Caught in a HK Storm

Day 59 - 23/07/2010 - 22:48 - Guangzhou, China

So we've seen Hong Kong, left Hong Kong and are now back in the PRC! The train took just over 2 hours, cost £16, no border checks and no sleepless nights. It was like a flight in the sense that you only have your papers checked at departure and arrival which made a rather pleasant change on the train - it was called the Intercity Through Train and is recommended!

Yesterday was our last full day in HK and we decided to pay a little money and see the open top bus tours of the city - it was about £26 for a 24 hour pass, but we had aspirations of seeing them all within the day. We were on the bus at 11:30am for the tour of Hong Kong Island (the north and urban side of the city). It was pretty good to be fair, we saw lots of interesting things, and the commentary you get helps you to piece together Hong Kong's history which is something you don't get if you just walk around the city. It was particularly interesting to see the legal buildings of HK, which of course was influenced heavily by the English legal system and the adoption of such for many years. What I wasn't particularly interested in was "This street is full of expensive shops". Wow. I can go and shop at Gucci in London, show me something interesting!

We finished that one at about quarter to two, with aspirations of leaving on the 2:30pm bus for Stanley, a small town on the south (and more rural side) of HK island. We left on time, after having a roll and a cookie each from the local bakery by the bus stop/harbour and departed for Stanley. We reached our first "break point" a sea life park when the heavens opened and it chucked it down with rain. Everyone on top dashed downstairs, but we just got our raincoats out and sat it out - until it got even heavier. Then we proceeded to go downstairs. There was lots of laughter from the driver and the assistant but it was all good natured fun, we knew we'd been pretty stupid to try and stay up there! We got to Stanley at around 3:05pm, by then the rain had stopped but it was still very grey. We could either spend 25 or 1 hour 25minutes there and decided to opt for the former as not a lot was going on (probably due to the weather) and I wanted to get back to go on the Kowloon bus tour in the late afternoon. It didn't rain for our quick stop, so we decided to brave it on top on the way back - something I was going to do either way as the views from the lower deck window were beautiful, even through the lashing rain. I wanted to capture them on camera.

Laura joined me as it wasn't raining and she felt slightly ill going round all those small and tight bends up and down hills to Stanley. As we made our way back up the hill we had great fun being splashed by the tree branches above us, the force of the bus swaying them and the water off them onto us. We also got some absolutely beautiful pictures and it was something we were both glad we did. Once we got back to Hong Kong pier/tour bus terminus, we headed for the Star Ferry terminal - pier 7, upper deck. Our tickets were included in the bus ticket price so we went straight through the barriers to wait to board. The star ferry was a lot smaller than I expected but they were very old and still retained the look I can imagine them having all those years ago when they were still in use, and then still very much an integral part of life in HK (now the metro is open I can't imagine a lot of passengers are there on business/work related trips!).

We boarded and sat on the right hand side of the ship by the window. I was eager to sit there because of the mist rolling down from the hills , just on top of the skyscrapers in the distance it was beautiful. I was blissfully minding my own business, enjoying the view of Kowloon when it started bombing it down with rain, it was coming straight through the window on the right hand side. I looked up - 0 skyscrapers could be seen on the right hand side, over back towards HK island. Uh oh. Storm time. We made it over to the other side safely, despite being shrouded in mist and it chucking it down - the Star ferry we were on letting it's fog horn go a few times. Cue lots of thunder, very loud thunder and incredible sheet lightning - I've never seen anything like it. We decided, somewhat disappointingly to miss the Kowloon tour but it was chucking it down, we got absolutely soaked in the very short time we were out from rain cover (running to the metro station back to the hotel from the Kowloon pier) and the rain storm continued all evening until about 7:30pm. We watched the lightning and listened to the thunder from the relative comfort and warmth of our hotel room (after we'd dried off!!)

Unfortunately we didn't have time to do the Kowloon tour this morning (it took long enough to get to the train station) but we were glad we gave it a miss yesterday because of the weather! We read in the paper we get through our hotel room door every morning that North Point (where our hotel was) had the worst of the storm, but I can't imagine it being much better in Hong Kong central!

Anywho, now we are in Guangzhou and looking forward to our only real day to look around tomorrow. That's if our hotel doesn't keep us in the room all day. The bed is the softest we've had. There is a movie channel in English that's free. Sauna, table tennis AND roof top swimming pool over looking Shamian Island (the historical colonial part of Guangzhou) where our hotel is situated! We've definitely planning on having a swim and a look around the island tomorrow - if I can get out of bed in the morning! I really wasn't expecting the hotel room to be this nice!