Grande Buddah and the joys of Dim Sum

We arrived in Hong Kong late afternoon the following day, and were suprised to find ourselves feeling a little jet lagged after a mere 3 hour time shift. Once safely ensconsed in our hotel room we summoned the energy to go out for a little explore, and seek sustinence. As mum had been to Hong Kong a whopping 6 times before she was appointed tour guide, and we were off. Throughout my travels one of my favourite aspects of visiting a new place is trying the food, even when its horrible (think Argentina) it at least provides good anecdotal material. So I was disappointed when that first night we ended up in the spaghetti house chowing down on pasta.
However, my disappointment was tempered the next morning when we were up nice and early to go and play on the cable cars and visit Big Buddah. First we had to procure an Octopus card (like Oyster card) for the underground. Despite the fact that most people in Hong Kong speak English we decided to embellish our asking with much miming of Octopi. We had also learned how to sign 'toilet' in Chinese writing in case of emergency. See, we are such well prepared travelling fiends, adapatable to any situation.
The Buddah, and the 25 minute two way awesome skyride, were fabulicious. Plus off with even more awesomeness when we found a massive rooster statue to take photos with. We also walked the wisdom walk, and are now very wise. Mmm wise...
We topped it off with well yummy potato filled rolls, which sounds wrong but were super awesome. After that we hit the ladies market, where I had to be restrained from buying all kinds of over-priced rubbish.
And then, that night... the truth about Chinese food came out. Some friends of mum's had kindly asked if we would like to go out for dinner for traditional Chinese and I enthusiastically agreed. However, if seems that the tastiness of English Chinese was added on its crossing over the sea as Chinese in China largely resembles sea slugs. Lots of them. Actually the duck was good, but everything else definately had a hint of slug. The other problem with Asia is that manners dictate you politely partake in all you are offered, which is how we ended up having Dim Sum the following day. If anything this was worse, as the food was like giant spider eggsacks filled with fluid. One of which managed to prompt an allergic reaction in me and mum seeing us closely resembling Lesley Ash the following day. Mmm... delish. It has to be said though that the lovely Chinese couple who took it upon themselves to show us round were fabulously good hosts to us, and definately ensured we got a tste of the real Hong Kong.
ANYWAY... aside from the Dim Sum the following day was spent looking at a traditional Chinese village (very poor, very cramped), followed by a nice contrasting visit to a walled community in the New Territories which was absolutely beautiful and very spacious. The contrast between rich and poor was actually quite reminicent of the social divide I witnessed in Brazil. We also visited a wish tree, a chinese tradition which involves throwing plastic oranges into trees. Muchus fun. Mum is rubbish at throwing plastic oranges, fact.
That evening we were all traditional Chinesed out and so it was up the touristy but gorgeous peak, con ride on Star Ferry (octopusing again) for the best margarita's of our lives and a steak so rare it was mooing.... bliss. Oh and then a whole bottle of wine and a slightly tipsy journey back to the hotel.
The next day Mum was flying back to Blighty in the evening so we had something of a relaxed day. We ferried over to Hong Kong island to be once again defeated in our search for a cup of tea, and to look at the road that only sold bathrooms. Followed by a perambulate around the most confusing, alphabetically-ordered shopping centre of mystery in the World. Another trip to ladies market made the wares seem no better made, and then we were back to the hotel for a nap, sadly sin hammock this time. The evening saw us eating in the hotel before I bid goodbye to mum for the duration of our respective flights home, and then treated myself to a nice relaxing 2 hour gym session.
And the final morning of my nine month adventure dawned. Which is just crazy because it felt both as if I had been away for a lifetime, and yet also for about 2 weeks. Luckily I was distracted by eating enough buffet style breakfast for 8 and so wasn't too sad for my final airport transfer.
Before I knew it the 11 hour flight had (literally) flown by and I was back in Heathrow. Naturally queuing for longer than all other border crossing combined. Ah home. How I missed you.