Day Six
Had a much lazier day yesterday, recovering from our 'extreme' adventure on Wednesday. Wrote up our impressions so far - at least Heather did. I mainly just described what we had done with the pages and pages of information, stories we had heard, details I had failed to hear, understand and/or remember still unwritten but totally clogging my brain.
It was basically a physical recovery day, laying around, catching up on a few bits and pieces and building a little energy reserve for the days immediately ahead of us.
I went for a walk in the afternoon, hoping to get down to the seashore but it really wasn't possible from where I was going. It looked to be a kilometre or so from the hotel, but when I got down there a couple of kilometres later, I was still on an escarpment with no way down and the shore at least another kilometre away. My walk consolidated my view about PK being a frontier town, but perhaps not as nice a one as I had thought.
It was like you see in movies as the worst of the Soviet era with derelict half-built structures next to others just being constructed. Everything seems jammed together higgledy piggle with a shopping centre going up next to several sad looking blocks of flats and a defunct nightclub, all surrounded by acres and acres of raw land dotted with patches of trees, some knocked down, possibly for firewood, and piles of rubbish of every description scattered across the landscape.
Rubbish was everywhere. Roads and footpaths, to the extent they existed, were broken and uneven to the point where it became difficult to walk in some places. I took a couple of photos from the escarpment, down some broken steps, behind a crumbling building that a few guys were trying to repair. Looking down into a jungle of trees, hoping to see some exotic birds, I saw mainly rubbish. Old machinery, cars, tractors, even an old bus, heaps of broken trees, tyres, bags of rubbish, everything imaginable had just been pushed over the edge and left to rust and rot 50 metres away down the slope. There was a strong smell of sewage and water runoff had scoured erosion channels down the hill - so even if I could have found a path down to the water's edge, it would have been too uninviting for me to tackle it. Sad that the locals living along the edge of the area don't care enough to try to keep their backyard a little less unpleasant.
At night the restaurant was full of the people joining the cruise and it was a little uncomfortable being a Westerner among all the other Westerners, some of whom were becoming rather rude that the Russian staff didn't speak proper English. We think the staff have been truly fantastic and have joined our pointing and gesticulating to explain what we wanted and to see them embarrassed by people who should have known better was a bit beyond the pale.
We are now packed and ready for our Ring of Fire cruise so no more blogging for a week or two.
Thursday, 26 May 2016
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Day Four
The adventure really begins today - and what a day it was!!!!!!!!!!
We arrived in PK early afternoon yesterday and were met at the airport and driven the 20-odd Km to our hotel where we checked in and got a bit settled - including a well-overdue shower and a bit of washing after 3 days in the same clothes. It was 1 degree C and we loved being a little less overheated. I was just in shirtsleeves and even before we even got off the plane, one of the locals reminded me that we were now in Kamchatka and that we should be rugged up with four layers of heavy clothing like everyone else. Even our 'guide' was rugged up like a polar bear and complaining about the bitter cold when we were standing around outside in the wind, loving it with less than a quarter of their clothes on.
It was lovely when we landed, but very foggy and a bit rainy later in the day and I rugged up a bit with the intention of going for a walk before dinner, but decided against it at the last minute rather than getting wet and not being able to dry off easily. We had eaten in the hotel restaurant at lunchtime and both had borsch (pronounced boscht for any plebs, like us, who didn't know the difference) - absolutely WONderful. For dinner, I had a Kamchatka beer and Kamchatka fish pie and that was even better. I just wanted to try the local food and it was simply delicious.
We slept pretty well again and were up reasonably early for breakfast. We needed to find a bank where we could get some local currency and we needed to replace the power adapter that we left in the socket in HK so we went exploring not far from the hotel and found a bank with a sports store above it that happened to have the adapter we needed. We felt very proud of ourselves having negotiated our little bit of business without a word of Russian.
PK looks like a frontier town and probably is. Function is obviously much more important than elegance. Most things look almost finished - but not quite. Just missing a coat of paint or some architraves or a new item to replace the temporary work-around. Nothing looks 'undone' but it seems that the next project might be more important than finishing off the current one. It is all pretty functional but lacks the final touches. The best way to describe it is probably that it really is a frontier town!
