Hong Kong Life Part 1

next to a shopping mall

on the peak

Bank of China Tower on the right

The Peninsula Hotel

Queen Victoria Statue

In Lan Kwai Fong area

I decided to do a mix of photos of our trip to Hong Kong, starting from our first evening, which was in Causeway Bay, it is mainly a shopping area. It was always busy and seeing lots and lots of people still at 11pm was something we did not get used too. Also there are SO many shopping malls everywhere in Hong Kong, I did not want to do any shopping but towards the end of the trip I felt like I should be buying lots of things.

There are many interesting buildings to look at from the financial area like the Bank of China tower, to apartments buildings (photo 3), hotels to temples, I found them all interesting to see.

One of the highlights was visiting the all the different kinds of markets, Temple Night Market starts around 6pm, ladies markets is during the day. Then there was the jade market, goldfish market, bird market and flower market they are all in Kowloon.

Lan Kwai Fong is where you can have a wild night out lots of bars, restaurant and clubs. We stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe for some food and heard a live band too. Another evening we came here for a some drinks and saw Captain America hanging out.

Photo of the Week - Scotland in Paris!

Last weekend I visited Paris with my friend Aimee for a long weekend, this was my 4th time in this wonderful city and it never bores me to go back again and again.

I managed to see some sights that were completely new for me and visit some old favorites, one of the new sights was all the padlocks on the Pont des Arts. Apparently the story goes a bit like this a couple writes their name on a padlock, locks it on the bridge and throws away the key.

It seems that it may be not good for the bridges to have all that extra weight and sometimes the lock are taken off. We crossed the bridge and stopped to take a photo of the river Seine and lo and behold as I looked down there was a lock with the words "Forever in Paris, Scotland" I am being totally honest with this story, and thought of all the spots to stop on the bridge I stopped here.

Anyway there will be so more post about lovely Paris to come and still some on Hong Kong!

Hike from Forch to Meilen

Forch War Memorial

This hike was from Forch to Meilen which is 11km, to get there we went via the Pfannenstiel, the highest point is 853m.

A lovely winter sunny day we took the train to Forch once we arrived I found the hiking signs for our destination and off we went!

In the distance we saw the Forch War Memorial which honors all the soldiers that died in the World War I & II. From here it was through the forest until we reached an area full of people sledging, cross country skiing and walking. Back through the forest until we reached the Pfannenstiel tower which is here since 1992 and 30m high with great views of Lake Zurich and further afield.

We didn`t climb it but stopped in the restaurant Hochwacht for some refreshment, then carried on our journey which took us to Toggwil. From there we walked through the Meilen ravine which was amazing to see, full of large icicles, winding paths, lots of bridges and waterfalls.

We reached the Friedburg ruins, there is hardly anything left of it to be honest, possibly from around 1200. Then we walked down into Meilen, from there we caught the ferry over to Horgen and back home.

It was a lovely hike on such a sunny, look forward to more hikes when the Spring weather finally arrives and stays.

Y is for Yellow

Spring is in the air at last! After a mixture of warmth, cold and snow, hopefully now it will start to become warmer. Well at least no snow, please!

Y is for yellow, it seems a good word to choose, spring colour! The first photo is in Wan Chai area in HK, there was also a blue and orange building. It was a very interesting street to walk along and explore, the mini was also found in that area.

The third photo was taken on Lake Zug back in mid February, the fourth and fifth photos are from the walk Alessio and I did from Forch to Meilen. The last is quite obvious, my favorite flowers, Tulips.

Enjoy the weekend!

A Day In Macau

St Dominic`s Church

Ruin of St Paul

View from Macau Museum

Na Tcha Temple

Protestant Church

Going to Macau it not just a matter of hopping onto a boat, as we found out, you have to bring along your passport and it gets stamped as we left Hong Kong and a stamp as we entered Macau. It takes about one hour on the fast hydro-foil boats, we day we visited it was grey and overcast.

Macau was once a Portuguese colony from mid-16th century to 1999, it was the last European colony in China, as Hong Kong had already been handed back to China. Like Hong Kong, it is a SAR, Special Administrative Region of China.

So once we arrived we caught a bus into the centre and started walking around, it was quite busy with lots of tourists. You either come to gamble (which we did not) or to walk around the UNESCO World Heritage old town (which we did). I am not sure what I expected but I was a bit let down by what I saw, sure there were some interesting building to see and the ruins of St Paul was quite amazing as only the facade remains.

To be honest we did not see all of the town and am sure we missed out on lots of sights. I also think as it was overcast and grey that did not help matters. We wanted to see the Guia fortress and lighthouse but by the end of the day we were quite exhausted with all the walking, we did see it from afar though.

We climbed up Mount Fortress and walked around and saw the views, when you have seen views like in Hong Kong, it was not the same. But in saying that if you are visiting Hong Kong and have enough time I would come and visit just to see the old centre.