Ralph and Karen's Tours

After our friends – Peter and Julie’s – daughter got married in Italy in 2014, Pete and Julie decided to up stumps in Australia, retire and move to Italy to be close to their daughter Rachel, Son in law Giuseppe and Grand Daughter Zoe.

So, in September 2018 they took the plunge and moved, and have now been living in an area close to Bologna for exactly 12 months.

So, we thought it was perfect timing to go and visit them and to our surprise and excitement they decided to join us on a three week road trip through Sicily and Malta !  The planning started last October and the fun begins now, with Karen and I heading off for a quick mini-holiday in Hong Kong en route to meeting them in Italy.

About 10 weeks before our scheduled departure, political unrest beset Hong Kong, and it was gradually getting worse as we got closer to leaving home.

After a week or so of concern about the political situation, and having the Airport closed for two days immediately before our departure, we decided to bite the bullet and continue with our original plans of four days in Hong Kong en route to Sicily and Malta.

While arriving wasn’t going to be an issue, getting out in a few days could be.

So, purely for medicinal purposes and to get settled, we had a few pre flight drinks at Sydney Airport. Pretty reasonably priced as well – a small Prosecco and a beer was only $33.00. Bargain! Our flight on Cathay Pacific left pretty much on time for our 8 hour overnight torture test. Didn’t disappoint.

Upon arrival at Hong Kong airport, we immediately noticed how quiet everything was – eerily quiet. Not a sign of protests. Clean as a whistle. Straight through customs and immigration and into a red cab.

The taxi system is fabulous…different coloured cabs for different regions of HK. For example, ours was red, going to Kowloon. There are also green and blue, going to HK Island and beyond. Set price – HK$270 which is about AUD$50 (roughly 5/1 at the moment).

Speed limit of 80kmh totally ignored, and 120 was the standard, and we were whisked to our hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui inside 40 minutes. No traffic at 6:00am. We did see a convoy of army vehicles heading along the freeway, destination unknown, but it wasn’t threatening.

We arrived at the Hotel Panorama, which is in Tsim Sha Tsui, a neighbourhood on the Kowloon Peninsular, close to the water of Victoria Harbour. This is a very popular area to stay, surrounded with literally thousands of restaurants and bars and walking distance to everywhere.

We’d taken advantage of my works perks and booked an Executive Club Harbour View Room, and it didn’t disappoint. Even better, despite arriving at 6:00am for a 2:00pm reservation, we were whooshed straight to our 30th floor room and the view was just amazing – sure is Harbour View.

The weather was a bit ordinary, but even still the views across the Harbour were just brilliant.

Nothing opens or even starts until around 10:00-11:00am, so we relaxed after a shower and watched life on the HK waterfront come to life.

We wandered about the local neighbourhood, sorted out a phone card and headed down to the Harbour and set out on a challenge to reach Victoria Peak. Easily done. We walked ten minutes to the Star Ferry Terminal, used the auto machines all in Chinese, paid our 50c each and got on the beautiful old ferry for the short trip across the Harbour to Hong Kong Central. These ferries run every 8 minutes and it’s like clockwork. Perfect – and the views of both HK Island and Kowloon are amazing. For 50c!

We got to Victoria Peak and joined the gorgeous old Peak Tram which is actually a funicular, or rack railway. Started operating in 1888 when people started living at the top of Victoria Peak. It’s steep. And the views from the top are just wonderful.   You can see pretty much all of Victoria Harbour, across to Kowloon and beyond…

Despite low cloud blowing through, you can see the huge harbour from a dozen vantage points.

Back to the Star Ferry for the trip back across the harbour and back to the hotel.

The room we booked includes access to the Executive Club Lounge – sounds impressive doesn’t it? Basically the lounge is a fab room on the 39th floor overlooking the harbour, with free drinks and hors d’ourvres from 5.30pm. We’d had something similar in a previous trip to Kota Kinabalu (Borneo) a few years ago – it’s pretty cool……It would have been rude not to utilise this service. We watched as the sun went down, and the lights all started to come on in the skyscrapers on both sides of the harbour. Simply stunning.

Then we wandered out into the typical Asian humidity looking for a restaurant that had been recommended to us for Peking Duck. The streets come alive when the sun Sets and the fluoro lights all come on. It’s quite spectacular.

Anyway, after walking around the block for 15 minutes, we found the restaurant – Spring Deer – only to find out it’s about 40metres in the other direction from were we Started!

Upstairs into this cavernous old 1960s styled eating house and we were probably among only 4 or 5 other westerners. Good sign.

Everyone was eating duck. Shock me. It’s supposed to be the best duck in HK. Who knows? I’ve never had duck in Hong Kong before ! Table cloths with rips, uneven chairs, wallpaper peeling off….brilliant! The atmosphere was exactly what I’d hoped for. English speaking waiters? Nup. The menu was thrown down on the table and the delightful lady host opened it and pointed to “BBQ Peking Duck”. Her offsider, who looked like Bella Lugosi the ancient actor, just smiled through what teeth he had left and picked up the menus before we had a chance to discuss any options. Never mind that’s why we came here.