There was a fair bit of confusion about whether our trip to the Valley of he Geysers was going to happen or not. It was an absolutely beautiful day where we were - around ten degrees - but 180 Km away, things were apparently very foggy so the helicopter could not go in. Numerous phone calls back and forth and eventually it was ON!
Our guide collected us from the hotel and took us on a tour of the town - something that was not on the itinerary we saw. Quite interesting with some of the local history, and a lot of interesting stories about Kamchatka. Elina, our guide, was a mine of information and absolutely devoted to her part of the world. She spoke non-stop and answered all our questions in excellent English before she arranged a cab to take us all to the helicopter near the Airport. I was a bit apprehensive about flying about in this tiny glass bubble with my fear of heights - but somehow, I must have left my fear back at home. They warned us that the flight would be rather windy and we were carrying sick-bags in case we got too shaken around. That obviously heightened my trepidation, but as it turned out our young pilot was brilliant and we had an exhilarating ride with no hint of fear at any stage. It was fabulous! About 90 minutes to do the 200 km to the Valley and it was the experience of a lifetime.
We flew at around 2500 feet most of the time, but it was simply wonderful to fly along snow-covered valleys, across literally hundreds of rivers and streams, over tundra and low scrub, millions of bare birch and aspen (I think) - and we even saw a bear who stood up to look at this strange bird in its territory. There are about 20000 brown bears in Kamchatka but they rarely eat people. We needed to be a little careful, but they have plenty of other food that they apparently/fortunately like better than humans. When we were walking around in the Valley a bit later, we watched and photographed a bear eating plants (and keeping an eye on us) for quite a while - and we reckon it was a maximum of 30 metres away. We saw another five bears from further away on our way back to the ranger station and when eating our lunch there at about 6pm. Glad we had an early snack before setting out on our expedition.
The flight was simply fantastic, but the Valley was something else again. 30 degrees although it felt cooler and more pleasant, and simply a perfect day. We were accompanied by our guide and an armed ranger - just in case of overly-inquisitive bears, even though they are not regarded as a problem. The problem is usually the humans who don't obey the rules. There is a series of boardwalks, including about a million and ten steps that have to be traversed in BOTH directions, passing close to a range of different fascinating features. One of the geysers was due to erupt just after we got there so we hurried down and saw it in all its glory, jetting out huge sprays of boiling water and super-heated steam. There are four phases in each eruption and that geyser erupts once every hour. It was boiling furiously and exploding almost continuously when we arrived and suddenly there was the violent eruption that shot huge jets of boiling water ten or fifteen metres into the air right next to where we were standing. It was so violent and dramatic, but was just one of so many different features we saw within a few square Kms. There was a boiling mud pool 15 metres from this geyser and dozens of smaller steam vents and geysers all up the mountain from our platform. Our guide was very knowledgable and told us a lot about the area, the natural environment in the region, geyser physics and so on and was able to answer all our questions.
We were the ONLY tourists there that whole day so had the ranger and the entire valley to ourselves too. We walked to another vantage point where we were immediately adjacent to numerous lesser features, but perhaps 50 to 100 metres from another 20 or so dramatic seething geysers, vents, boiling pools, steaming waterfalls and so on. Of course, the whole area was surrounded by snow so on one side of the river, we had steaming cataracts gushing downwards and 50 metres away, waterfalls of snow-melt were cascading into the same river.
Words are quite inadequate to describe either the scene or the emotions it evoked. We were bombarded with a rich flow of fascinating information, standing in a natural cauldron of steam and snow, grandeur of the mountains contrasting with the excitement of watching a wild brown bear not much more than arm's reach away, completely new birds to be identified, along with dozens of hitherto unseen types of vegetation in a volcanic area more diverse and intriguing than even I had ever imagined. Not quite Neolithic, but alien in the extreme, yet in no way frightening. I wish I could capture some of the scene and some of my thoughts at the time, but that is quite impossible.
We walked on past more cauldrons of seething water and boiling mud, throbbing, booming and hissing steam blow-holes, from saucepan-sized to swimming pool size - but promising a quick but agonising death for anyone thinking of going swimming.
I had been a little nervous about becoming asthmatic from the sulphur fumes, but there was no problem at all. Relatively faint smell around our first dramatic geyser, but we either got used to it very quickly or it was confined to that very small area.
