DAY 3 - HONG KONG

After a late night hunting for bargains in Mong Kok we had a relaxing morning checking out Kowloon park just down the road from our Hotel. Here there were heaps of birds - flamingoes, parrots, cockatoos and even an unfortunate looking Rhino-nose bird.

We've experienced the extremes of Hong Kong from the expansive malls with shops such as Versace, Gucci, Dolce & Gabana and many we had never even heard of! Although we felt slightly out of place as we had left our Jimmy Cho shoes at home that day the sweet, sweet air con was enough to leave our pride at the door. The other end of the spectrum was the markets tucked down alley ways with stalls selling goldfish in plastic bags and many, many knick knacks.

Another extreme we experienced was when we decided to take the MTR (train) back from Hong Kong Island to our Hotel, little did we know that thanks to Buddha's birthday on the Friday (a public holiday) everyone was heading out for the night... all 6 million of them, with the majority wanting to take the same train. Although at first we were a little overwhelmed thinking we'd never get home that night, the masses were very orderly and we soon found ourselves jammed into a train with just enough room for the doors to close (thanks to Whitey's TurboJam butt!)

Later we meet up again with Jenny to head down to see the light show from the ‘Walk with the stars’ boulevard – Hong Kong’s answer to Hollywood’s walk of fame. Unfortunately we missed the show but it was still very impressive looking over to Hong Kong Island at all the skyscrapers with different colours and patterns. But the best discovery was yet to come! Jenny took us to a nearby restaurant, which was packed to the rafters…literally! We had to wait to be seated but soon people were shuffled round and a table was made available. Talk about efficient service - orders were taken, cutlery thrown on the table not long followed by our meals; again we would have been quite lost without the wonderful Jenny! Dessert was the real winner though where we fell in love with Pineapple buns and Sweet milk buns.

Overall impressions Hong Kong...

1. Clean, alot of shop door handles were disinfected every two hours

2. HOT, humid, hot - air con is A-mazing

3. Very polite people (except for the ones on EVERY street corner trying to sell 'Missy' a copy watch or handbag)

4. Cheap meals, lots of fresh seafood (e.g. $7 for a meal)

5. It was uncommon to go for more than 100 steps without using an escalator. We heart escalators especially the big ones and the curved ones that make us go wow!

...was a lot of fun thanks to Jenny Gin!