Category: travel

Hi everyone! Apologies for the delay in this post. We were pooped after a busy day yesterday, so I am catching up on two days here.

Yesterday was all about one thing. The Mouse. You know the one I’m talking about. M-I-C-K-E-Y. Disneyland! You all knew it was going to happen… what with my last trip to Japan but also Kate’s fixation on all things Disney too. You know what that meant. It was going to be one helluva crazy day.

When we were getting ready to head off the sun was shining and the forecast was for a sunny 26 degrees. Perfect! Keep that in mind for later.

So anyway, off we went on the super efficient MTR out to Disneyland (how can Melbourne Metro be run by the same people???). Of course the last leg was on the special Mouse Train.

When we arrived we were greeted with the familiar sights… the welcome to Disneyland, the queues, the saccharine cheer. But you know we love it. After getting our tickets (sorry to say readers, they are 2-day passes) and getting inside… there they were. Mickey and Minnie. Now us being us we thought for all of 5 seconds “do we wait to get photos with them?”. “of course we do!”. So there started our first queue. But the result was worth it. Quintessential touristy photo. Gold.

By this time we were already getting a bit peckish. What to eat? Why not a Mickey Mouse shaped waffle? Who says this place is too commercial? Who cares if it is this tasty? Ha ha ha.

Walking down Main Street we cast eyes on the classic Disneyland castle. Way smaller than I am used to, but the classic castle nonetheless. In fact most things about Hong Kong Disneyland are a bit smaller than the others.

They seem to be rectifying that with some new areas, some of which Kate hadn’t seen before. So off it was to one of those, Grizzly Gulch and the mine cart ride (via Adventureland as evidenced by kitschy photo number 2).

The mine cart ride was your quintessential mine cart ride. Lots of sharp turns and dips. Conveniently I ignored the warning about people with back troubles not riding. As always, we had plenty of time to pose whilst riding it.

While on the ride, the mornings weather report seemed to be a little falsified, as we started getting just a bit wet. Just a bit turned into quite a lot. So much for my 99 cent weather app on my phone. They are getting a bad review.

In the escape from the rain we chanced upon… yep… Mickey and Minnie again. Wow those two get around the park a lot. of course we needed another photo.

We also came across the last new part due to open, alas in a month’s time. Apparently it is a bit Haunted Mansion inspired, which kinda sucked as it is both Kate and my favourite ride. Oh well, next time.

Next up was the final new bit, Toy Story Land, in which we were greeted with, well, you guessed it, lots of toys. A distinct lack of Woody and Buzz sadly though. There was a significant amount of hamming it up for photos however. The one ride I was keen on (a giant drop type ride) had too crazy a queue, so that was going to have to wait.

 

 

All this running around make you hungry. But unfortunately Disneyland is never really a place for culinary treats. Oh well, you take the bad with the good. There seems to be a bit of an obsession with turkey legs here, but I decided to pass up on the bird and go a hot dog with some seemingly random chilli/saucy type topping. Not the worst but far from the best.

One of my favourite rides from Tokyo Disney was the Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, located not in Toy Story Land, but in Tomorrowland…

I was talking up my abilities on this ride, since you have to shoot targets to score points, and was threatening Kate with a bit of a whoopin’. She kept the trash talk low key. I soon found out why. For those playing at home, hers is the score on the left, mine on the right. Yep. Must have been a dodgy gun.

By this time, the rain had well and truly set in. So much so that we were pretty soaked by this time. Bah, we were tough. But you know who isn’t tough? Every character in the park. The regular 4pm parade got bumped for the “Rainy Day Parade”, or as I called it, the “We’re Obligated to Put on a Parade Parade”.

It consisted of a measly 4 floats of characters. I countered this with antics that got more outlandish the wetter I got. See exhibit A at the top of this blog posting.

Even though it was raining, it still didn’t stop us from shenanigans. Why would it? We did duck inside where we could, but who cares if you’re a little wet? In our travels we bumped into some more Toy Story fellas…

As well as a very grown up Tinkerbell…

We also managed to sneak in another round of Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Less humiliating this time around, but I still got shown who’s boss.