I could write a few more pages about the Valley, but if anyone actually reads this, they would get bored and stop so I will hasten back to our very late boxed lunch and the helicopter trip back.
We returned via a completely different and even more dramatically beautiful and awe-inspiring route. We climbed to 3700 feet almost straight away and flew down a valley where the snow seemed only metres way from our tiny transparent egg - although in reality, I doubt if we ever got closer than 10 or 15 metres away.
We were flown over mountain escarpments and down snowy valleys crisscrossed with bear tracks. Many of the mountains are dormant volcanoes, some of which have erupted within the past couple of years, but looking quite innocent and benign under their mantle of soft white snow. One large valley area had grey snow, from the ash from the most recent eruption and that mountain appeared to have no snow at all.
We landed near some hot springs and Heather and I had a laze around in the steamy warm water while the pilot and guide chatted with the local ranger - until the mozzies found us. We set off again from yet another idyllic valley and made our way back through the snowscape to the tundra and finally back to the helicopter pad. All in all, it was a truly remarkable day and definitely worth the three year wait to get my 70th birthday present. It was the sort of day everyone should experience once in a lifetime if they are lucky enough!!!!!
Words fail me completely, but suffice to say, it would be hard to forget a single minute of it - and this was only the beginning of our odyssey.
The adventure really begins today - and what a day it was!!!!!!!!!!
We arrived in PK early afternoon yesterday and were met at the airport and driven the 20-odd Km to our hotel where we checked in and got a bit settled - including a well-overdue shower and a bit of washing after 3 days in the same clothes. It was 1 degree C and we loved being a little less overheated. I was just in shirtsleeves and even before we even got off the plane, one of the locals reminded me that we were now in Kamchatka and that we should be rugged up with four layers of heavy clothing like everyone else. Even our 'guide' was rugged up like a polar bear and complaining about the bitter cold when we were standing around outside in the wind, loving it with less than a quarter of their clothes on.
It was lovely when we landed, but very foggy and a bit rainy later in the day and I rugged up a bit with the intention of going for a walk before dinner, but decided against it at the last minute rather than getting wet and not being able to dry off easily. We had eaten in the hotel restaurant at lunchtime and both had borsch (pronounced boscht for any plebs, like us, who didn't know the difference) - absolutely WONderful. For dinner, I had a Kamchatka beer and Kamchatka fish pie and that was even better. I just wanted to try the local food and it was simply delicious.
We slept pretty well again and were up reasonably early for breakfast. We needed to find a bank where we could get some local currency and we needed to replace the power adapter that we left in the socket in HK so we went exploring not far from the hotel and found a bank with a sports store above it that happened to have the adapter we needed. We felt very proud of ourselves having negotiated our little bit of business without a word of Russian.
PK looks like a frontier town and probably is. Function is obviously much more important than elegance. Most things look almost finished - but not quite. Just missing a coat of paint or some architraves or a new item to replace the temporary work-around. Nothing looks 'undone' but it seems that the next project might be more important than finishing off the current one. It is all pretty functional but lacks the final touches. The best way to describe it is probably that it really is a frontier town!
There was a fair bit of confusion about whether our trip to the Valley of he Geysers was going to happen or not. It was an absolutely beautiful day where we were - around ten degrees - but 180 Km away, things were apparently very foggy so the helicopter could not go in. Numerous phone calls back and forth and eventually it was ON!
Our guide collected us from the hotel and took us on a tour of the town - something that was not on the itinerary we saw. Quite interesting with some of the local history, and a lot of interesting stories about Kamchatka. Elina, our guide, was a mine of information and absolutely devoted to her part of the world. She spoke non-stop and answered all our questions in excellent English before she arranged a cab to take us all to the helicopter near the Airport. I was a bit apprehensive about flying about in this tiny glass bubble with my fear of heights - but somehow, I must have left my fear back at home. They warned us that the flight would be rather windy and we were carrying sick-bags in case we got too shaken around. That obviously heightened my trepidation, but as it turned out our young pilot was brilliant and we had an exhilarating ride with no hint of fear at any stage. It was fabulous! About 90 minutes to do the 200 km to the Valley and it was the experience of a lifetime.
