Nigel: When we were in Yangshou, we were told by one of the other travellers that Hong Kong was really cheap for electrical goods . We were already thinking about getting our own laptop, so we didn't have to use the hostel ones, but when the incident with the memory stick getting a virus, we thought it would make sense to buy one. So we had two aims in HK, try and see
the sights and try and buy a laptop. It was a tough ask, as we only had 2 days there before we flew to Bangkok, but we felt ready for the challenge. We arrived in HK from Macau via the fast ferry early in the morning and checked into our hotel. We weren't in the hotel long before we were heading to the underground to get the train to HK island. Once we got to the other side we headed straight to the tram at the bottom of Victoria Park. The tram was built in the late
1800's by the British expatriates who were based in HK, so that they could travel up the mountain to escape the summer heat. The tram is double carriage which is pulled up via metal pulleys and you sit on wooden benches. Most of the way up your climbing at a 45 degree angle
and your able to see views of the city. Once your at the top of the mountain you enter a shopping centre, which has shops from food establishments to gifts and bits of information . If you buy an additional ticket, your able to enter the sky tower, which allows you to have even greater views of the city and the harbour below. We weren't out there for long as even high up the heat was immense. Once we had descended back down to the bottom, we went for a walk through the main shopping area. There are several tall buildings that you pass including the HSBC bank which a few years ago got jacked up and moved very carefully whilst on wheels. We ended up at Graham Street wet market. This market sells everything from fruit & veg to an array of sea food. Its set on a small allay on a very steep hill and there are 2 stalls either side and just enough for 2 persons to walk up. While we walked up the market Alison noticed a fishes head had been cut off from its body, but the body was still pulsing as though breathing. We later found out that it is actually the heart that is still beating that causes the movement. Very strange image.

Alison: Hong Kong was a real taste of back home compared to what we had been experiencing in China . It felt quite comforting to me to be back in a familiar environment. On reflection though, I think I can now see why Nigel was a little underwhelmed by my excitement that the plugs are the same as home! On our first (and only) night in HK, we went to look at the famous skyline and boy was it a skyline. Big cities always look pretty spectacular by night but this view was different. The most popular place to stand is down by the Star Ferry terminal which connects Kowloon to HK Island. There were many tourists there but despite this, there was a weird silence. From Kowloon you can see a large stretch of densely packed brightly lit skyscrapers. These in themselves are impressive but I think part of what makes the view special is the way these modern buildings are set against the beautiful mountains with the clouds nestled above them. It was one of those pinch yourself moments when you can't believe you are actually stood there :-) The real shame of it was that our camera is rubbish and can't take good quality night photos. The pictures were awful so we thought that whilst we were buying the laptop....we might as well buy a camera too!! The next day we hit the computer center which was a bit like an indoor market full of small shops. We trawled around for quite a long time and finally managed to bag ourselves a lovely little Samsung laptop and a Panasonic camera. We rushed back to the hotel to get the bus to the airport and then it was off to Bangkok with our new goodies.