By this time we were well and truly pooped. Almost 12 hours of fighting the crowds and the elements meant it was home time. Back to Kowloon where we both crashed and blog posts had to wait…

Hi again all. Nice of you all to drop by to my blog again after a while.

Today was going to be another fairly low-key day before hitting some Disney action, but that didn’t mean we weren’t on our feet for the best part of 10 hours. So what did we get up to?

Well, today seemed like it may be the pick of the days, weather wise, so we decided to head up. And by up I mean up Victoria Peak, or simply “The Peak” as it seems to be known. With typical days seeming like they may be on the cloudy or rainy side, greeting a fairly sunny morning meant we had to head up. So it was back on with the walking shoes, across Victoria Harbour (well under it by train actually), and off to catch the Peak Tram upward.

Even though it was a glorious morning we seemed to beat most the people, with just a small wait before jumping on a tram up to the top. When we reached the top we were greeted with the spectacular views across Hong Kong Island and the Harbour, albeit a little hazy. At the top there was ample opportunity for kitschy photos. I would like to say that some of my poses were Kate’s idea… but I can’t really blame her.

It was lunchtime at the top and while dumplings were on the agenda again, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for something I can’t get at home. Sure… we can get McDonalds at home, but unlikely I was going to find a “Korean McSpicy”. So of course I had to eat one. At the top of the peak no less. It was so-so… fine as far as a McDonalds burger goes but hardly spicy. Boo.

I also came across a Sesame Wasabi Pork Floss Bun. Now pork floss buns are my absolute favourite treat from Breadtop back home. This was more like a normal bread roll with pork floss in it. Can’t say this was much chop… too much bun for my liking. The wasabi was a nice touch though.

By this time we were about done with the peak and headed down. We had our sights now set on another must do of mine while in Hong Kong. Now I have never been one to wear a suit much, and being of a rather small stature, finding a well fitting suit has always been an impossibility. So dammit, I wasn’t leaving Hong Kong without a bespoke suit!

Before I went I did a fair bit of internetting and decided upon Jantzen Tailor. It seemed to be the best compromise between price and quality. So off it was to find them. Thankfully we did our research as it was hidden on the 5th floor of a nondescript office building. And upon entering it seemed a bit dodgy, but quickly things seemed a-ok. One of the myriad helpers came to our aid, quizzing us for what we were after and thrusting hundreds of fabric samples our way on which to decide. In the end, I decided to go with getting two different suits made. When in Hong Kong…

It was then time for the measuring. I don’t think I have had a measuring tape go over every centimetre of my frame like that… it seemed nothing was being left to chance. It made me feel like I might have made the right decision of which tailor to go with. But alas my reader, we won’t know until at least Wednesday when I need to pop back for another measuring and an initial fitting. Oh the suspense!

The next couple of hours flew by wandering some nearby shopping malls. How all these stores stay in business I have no idea. Actually, what is more difficult to fathom is what all the people who are out shopping at all hours are usually doing with themselves?

By this time we had the craving. The craving for Yum Cha. And how convenient that we had to go by Hong Kong MTR station again! Who would have thought we would be back near Tim Ho Wan again so soon?! Well, I did of course. This time we got some of the favourites (like the BBQ Pork buns and fried dumplings for me, the rice beef rolls and egg cake for Kate) and also threw some new ones in there, including the spring rolls, chiu chow style dumplings, and pork and prawn dumplings.

Kate and I laughed about what bags I would ditch first if push came to shove… the shopping or the yum cha. I figured we could get the shopping back home if we really needed to 🙂

And the verdict? The spring rolls I could take or leave (a bit too much lemongrass was Kate’s opinion which I totally agreed with), the chiu chow dumplings weren’t really my thing, but oh boy, the pork and prawn dumplings were heaven! Add another staple to the list.

After that food and a bit of a rest we went for a bit more of a wander. What struck us was how crazy that there could be amazingly pristine malls and buildings and then supremely old and almost slummy residences wedged between them. The contrast between old and new Hong Kong was right there at every turn.

Oh, and so was a Mona Lisa holding a mobile phone, made out of toast…

I don’t know why. It’s Hong Kong.

Howdy one and all from Hong Kong! Here is the first in a small series of posts on this quick jaunt to the home of dumplings, shopping, dumplings, Disneyland, and dumplings. As you can probably now tell, Kit Kats have been replaced by another culinary obsession.