We flew at around 2500 feet most of the time, but it was simply wonderful to fly along snow-covered valleys, across literally hundreds of rivers and streams, over tundra and low scrub, millions of bare birch and aspen (I think) - and we even saw a bear who stood up to look at this strange bird in its territory. There are about 20000 brown bears in Kamchatka but they rarely eat people. We needed to be a little careful, but they have plenty of other food that they apparently/fortunately like better than humans. When we were walking around in the Valley a bit later, we watched and photographed a bear eating plants (and keeping an eye on us) for quite a while - and we reckon it was a maximum of 30 metres away. We saw another five bears from further away on our way back to the ranger station and when eating our lunch there at about 6pm. Glad we had an early snack before setting out on our expedition.
The flight was simply fantastic, but the Valley was something else again. 30 degrees although it felt cooler and more pleasant, and simply a perfect day. We were accompanied by our guide and an armed ranger - just in case of overly-inquisitive bears, even though they are not regarded as a problem. The problem is usually the humans who don't obey the rules. There is a series of boardwalks, including about a million and ten steps that have to be traversed in BOTH directions, passing close to a range of different fascinating features. One of the geysers was due to erupt just after we got there so we hurried down and saw it in all its glory, jetting out huge sprays of boiling water and super-heated steam. There are four phases in each eruption and that geyser erupts once every hour. It was boiling furiously and exploding almost continuously when we arrived and suddenly there was the violent eruption that shot huge jets of boiling water ten or fifteen metres into the air right next to where we were standing. It was so violent and dramatic, but was just one of so many different features we saw within a few square Kms. There was a boiling mud pool 15 metres from this geyser and dozens of smaller steam vents and geysers all up the mountain from our platform. Our guide was very knowledgable and told us a lot about the area, the natural environment in the region, geyser physics and so on and was able to answer all our questions.
We were the ONLY tourists there that whole day so had the ranger and the entire valley to ourselves too. We walked to another vantage point where we were immediately adjacent to numerous lesser features, but perhaps 50 to 100 metres from another 20 or so dramatic seething geysers, vents, boiling pools, steaming waterfalls and so on. Of course, the whole area was surrounded by snow so on one side of the river, we had steaming cataracts gushing downwards and 50 metres away, waterfalls of snow-melt were cascading into the same river.
Words are quite inadequate to describe either the scene or the emotions it evoked. We were bombarded with a rich flow of fascinating information, standing in a natural cauldron of steam and snow, grandeur of the mountains contrasting with the excitement of watching a wild brown bear not much more than arm's reach away, completely new birds to be identified, along with dozens of hitherto unseen types of vegetation in a volcanic area more diverse and intriguing than even I had ever imagined. Not quite Neolithic, but alien in the extreme, yet in no way frightening. I wish I could capture some of the scene and some of my thoughts at the time, but that is quite impossible.
We walked on past more cauldrons of seething water and boiling mud, throbbing, booming and hissing steam blow-holes, from saucepan-sized to swimming pool size - but promising a quick but agonising death for anyone thinking of going swimming.
I had been a little nervous about becoming asthmatic from the sulphur fumes, but there was no problem at all. Relatively faint smell around our first dramatic geyser, but we either got used to it very quickly or it was confined to that very small area.
I could write a few more pages about the Valley, but if anyone actually reads this, they would get bored and stop so I will hasten back to our very late boxed lunch and the helicopter trip back.
We returned via a completely different and even more dramatically beautiful and awe-inspiring route. We climbed to 3700 feet almost straight away and flew down a valley where the snow seemed only metres way from our tiny transparent egg - although in reality, I doubt if we ever got closer than 10 or 15 metres away.
We were flown over mountain escarpments and down snowy valleys crisscrossed with bear tracks. Many of the mountains are dormant volcanoes, some of which have erupted within the past couple of years, but looking quite innocent and benign under their mantle of soft white snow. One large valley area had grey snow, from the ash from the most recent eruption and that mountain appeared to have no snow at all.
We landed near some hot springs and Heather and I had a laze around in the steamy warm water while the pilot and guide chatted with the local ranger - until the mozzies found us. We set off again from yet another idyllic valley and made our way back through the snowscape to the tundra and finally back to the helicopter pad. All in all, it was a truly remarkable day and definitely worth the three year wait to get my 70th birthday present. It was the sort of day everyone should experience once in a lifetime if they are lucky enough!!!!!
