments.  We were greeted by 80's music, with was amusing.  The food appeared to be the clash of many cultures.  Apparently the mint leaves in the mojito can be substituted with glace cherries, and Aunty Helen's request for a spicy meal was met with a whole plate of chillies with a dash of pork!  Wow the mango frappe certainly did go down a treat.

We haven't managed to find a laundry facility after the hotel in Hong Kong failed to collect the laundry from our room.  Our hotel room now is looking like the inside of a Chinese laundry with our washing hanging everywhere and the hope that it will dry before we leave this hotel.

 

Day 3 - Meeting Local Friends

Our travelling companion is quite seasoned and seems to have friends dotted all over the world.  We had arranged to meet up in the afternoon at the local museum.  Taking advantage of old friends catching up, the youngster and I headed off to the café whilst the pair toured through the museum.  In the café we were greeted by the smell of coffee, but the taste of the local milk had not yet grown on me.  We did see some local toasted buns, so we ordered one each and sat down to wait.

I am really not sure what we were expecting, but a bread roll with butter and condensed milk spread on top was a bit of a surprise.  There were giggles all round as we tucked into them.  Of course the youngster needed to visit the bathroom, as with most establishments in life.  I know it is politically incorrect around the world to whip out your camera in the bathroom, but check out these toilet doors!

Vicki of course new all the good spots to eat, and I was somewhat excited about not having Japanese for dinner.  I do love going into a restaurant and seeing it packed out with locals, it is a good sign that the food is great.  Vicki was in charge of the menu, and we were soon surrounded by an amazing smorgasbord of delights.  The sweet and sour pork was out of this world, as was the youngster's and my use of chopsticks.

With the friends deciding to take another stroll along the harbour, we bid them farewell and headed back to the hotel, bed and resting our weary legs.



 

Day 3 - Hong Kong Island

Into the little touring van, and off to visit the Hong Kong Island with the tour host that no doubt wanted to be a famous television game show host.  Man that guy could talk, and it sounded like a recording of what he had no doubt done a million times, shuffling tourists around.

The trip up to the top of the island to Victoria Peak is done via a quaint little tram.  552 metres high with a 7 km running track around the top.  Lovely place to get away and bash out a nice run whilst glancing down at Victoria Harbour, Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island.  Given we were on a time restriction, I was unable to partake in the burning of calories.  Ha ha...I can't remember the last time I bashed out a 7 km run, thank goodness there was only time  At least the talking guide had all the moves and he managed to navigate his way to herding all the tour into the car at the same time.  No mean feat when you have wandering tourists of every nationality, may have been easier to heard cats!

 



From Victoria Peak we headed over to the south side of the Island driving past Repulse Bay.  The name is drawn from the battleship HMS Repulse who battled plundering pirates many years ago.  Our next stop is scheduled to be the local jewellery factory.  We were ushered in and stuck there for what felt like an eternity.  After some time of playing dodge with the sales people. and convincing the child that she did not need a $700 AUD miniature jade dog, I dutifully purchased a Rat pendant for my necklace and fended off others as I tried to find my way to the exit.

Next stop is the Stanley Markets.  Although our time to wander around here is now down to less than an hour, due to the length of incarceration at the jewellery factory!  By this stage in the day I have not eaten since breakfast and am nearly fainting.  We race through stalls in desperation, searching for any food venue to plunder!

With the threat of being left at Stanley Street to find our own way home, we quickly ate and headed back to the bus.  The air conditioning of the bus was a welcome relief to the temperatures outside, and the trip down to the Aberdeen Fishing Village was lovely.

We were to visit the "remains of Hong Kong's boat people...with an optional sampan ride".  Marketing people have a lot to answer for. 

Upon arriving at the dock, we move straight onto the sampan.  I am not sure where the tour for the fishing village was, so the spin around the harbour was at least some way of having a look at a boat of some description.

 

It was amusing to see that a love of gardening could be achieved whilst residing on the water.

 

 

The thing that bothered me most about this trip was the obvious problem with refuse and environmental sustainability.

