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Friday 10 October

Toronto to Hong Kong is a long 15 hour flight up over the North Pole.  Good thing there was a children's play area adjacent to our gate at the airport and we managed to tire out Charlie for at least part of the flight.  Arriving midday Saturday (due to the date line crossing) we were impressed by the efficiency of the HK airport transportation, which delivered us directly to our hotel with a free shuttle bus service from the Kowloon station.  We had decided to stay on the Kowloon side and found a hotel on Nathan Road a few blocks back from the harbour front.  After a nap Dave's work colleague Hubert (himself in town on vacation) very generously shouted us a Chinese feed with his fiancé Irene, brother Wilbur and his wife Catherine.

From Left - Hubert, Irene, Wilbur, Catherine, Flick & Charlie

On Sunday Flick decided that Charlie had done too much time in the back pack, so we discovered how difficult it is to negotiate Hong Kong with a stroller.  We briefly visited one of the major shopping malls on the Kowloon side then took the ever-decreasing Star Ferry trip across a harbour that is progressively being filled in due to on-going reclamation projects.  We inspected and lunched in the stylish mall beneath IFC - currently the tallest building in Hong Kong, though not for much longer as we could see another skyscraper rising above Kowloon Station.  Then we thought we'd take the Central mid-levels escalator (passing near the former Hong Kong office of Dave's old work) and from there the Peak Tram, not realising that the intermediate tram stops are no-longer in use.  After a sticky walk we finally made it and enjoyed a somewhat murky twilight view, meeting some interesting folk on our way back.

In the evening we met up with Wilbur and Catherine, who had just dropped Hubert off at the airport and dined with them before wandering through the Ladies' Market in the mainland suburb of Mong Kok.

On Monday Dave had several meetings with the local Colliers team, while Flick and Charlie headed back out to Lantau Island to visit a discount mall.  We dined in the western restaurant street of Knutsford Terrace, near our hotel.

Tuesday morning we spent at the hotel.  Dave went for a swim on the roof top pool to ensure his swimmers had been worth carting around the world.  Then we packed for the fourteenth and final time.  Then Dave had further meetings with the Colliers team while Flick & Charlie went to the Bird and ornamental Fish Markets before we headed to the airport for the final time.

We guess it had to happen.  We arrived home after a near sleepless overnighter.  Perhaps Charlie knew it was the end of the trip but he was certainly not in the mood.  Oh well, one flight out of eight is not too bad.  And it's certainly satisfied our travel bugs for a few months.