Words fail me completely, but suffice to say, it would be hard to forget a single minute of it - and this was only the beginning of our odyssey.
Day Two
We went walking again today, down to the ferry terminal, with seemingly many less people around, probably because so many were at work in the offices and shops. It was quite difficult to find our way around without help, but we managed reasonably well. We caught the ferry across to the central area, but we were a bit concerned about setting out on an adventure and not getting back in time for a shower, to do our final packing and catching our bus to the airport. It would have been nice to get the 'hop on hop off' bus, even just to do the trip around, but we started the day late after some much-needed sleep so had to give it a miss. Caught the ferry back and started walking back to the hotel. We were thinking of going through the Kowloon Gardens to get back to Nathan Street to get a cab back to the hotel, but Heather's feet were causing her pain (my toe was very unhappy too) and we were running out of time anyway so we jumped into a cab and got taken for a drive through some of the more seedy parts of HK. The driver's English was almost as good as our Hongkongalese and we were getting concerned that he was taking us via the 'scenic route', but suddenly we were almost back to the hotel and the whole fare was a little under $5 Oz money.
On the way to the airport, I realised again how much of HK is a jungle of vivid green, dense, seemingly virgin bush. This was in contrast to the intense industrial and teeming residential developments hemmed in by the mountainous emerald Sward.
At the Airport, it took a while to find Siberian Airlines - they are known as S7 by everyone except us. Our big bag was slightly overweight so the woman on the counter said we would have to pay about $90 Oz or take something out and put it in our other bag that was only about a third of the allowance. But that was up to its absolute capacity, almost bursting at the seams, so she said we would have to carry something - but that would mean we would have had one too many items of hand luggage so we said we would get our folding bag out and put our food and a backpack in that. We unpacked our big bag and started to try to get things into our folding bag when she suddenly said everything would be OK and she would ignore the overweight bit. So we repackaged everything and put it all through - only then to find that we had inadvertently left the folding bag and another bag containing a blanket out of the big bag. By now the comedy seemed to have reached its climax with the woman just saying to carry the extra item. So despite our very best intentions and coming prepared with the folding bag just in case we had a problem on that particular leg, we ended up with an overweight bag and more hand luggage than allowed - but having it all ticked off by the person who drew attention to the problem in the first place.
We eventually found our way through the complexities of the airport where language was a bigger issue than I anticipated, but que sera, sera (more language complexities - this time Latin ones!!). Our departure lounge was literally several hundred metres walk, 7 or 8 flights up and down lifts and escalators, then two train stops and another half kilometre walk to the extreme far end of yet another terminal. We were assailed by crying babies In the lounge, i.e., seats, and who should be seated immediately behind us on the plane (on both sides of the aisle) but two of the crying offenders, one of which shrieked continuously in five different languages for over two hours from the moment we boarded. You would think she would eventually get tired and have a rest or that her Mum would give her a clout or someone would give her Mum a clout, but no, it seems people simply expect it, or expect to cop it, out in the near-wilds of near-Siberia.
HK to Vladivostok seemed a very long flight, arriving to a semi-deserted terminal at almost 1 am. We were very quickly through Immigration much quicker and easier than expected and like Hong Kong walked straight through Customs without a word or look from anyone.
We found a corner of the terminal to get some kip and there were quite a few others doing the same, but it was still a long and uncomfortable few hours. We both got a bit of sleep but not a lot and all a bit uncomfortable. We wanted to change some of our dollars to rubles but our flight left at 7.35 and the Exchange didn't open until nine and nobody wanted any other currency so we had to wait for the very substantial brekky on the plane to get a tea and coffee. I did see my first Russian bird while waiting for our flight to be called and I successfully identified it as a carrion crow.
Saw a lot of snow-capped mountains during the flight - very dramatic stark white and quite spectacular - we figured we were probably somewhere over some of the Japanese islands when we saw them but not sure.
Then it was Kamchatka!!!! How long have we been planning and talking about that - and finally it is here!
