HONG KONG

Thursday 3rd April

We were up quite early the following day, caught a taxi to the closet train station and headed on the MTR (Metro train rail) to Causeway Bay, which is known for its huge shopping malls. We had promised to let Charlotte shop until she dropped when we arrived in HK, so there was no other choice but to get the shopping over first up!! Unfortunately we were too early for the shopping malls, as nothing opened before about 10:30am. So we found a bus going to the Bay where the popular Stanley markets are held. The day was a bit cold and overcast so the bay didn’t look as pretty as it probably would in sunshine, but who cares… when you have a daughter who has one thing on her mind, SHOPPING. Once we bought Charlotte a pair of converse shoes we could relax a bit and explore the markets.
After delving into every corner of the market we chowed down at a very busy local restaurant, which our little one could not believe we were going to eat in. We were the only westerners in the place and sharing tables with the locals was a bit overwhelming for Charlotte, not to mention the menu and the aromas of the cuisine! (He He) Leon and I enjoyed our lunch and had a wonderful chat to a young Canadian who joined our table a little later. He was Tristan’s age and had been travelling Europe for 3 months and was on his way home to settle down and look for work in the field of his recently finished University degree. He was a very pleasant (not to mention cute) young man.
Back onto a bus after lunch and time to hit the big malls. Wow! The shopping malls had impressive designer shops…but a bit out of our budget, so we calmed the little dragon by letting her loose in an awesome candy shop. Trained it back to the hotel to drop off some shopping and then off again to the famous night markets (Surprise Surprise!) This was a bit more within the budget and full of cute Hello Kitty merchandise so the little dragon was nearly tamed. We ate our dinner with the locals again much to Charlotte’s displeasure. As soon as we sat down an old local plopped down next to Charlotte and just smiled while enjoying watching us eat. The dear old man didn’t eat himself… but did enjoy sharing our beers and watching Charlotte’s facial expressions as the food was brought to the table. Charlotte was forced to eat as we told her the old guy would be shocked if she didn’t even try the food that was placed in front of her.

Wednesday 2nd April

Good flight over with Cathay Pacific arrived at HK airport around 10.30pm, caught train to our Hotel (Hotel Jen on Queen’s Rd Western District) The Hotel has been recently renovated so it was very modern and clean.