Tapp's Travels

Linda took us to Brisbane airport on her way to work.  A fairly early start (05.30!) to miss the worst of the motorway traffic.  As soon as baggage check-in opened, we were in.  We really didn’t want to get bumped off the flight!  And there we are – breakfast in the lounge …

… and a close up view of our transport to Hong Kong.

Flight CX 150 took us up the east coast all the way to the York Peninsula before we broke left a bit towards HK.  From the left side of the aircraft (our side) we had fabulous views of the coastal towns starting with Redcliffe, Scarborough and Deception Bay.

Then the South end of Bribie Island with the settlements of Bongaree and Bellara and the Pumicestone Passage clearly visible with the mainland in the distance.

The enormous scale of the “breakthrough” (“A”) …

… at the north end of Bribie Island near Caloundra (“B”) was apparent from 20,000 feet.  The attempts to close the gap and reopen the old channel (“C”) at Caloundra are going to be fraught with a lot of very expensive works!  Fighting nature is never an easy game!  Talking of games, that bit of sand (“C”) is host to the Sunday evening frisby competitions in which Robin, Jack and (sometimes) Benji play.  The fabulous views of the coastline continued for over 1,800 kms past Townsville, Cairns and Port Douglas before we turned inland.

As the sun set, we arrived at Hong Kong and just before landing we flew over the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge (HZMB).

We got a fleeting glimpse of this approximately 55 km (34 miles) long bridge.  Straight as an arrow.  The world’s longest sea-crossing.  It consists of a 30 km (18 mile) main bridge, a 7 km (4 mile) undersea tunnel, and connecting link roads.  It spans the Pearl River Delta and connects Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai.  The last (and only) time we went to Macau from HK, we had to go by ferry!

Our room in the city was on the 18th floor of the New World Millennium Hotel.  With a panoramic view of Victoria Harbour, the stretch of water separating HK Island from downtown Kowloon.  By day …

… and by night!

From the hotel there’s a lovely waterside footpath heading west to the “Avenue of Stars”.  A 440 metre long parade of plaques honouring 116 famous actors and actresses.  I say famous, but having checked the list on-line, I recognized just one name!  Bruce Lee, of course!  There are a number of statues as well as hand prints and signatures.  But no one I’ve ever met!

This is the “Hong Kong Film Awards Statue”, a 6 metre tall bronze sculpture depicting the award statuette presented to recipients.  Allegedly, she’s a goddess holding a rather expensive looking pearl.  I haven’t met her either!

Victoria Harbour is well served by touristy, junky looking cruise boats.  Day and night.

The walkway is immaculately tidy considering the huge numbers of visitors.  We walked for a good fifteen minutes before we saw the first bit of litter.  They even had little boats out collecting floating rubbish from the harbour!

And almost no one was smoking!  In fact, since 1982, smoking has been increasingly controlled in Hong Kong and is now strictly prohibited in most public areas in the city.  As of 1st January this year, fixed penalty fines have been doubled to HK$ 3,000.  It appears that e-cigarettes are due to be banned totally in the near future.

Each evening in Victoria  Harbour at 8 pm, there is a 14 minute “multi-media show”.  “The Symphony of Lights”.  It features synchronized lasers, lights, and music from over 40 skyscrapers.  Allegedly the world’s largest permanent light and sound show.  Sadly, it wasn’t up to standard while we were there.  Maybe something to do with the low clouds.

This is what it should look like, and indeed did look like last time we were here …

Some of the waterfront buildings have massive light shows mounted on their facade.  Flowers,  plants, dolphins and birds swaying, swimming and flapping across peoples’ office windows.  Must be a bit distracting for anyone near the windows on the night shift!

We visited Sai Kung on the recommendation of brother John.  It was good to break out of the maze of high-rise buildings.  The 20 km trip to the northeast might have involved a train ride a couple of bus rides another train and a bus.  Plus six short walks between transports.  So we took a taxi!  Door to door.  Easy!  The WM Hotel for a coffee.  Then a walk on the coastal path.

The shallow waters had literally hundreds of paddleboards and kayaks moored and waiting for the tourist season to get going.

Walking into town we passed some signs saying that kites must be flown respectfully and with due care for passing pedestrians.   OK.  But there were no kites being flown either respectfully or otherwise!  The path became more formal and wider as we approached the town centre, Sai Kung Square.

Past the bus station (one of those we had elected not to use on the way here) and we arrived at the harbour and a row of kiosks flogging boat trips to a number of nearby islands.  Opposite there was a fish restaurant with tanks of fish, cuttlefish and prawns.

… and just round the corner …

Here too, there are boats out litter-picking!

Anyway.  Enough for the day.  Retracing our steps we encountered two kite flyers, flying their kites very respectfully – and at great height.  Back via the bus, train, walk combo?  No chance … by taxi!

Every morning we met Rupert.  Rupert the robot!

Humming a relaxing tune and glowing in a haze of electric blue, his job was to deliver dirty crockery and cutlery to the kitchen area for renovation.  His task was made difficult by people standing in front of him blocking his route.  But his patience trumped that of the people interfering with his task!  Robot 1, humans 0.  I predict that problems with AI and robots are going to be major issues in the not so distant future.  Rupert mark 2 will have arms to load himself unassisted (and to push humans out of his way)!

Anyway, it’s time to get back in the air to complete our journey to the UK.  Having checked in on-line two seconds after the 48 hour window commenced, we got to the airport 5 hours early and gave Cathay our cases to look after.  We were in the lounge consuming a late breakfast happy in the knowledge that we had done everything possible to avoid being bumped off the flight!  And bumped off we were not.

The first “good news” from the flight deck was that due to “necessary re-routing”, our flight was going to take 15 hours.  Two hours longer than scheduled.  At least we had a captain and two seats!

Usually, the flight path approximates to a great circle route.  On screen, a gently curving line.  This time not so gentle!  First we headed more or less north across China to the Mongolian border with the Gobi Desert straight ahead.  Then we turned sharp left …

… over dramatic, snow covered, mountainous country.

As the snow disappeared, we flew over Kazakhstan with Moscow looming more or less straight ahead.  As we arrived over the north end of the Caspian Sea …

… two things happened.   First we turned 90 degrees left to head south with Tehran now directly ahead of us and Russia off to our right.  Second, my GPS tracker suddenly said we were in PERU!

Clearly someone is interfering with the GPS signal in this war-torn part of the world.  (The Caspian Sea area – not Peru!).

Shortly after this we turned sharp right over Azerbaijan and Georgia and found the Black Sea coast of Turkey.  From here it was plain sailing across Europe and soon we had the bridges of the River Thames off to our right as we approached Heathrow.

We just missed a Hotel Hoppa bus – and they only run once an hour.  One night in the Staybridge Suites Hotel and we were treated to a superbly smooth taxi ride home the next morning.   Thank you Stuart of Babbacombe Cabs.

And that’s it.  Home … and jet lag … and piles of washing … and failed heating … and planning our next trip to France in the caravan … in five weeks time!!!