We went walking again today, down to the ferry terminal, with seemingly many less people around, probably because so many were at work in the offices and shops. It was quite difficult to find our way around without help, but we managed reasonably well. We caught the ferry across to the central area, but we were a bit concerned about setting out on an adventure and not getting back in time for a shower, to do our final packing and catching our bus to the airport. It would have been nice to get the 'hop on hop off' bus, even just to do the trip around, but we started the day late after some much-needed sleep so had to give it a miss. Caught the ferry back and started walking back to the hotel. We were thinking of going through the Kowloon Gardens to get back to Nathan Street to get a cab back to the hotel, but Heather's feet were causing her pain (my toe was very unhappy too) and we were running out of time anyway so we jumped into a cab and got taken for a drive through some of the more seedy parts of HK. The driver's English was almost as good as our Hongkongalese and we were getting concerned that he was taking us via the 'scenic route', but suddenly we were almost back to the hotel and the whole fare was a little under $5 Oz money.
On the way to the airport, I realised again how much of HK is a jungle of vivid green, dense, seemingly virgin bush. This was in contrast to the intense industrial and teeming residential developments hemmed in by the mountainous emerald Sward.
At the Airport, it took a while to find Siberian Airlines - they are known as S7 by everyone except us. Our big bag was slightly overweight so the woman on the counter said we would have to pay about $90 Oz or take something out and put it in our other bag that was only about a third of the allowance. But that was up to its absolute capacity, almost bursting at the seams, so she said we would have to carry something - but that would mean we would have had one too many items of hand luggage so we said we would get our folding bag out and put our food and a backpack in that. We unpacked our big bag and started to try to get things into our folding bag when she suddenly said everything would be OK and she would ignore the overweight bit. So we repackaged everything and put it all through - only then to find that we had inadvertently left the folding bag and another bag containing a blanket out of the big bag. By now the comedy seemed to have reached its climax with the woman just saying to carry the extra item. So despite our very best intentions and coming prepared with the folding bag just in case we had a problem on that particular leg, we ended up with an overweight bag and more hand luggage than allowed - but having it all ticked off by the person who drew attention to the problem in the first place.
We eventually found our way through the complexities of the airport where language was a bigger issue than I anticipated, but que sera, sera (more language complexities - this time Latin ones!!). Our departure lounge was literally several hundred metres walk, 7 or 8 flights up and down lifts and escalators, then two train stops and another half kilometre walk to the extreme far end of yet another terminal. We were assailed by crying babies In the lounge, i.e., seats, and who should be seated immediately behind us on the plane (on both sides of the aisle) but two of the crying offenders, one of which shrieked continuously in five different languages for over two hours from the moment we boarded. You would think she would eventually get tired and have a rest or that her Mum would give her a clout or someone would give her Mum a clout, but no, it seems people simply expect it, or expect to cop it, out in the near-wilds of near-Siberia.
HK to Vladivostok seemed a very long flight, arriving to a semi-deserted terminal at almost 1 am. We were very quickly through Immigration much quicker and easier than expected and like Hong Kong walked straight through Customs without a word or look from anyone.
We found a corner of the terminal to get some kip and there were quite a few others doing the same, but it was still a long and uncomfortable few hours. We both got a bit of sleep but not a lot and all a bit uncomfortable. We wanted to change some of our dollars to rubles but our flight left at 7.35 and the Exchange didn't open until nine and nobody wanted any other currency so we had to wait for the very substantial brekky on the plane to get a tea and coffee. I did see my first Russian bird while waiting for our flight to be called and I successfully identified it as a carrion crow.
Saw a lot of snow-capped mountains during the flight - very dramatic stark white and quite spectacular - we figured we were probably somewhere over some of the Japanese islands when we saw them but not sure.
Then it was Kamchatka!!!! How long have we been planning and talking about that - and finally it is here!
Hi all
Have never tried this before but I hope this keeps us in touch a little while we are exploring a small corner of other part of the world!!!!!
Well, we are finally on our way after nearly three years planning. Hopefully, we are better prepared for this adventure than we have ever been in the past. We have certainly put more effort into it this time.
I really hate airports and the security routines seem to get even more onerous and offensive every time. We were both hauled out of the line to be 'randomly' checked for explosives as usual. Nobody will ever convince me that it is at all random - or maybe I am just randomly unlucky 98% of the time. I realised again how much I hate flying now too. It is always so cramped, unbearably hot and drying - and it was a very loooong 7 1/2 hour flight - but at least there was the bliss at the end of the flight when the terminal came into sight: also hot, noisy and crowded, but a whole heap better than the confines of seats 45A and B. I got about 20 minutes sleep on the plane: Heather got a bit more, but still not a lot.
