Arriving at our Hotel, the Majestic on Nathan Road, in the famous Kowloon district was something quite special. There are new and unusual sights and sounds at every head turn. From the bizarre Chinese neon signs that seem to be hanging in a Blade Runneresque kind of way through to the strange food stalls selling dried fish and fruit right next to each other (imagine the smell!) the experience is very different from anything I've enjoyed before. It's as exciting as New York, but for me at least, much more strange and interesting . . .
On our first day in Hong Kong we traveled on the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island. Having dreamed about making this journey for quite some years now you can imagine how excited I was. Once on HK Island we took the tram up to Victoria Peak, the views across Kowloon Bay were breathtaking! Later we took the MTR back to Kowloon and eventually (8:00pm) got to witness the Hong Kong Laser Show - about 30 buildings are involved, some firing lasers into the night sky to light up the clouds above, others pulsing lights in time to music.
I'm not too good at explaining stuff like this with words (can you tell? Haha!), I usually prefer to show the sights and sounds with video, unfortunately that will probably have to waiting until next week when we return to England, but for now here are a few pictures.
I'll mentioned New Zealand again soon, it's just that we did so much there that it's hard for me to get my jet lagged head around it at the moment.
I'll put some pictures up later today, but let me just say this, Hong Kong is buzzing!
Whale watching, seal viewing, hot spa bathing, snow capped mountain views, these are all everyday events here in N.Z. There really is so much on offer, and we haven't really begun our travels in the South Island yet! The weather has been quite kind to us, with only really one or two overcast days. We finally arrived at Dane and Jenny's house this evening, it was quite an emotional welcome . . .
I've been using my Canon HV10 for most photos, but sometimes I'll break out the good old N95 for some 5mp shots. A couple of days ago I discovered that the wide angle lens I bought for my Canon fits very snuggly over the lens bump on the N95 - producing fab wide angle photos with very good clarity! Check it out . . .
Blogging in New Zealand has proved to be much more difficult than blogging in L.A. Time is much more valuable here in New Zealand as we seem to be going to bed sometimes as early as 8:00! New Zealand doesn't have much of a night life you see! We started our N.Z. holiday in Auckland and as I type this we are now parked up just North of Christchurch on the south island. We've done so much in the last week that it would be real task for me to sit here and remember everything, instead I'll just post a few pictures and give general thoughts on N.Z. so far . . . it's an amazing place, the landscape is as impressive as it is vast - so far it's the coastlines that have be gripped, but then I have always been a sucker for the sea. The poeple are friendly enough, though they do seem to quite protective of their islands. Did I mention the driving? We are driving many, many miles, one day last week we were on the road the whole day, from 8:00 in the morning til about 8:00 at night. More soon . .
Our last day in L.A. It was time to take a good look around this wonderful ship! Without going into too much detail, let me just say that this old ship is a sight to behold, parts of it are the original fittings, some 70 years old! It's big, it's old, and it oozes character. The Scorpion - the Russian sub harboured next to the Queen Mary - is also well worth a visit, the thought of spending anymore than half an hour in such hiddeous surroundings still scares me . . . In the afternoon we visited the O.C. with it's famous Huntington Beach. In the evening we left America for New Zealand!
On our second day in L.A. we spent the morning at the Griffith Observatory and the afternoon at Hollywood and surrounding districts. I highly recommend the observatory to anyone and everyone, it's recently been renovated and looks stunning. Besides the amazing views of downtown, it's also offers a classic view of the famous Hollywood sign. The big highlight of Hollywood, for me at least, was Grauman's Chinese Theatre, it's just so famous, not least for being the venue of the very first 'blockbuster', Star Wars! Hollywood is okay . . . I mean, it's super it's super famous and everything, but it's also very shamby. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and the hills up behind the Sunset Strip are very posh, not too suprisingly, many stars have multi million dollar homes in these areas - we visited a few . . . No one was home! We ended the evening with a lovely meal on Manhattan beach at a local deli, followed by a glass of wine on the promenade deck of The Queen Mary.
Armed with Mark's excellent mini guide to L.A. we set out into the Santa Monica hills, about 30 miles from The Queen Mary (more on The Queen in another post). Driving in the America is pretty easy really, the only concern to us Brits is making sure to look more carefully when pulling out and being aware of what's coming up over both shoulders on the Freeway. The drive up through the hills, down the other side and on through the world famous beaches of Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice, Manhatten and Hurmosa is a spectacular one. These beaches are much bigger than any of us realised - Santa Monica in particular in huge! As you can see from the photo, we even managed to get a snap with the local lifeguards, and no, we didn't 'hassle the Hoff'! As the sun began to set on the first day, we caught a glorious sunset over Seal Beach (see photo). All-in-all, our first day, and our first encounter with L.A. was wonderful - thanks for the excellent guide Mark, it was perfect!
Wow, what a flight! Honestly, I think it was probably just about the best flight we've ever experienced. The plane itself was a brand new 777, complete with more in-flight movies than current showing at my local multiplex! Another great bonus was the amazing space we had - it was only about half full - whole rows where untaken, giving us all an opportunity to stretch out. The food was great and cabin crew were very helpful. We had some bad turbulance, but nothing too sustained. All-in-all, a great start to the holiday! Thanks to everyone who has commented these last few days, I probably won't get a chance to reply to them all. Posted using the N95 via Cingular's Edge network.
In a little over 48 hours we'll be in the air making our way to the land of the free. We land at L.A.X., pick up the hire car and head over to the Queen Mary for the first night of our holiday. I'm going to try and keep this VOX blog as up to date as possible. I'll be using an mix of Nokia N800 and N95.
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nechbi said:
I stayed at the Hotel Roosevelt just across from Grauman's Chinese Theatre during my trip to LA.. I have to... read more
on The Griffith Observatory and Hollywood
You should take a picture of the N95 with the wide angle lens placed on it read more
on Wide Angle N95 Photos