A big pot of jasmine tea was perfect, and a long neck of San Miguel beer arrived on the scene. Good start.

A short while after with much pomp and ceremony, Old Mate Bella tapped me on the shoulder saying “Duck, Duck, Duck”. For a moment I thought the Red Army had caught up with us or the local protestors had found their way up into this ancient eating house –  Then I realised a chef had delivered the duck to our table on a trolly and was preparing to slice it right there. Awesome. Served with fine pancakes, cucumber and a dipping sauce, this was every bit as good as we’d been told. NO need for any other food…just Duck and pancakes.

I’ve never had a whole duck in Sydney so I have no idea of the cost. But this was approx $AUD100 with the beer and tea and included 10% service fee. Happy with that and well satisfied.

Back to our room to end a long 24 hours. It was unreal to be able to sit and watch the harbour at night before collapsing into bed.

Day two started with one of our great joys in life. A breakfast buffet in a nice Asian Hotel. Continuing with the harbour views theme, this restaurant on the 39th floor is probably ranked right up there for its views alone.

After some serious grazing, we decided to head back across to HK Island and visit the Stanley Markets which are on the far side of the island. Beautiful drive through lush surroundings with picture opportunities at every turn. The area of Repulse Bay is a beach suburb, with some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

As soon as we reached Stanley, we were greeted with a typical Hong Kong rain storm..it was heavy. So we sought solace in an old pub with a pirate theme! As you do. The rain eased, and we were able to wander around the markets without being hassled at all. Which was a nice change. Bought a few bits and pieces and headed across to Aberdeen which is a fishing village famous for the JUMBO floating restaurant.

Lovely scenic bus trip back to Hong Kong Central to get the Star Ferry again, back to Kowloon. It was late arvo, and I realised we’d been in Honkers for 2 days and hadn’t had Yum Cha. So we did that in a Dim Sum bar down in the basement of a building somewhere. It was fab. Cost around $70.

Nothing in HK except the Star Ferry is cheap. I would say it is on a par with, or even a bit more expensive than Sydney. The beer economy test rates it right up there….in a bar a draught beer is often around $AUD15-$18….I still wonder how they can make it so cheap . Wine and cocktails are similarly priced at around $AUD20.  But seriously, if you wanted to get stuck in and have a few bevvies, you’d need full pockets.

Typically though, buying beers etc in the local supermarkets is much more financially acceptable – beers can be had for around $AUD2.60 a can.

To get a birds eye view of the amazing light show that is on every night, we decided to do it on the harbour. Star Ferries does a special “Symphony of the Lights” harbour cruise on one of their old ferries that has been tarted up with lounge chairs etc to cruise around watching the lights from both shores. At 8:00pm every night there is a ten minute light and laser show that is just spectacular. A fabulous way to see everything in one go.  And truthfully, the photos do this absolutely no justice.  Possibly the most beautiful harbour sightseeing we’ve ever had..

We wandered slowly back toward our hotel, still gawking at this ridiculously spectacular skyline but had to stop off at a pub next door called Jaggers. It’s only polite to give them some of our custom. Beers and sangria while people watching – amazing way to finish another long day.

Another misty morning followed with yet another brilliant buffet breakfast including chow mein noodles with shredded cabbage, fried rice with egg white and chicken, samosas, braised beef ribs.  Standard breakfast isn’t it?

Why have cornflakes when this is on offer? Fruit and some cold meat and smoked salmon finished off with a couple of pastries and a pot of coffee. Bliss.

Off to Macau today. We’ve always wanted to visit the former Portuguese colony, that is now often referred to as the Vegas of the East. Just a short walk from our hotel to the Ocean Terminal to sort out ticketing on the ferry. It’s a strange process… the ticket centre and departure gates are on the first floor of a high rise building attached to a massive shopping mall.  Lucky our Chinese language was on point 🙂 It would be easy to miss.

Buy your tickets – approx $AUD70 return – and then go through Customs and Immigration! Don’t forget your Passport! Then follow the crowd because all the signs are in Chinese to get to your departure lounge. It is dead set like being in an airport. Inside a shopping centre. Weirded me out.

Then a boarding call and a thousand or more peeps run for the gate, even though your seats are reserved just like a plane. Down a few escalators and shazaaam onto a gangway and onto the speed boat for your 70 minute ride across to Macau, threading your way between some of Hong Kong’s 230 islands (I didn’t know there were 230 islands in this chain?).

And the rain came. Noah would have loved it. Instead of having one of each animal, on this ark there were a dozen westerners and the rest were not. And it continued to rain. And pour. But that’s ok because we are inside the ark.