We got a main meal at about 1am and a hot breakfast that could easily have doubled as a main course at a little after 5am. Surprisingly good and in my experience, only Cathay years ago has challenged it for quality.
We had a couple of hours to kill in the Transit Lounge at Singapore. Queuing for the toilet helped while away some of the time until I realised that I had left my glasses (readers AND sunnies) on the plane. It was about 800 metres from where we were sitting to the enquiry desk and with a bit of help from the travelators, I walked it four times before being told that a search on the plane failed to find them (my glasses, not the travelators). We both did a couple more searches of all our hand luggage without success, but decided that Hong Kong was a good place to replace them. Of course, when our flight was called, we collected all our hand luggage and found them under the seat where they must have fallen when we first sat down.
Our second leg, Singapore to Hong Kong, gave us as good a view from the window as we got on the first leg - nothing! It was completely dark all the way to Singapore except for an occasional small group of lights. En route to Hong Kong, it was cloud all the why so I saw basically nothing from 5 minutes into the flight. Meal was good again and took me right back to the Beach Restaurant in Bali. It was a rice and omelette dish with other yummy things in it, including ikan bilis that instantly had me back in Bali with my favourite spicy fish dish, ikan pepes. Tried to catch up on some puzzles, mainly so I could toss some paper away, but I was just tooooo tired and gave up. Heather read a lot of her accumulated papers and lightened the load considerably when they went into the bin.
The bus took us on an extraordinarily circuitous route to hotel, where we were very glad of a coffee, shower, toilet and time to sort out some of our travel bits and pieces. We got an upgrade to a really good room that gave us free internet access from our room as well as free calls to almost anywhere using the special mobile in the room.
My impression of Hong Kong was that it was ugly and grubby, but massive. We must have driven well over 20 km getting to the hotel and there were huge residential high-rises everywhere, cheek by jowl with massive industrial developments. Container terminals that went on for kilometres, new construction everywhere all held together with a bit of bamboo scaffolding all held together with string. Simply amazing. 25 floors high and all dependent on how well some unknown construction worker tied a knot on Day One.
Sitting over a coffee in our room, I spied a couple of birds on nearby buildings to start our holiday list. Spotted turtle dove and Eurasian tree sparrow. The dove is one of the commonest at home, but first time I had seen either in Hong Kong. I also saw a few gulls or terns as we drove in, but there are so many alternatives here that I wouldn't even try to guess without a much closer look.
We went for a walk already tired and the excursion was even more tiring after no overnight rest. Not what I imagined. Few Westerners and very little spoke any English. We went to an outdoor market that seemed typical of many of the established shops. Small and with many products I don't think a lot of people would want - but they obviously do. Mountains of bling as well as lots of unpleasant smells, especially around food shops. Interesting walk, but we were very tired and achy by the time we got back to the hotel. Heather's feet were bad and I had kicked the corner of our case so I have a broken or bruised toe as well so we were certainly done for the day.
We had not even reached the end of the island down Nathan Road as intended. We had seen a few birds and I identified them using the wifi back in the room, but we're just needed food and sleep. We had a drink in the hotel bar while we decided what to do for dinner. I had seen a little restaurant 50 metres from the hotel and despite Heather's painful feet we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, there was no English interpretation of what the menu might have been offering so we went back onto Nathan Road and went to the Satay King. Three floors up in the most amazing labyrinth of tiny shops, many a bit like hobby shops with many, many thousands of miniature models of everything imaginable. The restaurant was a bit glitzy but again, nobody spoke English - and there was no satay anyway. After lots of pointing and consultations between the staff, we ended up with an acceptable meal, somewhat different from what we thought we had ordered and a bill that reflected different things again, but fed, we rolled back to our room and collapsed into bed.
Here endeth my first blog post ever!
Lindsay
Have never tried this before but I hope this keeps us in touch a little while we are exploring a small corner of other part of the world!!!!!
Well, we are finally on our way after nearly three years planning. Hopefully, we are better prepared for this adventure than we have ever been in the past. We have certainly put more effort into it this time.