Kate and I arrived late on Easter Saturday, late enough to really only hit the hay, so it was officially on Easter Sunday that we kicked it all off. With easter eggs? Bah. I needed something a little more relevant to my local surrounds.

Today was intended to be just a day of casual wandering as much as anything. We decided to base ourselves during our stay on the Kowloon side of HK, within a short walk of MTR and the harbour, so well placed for anything. So off we headed, with no real plan in mind, except maybe wander in the general direction of the harbour and see what’s the what.

This was my first trip so for me it was just getting bearings. Kate was a bit of a veteran, so I was happy to follow… that left my spidey senses to try and sniff out anything slightly oddball. The tough decision was do we start with Yum Cha this early in the morning, or go something more traditional. We elected something a bit more breakfasty and loaded up at a local Breadtop-equivalent. Nothing too crazy, but I gotta say, this chicken sesame bun thing was delicious! Mmmm.

We decided to grab a spot down on the harbour on the Avenue of Stars to eat and soak up a bit of the touristy HK. While a good many of the “stars” on the avenue were a bit lost on us, there were many that provided opportunity for hammy photos…

I did love that they placed Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Wong Kar Wai all in a row along the avenue. Nice touch.

Anyone who has been to Hong Kong knows that you have to pay your respects to the ultimate star, Bruce Lee. And you have to do it in the most respectful way you can… by striking the lamest kung-fu pose you can. Of course I was going to. You knew that didn’t you.

With cheesy poses sated for just a moment, we chanced upon the closing day of an Andy Warhol exhibition at the HK Museum of Art. Kinda curious, we decided to see how much it cost to get in as to whether we visited. $20 HK dollars! 20 bucks sounds pretty reasonable right? Now let me do a conversion for you… it is 8 dollars for each 1 oz dollar. So the cost of entry to a major Warhol exhibition was 2-bucks-freakin-50. Yes. $2.50. My mind blew. So we decided to do a quick pop in.

We were glad we did actually. It was actually a really extensive show covering a range of his work and a large period of time. Of course Mao was featured quite prominently.

It was here I really noticed the health paranoia still evident from the avian influenza outbreaks. If it wasn’t handrails on escalators being cleaned continually, it was signs like this…

Anyway, lunchtime was fast on us, so it was a jump onto the Star Ferry to head across Victoria Harbour. Like is often the case, Hong Kong was in one of it’s rainy moods, so the skylines were suitably misty and the peak dramatically hidden. That could wait. There was one specific purpose for heading to the other side of the harbour…

Now, Kate and I were urged by our pals Shayne and CC to visit a particular yum cha establishment in our travels. Tim Ho Wan is regarded as the most inexpensive Michelin-starred eatery in the world, and totally delicious to boot! Some investigation revealed that the original location, a tiny hole in the wall seating barely 20 people, had closed. NOOOOOOO! But don’t despair. There were now TWO new locations! WOOOOOO! One was just on the other side of the harbour under the Hong Kong MTR station. So we were on it.

It was about now I was mentioning to Kate how I was finding the people quite different to my last asian trip which was to Japan. I was lamenting the lack of kitchy posing in photos, particularly the lack of the quintessential “V” for victory sign usually being seen on every person posing for a photo. Kate casually pointed to a walker by carrying a fairly normal sized designer handbag, with a small (yet I assume equally as designer) dog poking its head out, watching the world go by. “There’s a dog in a handbag… is that more like it?”. Well, yes actually.

Kate was also saying that the demographic overall of the tourists had changed quite a bit since she was here last. Less westerners, and more Chinese visitors. This was completely echoed by a guy in a Chinese handicrafts store that we spoke with. They were in the process of moving store locations from the waterfront to another shopping street as they were not getting the sales they used to. He said that it definitely was more folk from the Chinese mainland coming, and that they were here for the designer labels, not local handicrafts. Made complete sense, but a sign of changing times.