70 minutes later we arrive in Macau and go through arrival immigration. The rain had stopped (for a while) and it was as humid as humid gets. The easiest way to get around and see everything we wanted to see was on the Hop on Hop off bus, which only has an upstairs open top. Which is fab until the rain came back.

Our immediate impression was that this “Colony” is nothing like we’d imagined. It was like a zoo….people running, screaming, trying to get everywhere at once with umbrellas up even though it wasn’t raining. Our main focus was on the Portuguese area, but despite our research, little did we know it was right in the middle of town, and it seems that Universal Studios is now running the place.

Such beautiful old architecture reduced to money making ventures filled with ADIDAS shops, chemists, ROLEX traders. Seemed like a million people were crammed into what was originally a gorgeous piazza trying to see everything and get everywhere all at once.

We literally fought our way through the crowds of screaming lunatics to the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral, Karen got a Portuguese tart and we extricated ourselves as best we could.

What a shame it has turned into a circus…

Back on the bus toward the Vegas of the East….the Cotai Casino strip, and the rain came. Heavily. When we were in the top deck of an open top bus. In traffic going 5kmh

It’s no Vegas

So, traveling at that speed was never going to get us back to our ferry in time. “Missed it by that much…..” as old mate Agent 86 would say.  Another 90 minutes till the next ferry. Never mind. One of those travel days that didn’t live up to our expectations.

But we came back from the jaws of defeat and after a much needed shower, headed just down the street to a HK Hotpot and Craft Brew restaurant- winning!

Pick your broth to cook in – we chose two, a Sichuan chilli and a regular beef broth, then choose your food choices. We had a couple if types of meat, sea scallops, udon noodles and green vegetables. Just like the old fondue days only better. Pick your food and cook it on your table. Amazing.

Their craft brewed Pilsner was outstanding so I sampled a few of those. Karen had a chrysanthemum something or other drink? This was our best meal and to be honest the wait staff were the friendliest and most considerate of any we’d had.

Four beers cost approx $AUD60 and the total bill cost about $AUD110….figure that out. Brilliant feed and worth every cent. Great end to a challenging day.

Our last day in HK saw clear skies for the first time. Our flight into Rome is just after midnight so we have a full day to get about and see something a bit different.

We ended up getting a late checkout for our room until 6:00pm which is perfect.

Karen did some research and we decided we’d do a day trip to one of the 230 odd surrounding islands and chose Cheung Chau – which neither of us had heard of.

It is located 10kms from HK by a ferry which takes about an hour. We purchased DELUXE tickets upstairs in aircon for the princely sun of $AUD6 per person. Looks like transport is the only thing that is cheap in HK.

Cheung Chau is the longest inhabited island in the region, having people there since the Ming Dynasty in The 1300’s. About 22,000 people reside on the island which has no motorised transport at all and is not that big.

It has some beautiful old temples, is famous for locals to visit for the super fresh seafood and is a day trippers paradise.

On our ferry over, there was a large group of teenagers that brought enough stuff with them for a picnic to feed an army.

There are a few pretty fabulous beaches to have a swim and relax as well as the typical souvenir and gift shops.

We arrived mid morning – and then there was rain. Serious, monsoonal drown your kids in it rain, coming in sideways across the South China Sea. We stood under semi shelter for about 20 minutes for it to ease off, and then set out exploring in the lighter rain.

We wandered through the local markets to the other side of the island – took about 5 minutes, and ended up on a gorgeous beach just as the rain stopped. We didn’t wait for long, and took our opportunity to have a swim, and it was amazingly refreshing.

After beers and cocktails, we wandered around the entire village, sampling local foods along the way. The island is renowned for its amazing seafood, so we stopped at a typical local “restaurant” with plastic tables and chairs, and ordered some pepper squid and curry crab…it was superb along with a Blue Girl Pilsner beer. Interesting.

We had to hurry to get our ferry back to civilisation and just as we boarded, the skies opened with round 2 of the storm of the week. Safe this time.

So, back to HK Island, then the Star Ferry across the harbour for the last time this trip. We organised a late check out from our room, and have to leave to the airport in about 2 hours for our midnight flight to Rome where Pete and Julie will be picking us up to commence our adventure of Sicily and Malta.

Hong Kong has been fabulous..Macau, not so much. It has been a real eye opener and some things were totally unexpected.

It’s expensive. Dearer than Sydney. Customer service people do not smile. We don’t know if they are rude, or arrogant or shy because their English isn’t great. Probably a combo of all three things. Food brilliant. Transport impeccable. This hotel – The Panorama – I would and will recommend in a heartbeat. We will probably come back en route to Europe some time in the future and check out a bunch of the stuff we missed this time…

Thanks for reading – follow our instagram posts, and we will check in next week after our first week in Sicily.

Laters…..