I really hate airports and the security routines seem to get even more onerous and offensive every time. We were both hauled out of the line to be 'randomly' checked for explosives as usual. Nobody will ever convince me that it is at all random - or maybe I am just randomly unlucky 98% of the time. I realised again how much I hate flying now too. It is always so cramped, unbearably hot and drying - and it was a very loooong 7 1/2 hour flight - but at least there was the bliss at the end of the flight when the terminal came into sight: also hot, noisy and crowded, but a whole heap better than the confines of seats 45A and B. I got about 20 minutes sleep on the plane: Heather got a bit more, but still not a lot.
We got a main meal at about 1am and a hot breakfast that could easily have doubled as a main course at a little after 5am. Surprisingly good and in my experience, only Cathay years ago has challenged it for quality.
We had a couple of hours to kill in the Transit Lounge at Singapore. Queuing for the toilet helped while away some of the time until I realised that I had left my glasses (readers AND sunnies) on the plane. It was about 800 metres from where we were sitting to the enquiry desk and with a bit of help from the travelators, I walked it four times before being told that a search on the plane failed to find them (my glasses, not the travelators). We both did a couple more searches of all our hand luggage without success, but decided that Hong Kong was a good place to replace them. Of course, when our flight was called, we collected all our hand luggage and found them under the seat where they must have fallen when we first sat down.
Our second leg, Singapore to Hong Kong, gave us as good a view from the window as we got on the first leg - nothing! It was completely dark all the way to Singapore except for an occasional small group of lights. En route to Hong Kong, it was cloud all the why so I saw basically nothing from 5 minutes into the flight. Meal was good again and took me right back to the Beach Restaurant in Bali. It was a rice and omelette dish with other yummy things in it, including ikan bilis that instantly had me back in Bali with my favourite spicy fish dish, ikan pepes. Tried to catch up on some puzzles, mainly so I could toss some paper away, but I was just tooooo tired and gave up. Heather read a lot of her accumulated papers and lightened the load considerably when they went into the bin.
The bus took us on an extraordinarily circuitous route to hotel, where we were very glad of a coffee, shower, toilet and time to sort out some of our travel bits and pieces. We got an upgrade to a really good room that gave us free internet access from our room as well as free calls to almost anywhere using the special mobile in the room.
My impression of Hong Kong was that it was ugly and grubby, but massive. We must have driven well over 20 km getting to the hotel and there were huge residential high-rises everywhere, cheek by jowl with massive industrial developments. Container terminals that went on for kilometres, new construction everywhere all held together with a bit of bamboo scaffolding all held together with string. Simply amazing. 25 floors high and all dependent on how well some unknown construction worker tied a knot on Day One.
Sitting over a coffee in our room, I spied a couple of birds on nearby buildings to start our holiday list. Spotted turtle dove and Eurasian tree sparrow. The dove is one of the commonest at home, but first time I had seen either in Hong Kong. I also saw a few gulls or terns as we drove in, but there are so many alternatives here that I wouldn't even try to guess without a much closer look.
We went for a walk already tired and the excursion was even more tiring after no overnight rest. Not what I imagined. Few Westerners and very little spoke any English. We went to an outdoor market that seemed typical of many of the established shops. Small and with many products I don't think a lot of people would want - but they obviously do. Mountains of bling as well as lots of unpleasant smells, especially around food shops. Interesting walk, but we were very tired and achy by the time we got back to the hotel. Heather's feet were bad and I had kicked the corner of our case so I have a broken or bruised toe as well so we were certainly done for the day.
We had not even reached the end of the island down Nathan Road as intended. We had seen a few birds and I identified them using the wifi back in the room, but we're just needed food and sleep. We had a drink in the hotel bar while we decided what to do for dinner. I had seen a little restaurant 50 metres from the hotel and despite Heather's painful feet we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, there was no English interpretation of what the menu might have been offering so we went back onto Nathan Road and went to the Satay King. Three floors up in the most amazing labyrinth of tiny shops, many a bit like hobby shops with many, many thousands of miniature models of everything imaginable. The restaurant was a bit glitzy but again, nobody spoke English - and there was no satay anyway. After lots of pointing and consultations between the staff, we ended up with an acceptable meal, somewhat different from what we thought we had ordered and a bill that reflected different things again, but fed, we rolled back to our room and collapsed into bed.
Here endeth my first blog post ever!
Lindsay
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