I see that Friday the 13th fell on a Saturday this month. How very rude.Time is flying by at an extremely rapid rate. We spent a fairly decent last couple of days in Sydney - the trip up into the Blue Mountains was excellent - we visited Leura, went in the skyway cable car and descended into the rain forest on the scenic railway - the world's steepest railway, at one point being a 52 degree incline. Originally donkey powered and used to bring the coal up from the old mines, it's now electric driven and shunts visitors up and down to the forest floor. After that, we lunched at the RSL (ex-servicemans) club in Katoomba before returning to Sydney via a wildlife park where there were albino Kangaroos bouncing around, not to mention an extremely lazy Crocodile. Stupid thing didn't move an inch all the time we were there.
Thursday we took the ferry across Sydney harbour to Manly - a much, much, much better beach than Bondi - IMHO anyway - though bloody busy and not somewhere I personally would spend very much time. The smaller beach at the wharf was much more my cup of tea. Bloody good fish restaurant as well, Hoopy tucking into Lemon Sole whilst I had quite possibly the biggest salmon fillet ever served. Yum.
Come the evening, the time came to climb the bridge. We checked in around 18:30 and started to get kitted out a little after 19:00. Having done the pre-climb briefings, we ventured out onto the bridge around 19:40 - a perfect time, as it was just starting to think about getting dark. You walk along the internals of the bridge for a couple of hundred metres before popping out (between two lanes of highway!) by the vertical climb ladders to get to the arch itself. This process was by far the hardest bit - there's lots of *small* gaps that you need to squeeze through, which is not terribly straightforward for someone 6'6" (198.12cm) and 250lbs (113Kg) like myself, but hey ho I managed. Once on the arch itself, it's easy. Just like walking up a (very gentle) staircase.
The view from the summit is breathtaking - by the time we got there it was dark and, like most cities, Sydney looks fantastic by neon. We spent 10 minutes or so at the top having photos etc. before then descending via the other arch and re-tracing our steps back to the changing rooms. All in all the climb lasted about 3.5 hours - and is definitely on the "must do" list for anyone visiting Sydney.
Friday was travel day. A very relaxed start for us - we didn't even get up until 10:00 (by which time Ali had been in the air from London for an hour!) - taking our time to pack (cases are starting to burst at the seams now - we've both spent far too much money) before heading off to the airport. Straightforward flight into Hong Kong (but on a Boeing rather than an Airbus, so extremely noisy) followed by a HK$470 cab ride to the hotels. We dropped Hoopy off first at the Renaissance Harbour View (in the Wan Chai district and extremely posh - God knows what he's doing there), before I carried on to the less posh Novotel Century in the Western District, where Ali had been ensconced in the room for 4 hours already.
Keen not to waste the very limited time we have here in HK, we were up reasonably early (considering we were all bloody knackered) on Saturday and headed straight to the shops, wanting to check out 'proper' prices before hitting the markets over the next couple of days. We spent a few hours in and around Pacific Place in the Admiralty district; Ali especially in her element wandering around the top brand stores. Didn't spend too much (money is much better spent in the markets) but couldn't turn down Reebok trainers for 12 quid a pair.
Saturday night we had a couple of beers at Hoopy's hotel, but then had to leave as I was about to insert a microphone up the singer's arse sideways. She had, quite possibly, the most unsuitable repertoire ever for a screech-kitten (including Dylan songs, for fuck sake!) not to mention a pianiast who makes the bald chap off the Letterman show look talented. Ugh. Anyhow, we headed right next door to JJ's bar in the Grand Hyatt, which was much more civilised, though somewhat lacking in illumination and atmosphere. Plenty of staff mind you, including the three that shuttle you to-and-from the toilet, not to mention the chap IN the toilet who turns the taps on and off, presses the button to get you soap and hands you a pressed linen towel to dry your hands. I was somewhat relieved to discover that he offers no assistance during the passing phase itself...
Ali and I headed back around 21:30, leaving Hoopy to his own devices which, as usual, proved rather too explosive and involved the location of a British pub (The Horse & Groom) and the consumption therein of mucho piss (which is what every Australian calls what they call beer and we call lager). Therefore on Sunday, obviously, Hoopy stayed in bed all day.
Whilst he was catching up on zeds, Ali and I crossed the harbour on the Star Ferry to Kowloon and hit the streets, starting with the Apliu Street flea market before heading into a market proper in Mong Kok. Wow! Anything you could possibly want (apart from Jules' handbag, which apparantly is too new to be available - sorry Chandi). Not only is anything and everything non-branded hanging up to buy, but should you spot (and it's not hard to do) a catalogue on the trader's table, you can browse through for branded products of your choice. Should you show an interest (and we did, often), you're escorted into a nearby building and up into an apartment which is simply a collection of rooms filled, floor-to-ceiling, with handbags, watches, wallets, jewellery etc. etc. As I said to Ali, this would be extremely frightening if you didn't a) speak English or Cantonese or b) hadn't read in a guidebook that this is the expected process. A quality experience - we grabbed loads and for bugger all really. I was barganing hard (NEVER pay the quoted price) and usually managed to get 30-50% off their already discounted prices. In one instance, I got a $280 bag down to $150, which is a UKLand tenner. If you're reading this, Mandy, that's your daughter taken care of!
After doing that for a few hours, we were pretty exhausted and headed off to the uber-posh Peninsula Hotel for drinks. The hotel is stunning and has just taken delivery of 14 new Rolls Royce motor cars (all painted British racing green) to ferry their guests around. No wonder this was the place the Japanese took over as their HQ in WWII. After an hour nursing down a couple a couple of G&T's (and enjoying yet more 'personal services' in the toilets) we left to go and see my new mate George at La Elite tailors to get measured up for some new clobber. Going back later today for the fittings, with my stuff then being ready lunchtime tomorrow. Excellent.
Now we're off to meet Hoopy at Stanley Street market. Look out traders, I'm on my way.
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