Finally after three long years we are back in Hong Kong. But first a brief stopover in Singapore. We had so many hoops and hurdles to jump through and over to get here and I’ve never filled out so many forms and scanned so many QR codes.
We flew Scoot to Singapore and then Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong. In January we said never again would we fly Scoot! Seems like we have memories like goldfish. When we arrived at Perth Airport the checkin line was huge and could see that the flight would not depart as scheduled. The plane finally left at 10.15 pm, 45 minutes late. Arriving in Singapore at 3.15 am I didn’t realise that we had to fill out an immigration card online! I have to say that I was very impressed with my dear hubby who actually managed to do his on the phone. We eventually got into bed at 4.30 am. Luckily our flight wasn’t until 1pm the next day so we managed a few hours sleep.
We stayed at Yotel Hotel located just outside Terminal 1 for convenience. It turned out to be a very expensive few hours sleep in a damp and mouldy room the size of a shoebox.
I wasn’t expecting anything large as I had seen photos and reviews, but this was smaller than a cabin on a ship. It was overpriced and needed a good refurbishment.
Someone who is confused or unclear about a situation 
Image from Sushi restaurant 
Christmas Decoration 
Christmas display
After not much sleep I was definitely “blur sotong”.
It would be easy to spend a few days just in the terminals at Singapore airport. If we had been there longer I would liked to have walked around the huge fountain and waterfall.
Hong Kong – Day 0
Our first day in Hong Kong is classified as Day 0 and when we arrived at the airport, we were whisked away for a PCR test. I can’t imagine that there is any unemployment in Hong Kong judging by the amount of people there telling you which way to go. Maybe people can’t read or follow signs so you are herded onto elevators and walkways to the appropriate places. It was all very efficient and we were in our hotel by 6.45 pm. We ordered room service, no other choice, which we will have to do for the next two nights.
The view from our room on the 19th Floor
Day 1
After a fairly good night’s sleep we had breakfast (or I did) in the room and then headed out to the Immigration Department.
One of the reasons we are here is to renew our HK ID cards, very important to Anthony to maintain having lived in Hong Kong for 45 years before emigrating to Australia. This was a fairly easy process and we were finished within 30 minutes. We walked into Central from Wanchai which was around a 20 minute walk.
Everywhere is now fully decorated for Christmas and with the weather being fairly cool, it was starting to feel a lot like Christmas.
Picking up a takeaway lunch we headed up Battery Path to the park outside St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Not too cold to sit outside and eat.
Even though this is an urban jungle there are many small parks around surrounded by towering Banyan Trees.
Everywhere you look there is art and it’s all free! Such incredible sculptures and murals are found on walls and outside buildings.
There’s no better way of seeing Hong Kong than riding on the top of the tram, even better if you can get a seat at the front.
Anthony has been in his element all day, in a bit of a daze really. It’s been a stop start kind of day with him pausing all the time to look in all the shops. For me it’s a fantastic photograph opportunity, and I hope to be posting more in the next few days.
Such a contrast between the old and the new buildings. It’s hard to believe that there are people living in the apartment building above. Anthony pointed out that they are also likely to be paying a high rent as it’s bang in the middle of Central.
At the end of the day I had walked 13,000 steps, time for us to head back to the hotel. After a quick rest for Anthony he has headed back out again for another walk around the shops, for me I’m going to have dinner without him.
Hong Kong is a special place for both of us as this is where we met. I was on a two month working holiday and met him after five weeks and the rest as they say is history!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first day back with me