Back to our main goal. It took a bit of poking around to find it, not speaking or reading the local language and all. But really, all we had to do was follow the crowds…

We were told to expect large crowds and to have to wait for a table. But since it was quite nice outdoors, we elected for the takeaway option and to find somewhere to eat outside. After debating what to have (and promptly forgetting exactly what it was that we actually ordered) we were officially in the Tim Ho Wan queue! 10 minutes later, we were sidled with this booty…

YES! We had steamed rice rolls with beef and some with pork, the famous BBQ Pork buns, steamed egg cake, and fried beef dumplings. Shed loads of them! We avoided the seafood ones, due to some potential allergy issues, but they could wait for another day. We had plenty to enjoy.

And so how was it? I found it to be a rollercoaster in some ways. Both as good as hoped and also a little anti-climactic. The steamed egg cake was a bit of a wild card as we both didn’t realise exactly what we ordered. But it was OK. The rice rolls were good, with the beef ones being Kate’s personal fave of the bunch. The BBQ buns were a little sweeter than I anticipated, but by the time I had hoovered down one, I was jonesing for a second. Good sign! The dumplings were the main source of emotional rollercoaster. Both the outside and the filling were not what I expected. The outside was much thicker than expected with a crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside texture that threw me. And the inside was more a gooier mince than a more solid one I am used to. I took me a few to get the taste, but then I REALLY had the taste for them. I think of the 12, I ate 9 or 10 of them. Kate has manners and doesn’t get carried away. Me… nah. I was sucking those bad boys down!

So did it ultimately live up to expectation? Well, if you consider I am typing this the next day and doing Google image searches of the other food on the menu to work out what I will eat today, the answer is probably yes 🙂

The rest of the day was wandering around the island side of Hong Kong. We decided to wander up to the zoo and gardens and have a poke around. It was quite tiny, but the chance to see any kind of monkeys is an opportunity not to pass up.

A little bit of a rest and we headed back to the hotel in Kowloon for a relax for a bit before a little wander in the next-door shops before bed. I needed to get my rest and energy back for more food tomorrow…

Hello all from Perth! Perth?! Why from Perth? I’ll get to that soon. Let me backtrack a day or two (I have no idea how long since I really have no idea what the real time is right now).

This tale begins on Sunday, London time. This was our last real day in London before we (myself, Kate, and her folks) all went our separate ways. And most was all planned out already… lunch with some more of Kate’s family, and another visit to the Globe. But before lunch Kate and I decided to get our walking shoes on again and visit some places we hadn’t yet got to.

First stop, Baker Street. And not just anywhere in Baker Street. 221b to be precise. I am assuming that many of my readership will jump on that address straight away… yep, it was a visit to one Sherlock Holmes and his good Dr Watson. Well, to be accurate, it isn’t quite 221b, but just a few doors down (as the polite, but increasingly annoyed attendant in the nearby Beatles Store kept telling the bemused Japanese tourist).

We weren’t sure what we’d be in for to be honest. Both of us assumed it would be a little on the “quaint” (i.e. dodgy) side, and that is really what we got. Greeted by a lovely attendant at the door, it was deerstalkers on, and photo opportunities a plenty. Of course we had to! You can’t be at 221b Baker Street and not have a photo in a deerstalker!

So in we went. And inside was also exactly what I thought it would be… full of quaint curios, reflecting things from the many Holmes stories. Kate was more on top of it than I, with me being a bit more of the casual Holmes fan than she, but it was all quite fun in that slightly low-rent and dodgy manner. Not to say it was bad at all, in fact quite endearing in it’s nature. And plus, there was more photo opps!

It didn’t take us long really in the museum. I must say it was PACKED too with busloads of asian tourists. Seems as though the Sherlock Holmes museum is on all their tour itineraries.

From there it was time to get into Beatles mode. We popped in to the Baker St Beatles store, and then legged it to… yep, Abbey Road. I visit Abbey Rd pretty much everytime I go to London. Why? Well, I don’t know why. It’s not like there is anything to do except walk across the crossing. But it is the crossing on the cover of the GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME, so you know me, of course I have to!

This time we elected not to piss off the local traffic by posing on the crossing (although dozens were), but rather have a little wander before heading off for lunch with some more of Kate’s family.

Like our day in Oxford, it was great to just spend some time chilling out with some of Kate’s family. Hanging out with folks in foreign places really is the best.