 

 

Day 2 - Hong Kong Harbour

After a day of transport hopping and trekking around Disneyland, we were pretty wrecked on arriving back at the hotel.  I didn't want to walk any further, so as we rounded the corner from the hotel I noticed a restaurant called Rubota Kim.  Funky name, so I limped on in and took up residence at a table.  Low and behold, for the third night in a row we were about to eat sushi!

By this stage I wanted something a little different, but the eel and tuna sashimi on the opposite side of the table was not making a run at my side.  I was able to squash in an edamame bean or two.  It had been warm all day, so the crab and mango option sounded nice.  I ordered tuna for the youngster, and looked away when realising that the tuna was not cooked.  The tuna jelly went down fine thank goodness. 


The waiter wandered back to the table to advise that there was not any mango left.  Big sigh from me, but he says that he can put some cheese on instead.  Not being familiar with cheese on sushi, I thought I misheard him.  Apparently not, and it was certainly the first time I have every had grilled cheese on sushi!

Much to our dismay, the next thing on the list was to trek down to Hong Kong Harbour for the famous photo shot.  Have to see it at night, the lights are spectacular.  By this stage my feet had long since passed the hurting stage and had progressed into a state of numbness.  Although there was not a large time zone variation, the travelling and big day at walking had taken a toll on the normally early to bed pair.  But it is a holiday, a life adventure...buckle up travellers.

The view was amazing and well worth the walk. We were also fortunate enough to have a lantern parade that we got to wander through.  A spectacular way to end the day.  The fitbit clocked over 12 km today, and I have felt every step of it.

 

 

Day 2 - Disney Land

Travel to Disney Land today was sure exciting, we used four different subway trains to land over there. The last train had the cutest windows, they were Mickey Mouse ears!  The  train was adorned with bronze statues of the Disney characters, and the hand straps also joined in the theming.

We paused for the entrance photo, although someone managed to put in a seductive pose, not sure what was going on there!

Actually it was hilarious, even the youngsters lunch time meal had carrot and watermelon cut Mickey mouse ears.  There was also the wafting aroma of Mickey Mouse waffles.

As with any commercialised venture, there was a stack of Disney branded items for sale.  The child got lost in the possibility of spending all travel money on Day 2 to buy up all the little stuffed things she could find.  Thankfully Mummy had the foresight to but a limit on the number you could buy, and also the size given we are travelling a long way from home.  Some blue stitch thing was selected and then randomly appeared in photos for the balance of the day.

I am not sure if the traffic through the amusement park was normal for a Saturday, but it was surely not what I expected.  We hardly had to queue for any rides or food, which meant that there were ample rides to be taken.  The youngster finally achieved her dream of a roller coaster ride, actually multiple times.  At the end of the ride, I swear she would have broken a track record to run back and announce how excited she was.

After rollercoasters, she also managed to survive some horrid looking ride the spanned into the sky at great speeds. Many thanks to Aunty Helen for her dedication to attending to every ride request.

We did climb up through Tarzan's tree house, after a short ride down the river on a raft.  I jumped on the carosel for a spin and almost begged the horses to stop moving.  As we took a spin on the train around the outside of the park, I spotted the famous tea cups that had been etched in my childhood memory, and the best part, it was stationary!  In reflecting on the day, the youngster feels that I must have had a sense of abandonment at being left alone and away from the fun of screaming your head off.  Yep those solo moments with a quiet coke zero were terrible.  I also managed to find a popcorn place, and I did pass on the curry popocorn option, instead giving the chocolate version a go.

Determined to make the most of my holiday, and perhaps bring home a little trinket for myself, I gave this a good.....

 

It was also lovely to hang out with the youngster, with no worries about school, work, chores or any other normal life drama.  It was random moments of being able to see how big she has actually grown, and how her own little sense of humour is developing.  This stunt actually made me chuckle out loud.  The look on her face was hilarious, especially when glancing over at Aunty Helen who was posing quite respectively for the photo.

 

The fitbit announced on the way out of the park that I had hit my step target for the day, and judging by the feel or lack of feeling in my feet at the moment, it feels like I walked a long way.