The afternoon was drawing to a close, and the time for more Shakespeare was almost afoot. But Kate and I decided to pack our spare hour with a quick visit to the National Portrait Gallery. The NPG is one of those galleries that you can take for granted a little… it doesn’t have the prestige or “wow” of the National Gallery just around the corner, but its collection would put most the galleries in the world to shame.

We ducked up to the top to check out the Tudors for some history and culture before working our way down to the modern stuff. A little disappointed I didn’t get to see Opie’s big portraits of the Blur fellas again, but it was great to speed through for an hour regardless.

But the time had come for more Shakespeare! I had loved it the other night so was quite stoked Kate had the good idea and forethought (like always) to book a couple of shows. Tonight was Richard III, one a little more dense and heavy than Henry V the other night. I knew it mostly from the Nazi Germany adaptation, so was fascinated to see it in it’s original setting. A couple of things struck me. It’s pretty hard work, especially for a Shakespeare and English Royalty novice. And while there is some comedy in there, it is pretty dark. But it was great again, particularly in the second half where I felt it really hit its stride. I have to say I enjoyed Henry V more, however find the themes of madness of Richard III much more interesting. Regardless, these visits to the Globe have certainly whet the appetite for more.

With that, it was called a night and time to head back to the apartment for a last back of the bags. On the way we were treated to one last postcard shot. *sigh*

So just a quick update back to my opening line. I type this sitting killing 6 hours in Perth. Why would I do that?! Well, I decided to fly Qatar Airways for something new, and they decided on my behalf that I would rather not fly London-Doha-Melbourne, but London-Doha-Perth-Melbourne. Of course I would! Seems as though 9 of us were bumped off our Doha to Melbourne leg for no reason that anyone would give us. Closest we got was that the flight was full. Oh dear.

So it has been a mixed bag coming back. Flight to Doha was uneventful (which is good)… transfer in Doha was painful (where Qatar reneged on their first promise of a speedy transfer)… leg from Doha to Perth was glorious with my courtesy upgrade to Business Class (I slept flat for 8 hours! Oh the bliss!)… but now I have 6 hours to kill in Perth domestic terminal, where the promise of a business lounge to freshen up was not met. Apparently there was no lounge, which was bollocks given I am sitting directly under one using their internet. Next is the red-eye back To Melbourne, 10 hours behind schedule.

Oh well. Nothing will dampen the awesomeness of this trip away.

And hello again! Yep, lots of posts in succession. I’m trying to get some down before I jet off tomorrow, so here is Saturday!

Given we had a late night at the Globe the previous night we started the day nice and slow. We did however have a good win first up. In our travels we had seen posters for a James Bond exhibition at the Barbican which we thought would be cool to visit. A casual check for tickets found we could get in late in the day so we scooped up some of those posthaste and set about working out our plan for the day leading up to that.

We decided it was another day for museum action, and both us think that the Victoria and Albert Museum is probably a close second to the British Museum. So that was our destination.

Rather than tube it there we decided to walk, so we could soak up the sights of London properly… Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the parks, the memorials… some of these things are cliche, and you take these things for granted a little, but they really do make London a really special place. So off we wandered…

Rather than head straight to the museum, we decided to grab some lunch, then finish off a little shopping at Harrods. Yep, another cliche, but a good ace up your sleeve when shopping for presents. Lunch we had at Harvey Nichols and had this yummy platter. Mmmmmm it hit the spot…

But alas I didn’t end up ordering the martini (what was I thinking?!)…

In the end we only had an hour or two to wander the V&A. It is quite an odd museum in many respects. 15th century paintings are just across the hall from modern fashion. But it is what makes the V&A so unique and cool.

But enough of that… we had a date with Bond! So off we raced to the Barbican to make our 4:45pm entry time. The theme of the exhibition was 50 years of Style, but really it was just all things Bond… the designs, the fashions, and most importantly the gadgets. Everyone looooooves the gadgets.

The exhibition was pretty good. Spread out a bit strangely across the Barbican, but the content was cool. Alas we couldn’t take photos in the exhibition, so you will just have to make do with the picture of me looking all suave and sophisticated at the top of the blog entry.

With that we were done for the day. Some Ben and Jerry’s goodness capped it off nicely.