Sunday 28 June 2009 (Flight Frankfurt to Los Angeles)

Well today was our next long haul flight, which was from Frankfurt to Los Angeles (being approximately 12 hours). Once we got to our boarding gate, it seems that the aircraft we were supposed to be flying on (Boeing 747) was switched for an Airbus 340. This had a twofold effect. Firstly, this allowed us to have on-demand entertainment (yay!), as Lufthansa has only upgraded their Airbus fleet. Secondly, given that it is a smaller plane by passenger numbers, Lufthansa offered passengers the equivalent of NZ$1,250.00 each and a free nights accommodation if they were willing to take the flight the next day. While it was very tempting (and if it was our flight home we definitely would have jumped at the opportunity), we had too many other bookings that would be effected by it. Also the invitation was read first in German, and a lot of people looked like they were jumping at the opportunity before we understoon what was going on.

Flight itself was ok (we still watched the netbook as there was a very limited choice on the plane’s on-demand entertainment), and we arrived in Los Angeles after 2:00am our time. We went through the fingerprinting and photo taking (feels like you’ve committed a crime) and caught the free shuttle to our airport hotel, from which we could watch the planes take off and arrive. The bed in our room had a feature called sleep number, which you could use to control the softness/firmness of the bed, with each side independently controlled. The hotel also had a pool (it’s great to be out of Europe) and a swim was just what was required before bed.

General Impressions of Amsterdam/Frankfurt

Both are reasonably dirty places that have offensive odours at times. Although both have difficult public transport systems when you only speak English (we miss the MTR in Hong Kong), Amsterdam is easy to get around as all the tourist areas were within walking distance of our hotel. Frankfurt on the other hand is a bit more spread out.

Amsterdam was always fun to walk around as there was always things happening and nice canals (even though the water looked gross) with lots of tourists, whereas Frankfurt was more like an ordinary biggish city.

In both Amsterdam and Frankfurt (as with Hong Kong) the people were very rude. Always very pushy and no concept of orderly queues. Everything was very expensive and was probably good that we only had several days in these places or we would be broke.

We can see how these European cities are very popular with older tourists, as the main attractions seem to revolve around museums. For example in Frankfurt, the number one attraction was Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s House, someone neither of us had ever heard of.

The thing that neither us of us will miss about Europe is the toilet paper, or rather, the rolls of newsprint that they pass for toilet paper. You would think that when you have to pay to use a public toilet (we even had to pay in a restaurant and in shopping malls) that they could at least provide some decent quality toilet paper. The worst part about having to pay is that they only accept exact change, so you are out of luck if you do not have the right coin.

Saturday 27 June 2009 (Frankfurt)

We woke early to enjoy the hotel breakfast, that had a huge selection, as along with the usual American, Asian and Continental breakfast options, they had salmon and a big selection of hams and cheeses.

We walked down to the other side of the river, the Museumsufer, so named because of the large concentration of museums there. On Saturday it is also the location of Frankfurt’s biggest market. It turned out to be a flea market, with a whole bunch of other people’s crap for sale. We left there pretty soon after we arrived and went to the Three Kings Church, which is a magnificent old church. This is not something we would usually do, but it was close by and Frankfurt was fast running out of things to do. We can see why it was suggested to us that we spend no more than a couple of days here.

We went for a walk down the main street in downtown area, and then caught a train (yes we managed to decipher how to do it, although still not sure we were doing it right) to the Museum of Natural History. Given that this was almost entirely in German (have these people heard of tourism?) we didn’t understand a lot of it, but we did obtain some headphones that you could listen to spiels about the more important exhibits. It was actually very good, as it has the largest exhibition of large dinosaurs in Europe and the largest collection of birds in the world.

After dinner we went to a bar called Rough Diamond, which was a completely different concept nightclub to anything we have seen back home. We considered going also going to the Cocoon Club, which is regarded as one of the best nightclubs in the world (some say the best trance nightclub in the world), but it was late and we would have had to catch a train to get there.

Friday 26 June 2009 (Frankfurt)

A very early start to get to the airport on time to get back to Frankfurt. Flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (as we had to Amsterdam) in a Fokker 100, a rather differently configured plane, not least of which is the position of the engines attached to the main body itself. That was the seventh plane journey out of the total of fourteen during this trip (half way!). Also KLM is part of Air France (which we didn’t know) so its good that those flights are over without incident.

It has been shockingly easy to get entry to countries in Europe after we first got here. Upon arrival we go straight to the baggage hall and then exit. No passport control, no customs, nothing.

We arrived in Frankfurt for our third time here (its like our second home). Language is still proving a problem as the signs and the train ticket machine were in parts only in German, but the people seem helpful enough. So we caught the train to central station and our hotel was directly outside. A nice hotel, part-way between an ordinary hotel room and an all inclusive, that is, had free mini bar in room, free breakfast, free wi-fi & internet computers, free telephone calls, free newspapers, free ironing service and free tea, coffee and cakes/pastries all day.

Michael Jackson died - we managed to find one TV station (BBC) in English.

We went for a wander around the area and walked down by the river Main, which is a huge river that runs through the middle of the city. We got frankfurters for lunch (we had to, we are in Frankfurt) and discovered that they are better in Christchurch. What is with the bread in Europe? Not even the birds eat it, due to it being so hard. We then went for a scenic cruise down the river with (English!) commentary, which was quite good, but not anywhere near as scenic as the Amsterdam canals. We saw a few of the main sights to see in Frankfurt, although there aren’t a lot. We then sat in the blistering sun and enjoyed an ice-cream sundae at a dessert restaurant that had no English whatsoever on their menus. We went out in the evening to have a look at the German nightlife, which in the area around the central station is mainly a huge red light district. No girls in windows on the street this time, but they have the exact same concept but in huge buildings dedicated for this purpose.

The bizarre thing about Frankfurt is that it has all these magnificent old buildings, however, not many of them are actually old. They have simply been rebuilt in the same style after being destroyed in the war.

Thursday 25 June 2009 (Amsterdam)

A bright and early start to the day, we decided to head to Anne Frank’s House, which is now a museum. The line was long already by the time we got there (remind me not to go to anymore of the main tourist attractions in the cities in Europe) but the museum itself was very good. Inside of course is the exact house that the Frank family hid out in, along with Anne Frank’s original diary. For some reason, no photography was allowed inside.

All the walking we have done in the last week was taking its toll, and we decided to stop for a massage (well out of the red light district!) Jen got a hot stone massage.

We then had lunch and went to the sex museum, which did not have such big queues, but was still very full. The exhibits were a little different to most museums, and there were a lot of shocked faces. It basically told the story of sex through the ages through a huge collection of models, exhibits, videos, photos and paintings.

As we had heard, there a masses of bikes here, being the main form of transportation within the city area. What we had not heard was how crazy the biker riders are. They woosh around the streets at very high speeds (streets that are shared by both cars and foot traffic). If you are in their path, they ding their bell and then get angry if you don’t immediately move. They do not give way to cars or people, and we know from our taxi ride that the drivers are crazy also. What makes this situation worse is that not one of the bike riders we have seen was wearing a helmet. Wait, it doesn’t end there, we saw one person who had herself and three small children all on one bike, none of whom were wearing helmets. Sort of feels like we have gone back in time to when people where stupid.

Also saw a Police boat on the canals, so now we have seen Police here travel by boat, car, motorbike, push bike, horse and on foot.

Wednesday 24 June 2009 (Amsterdam)

Getting out of bed was hard this morning due to how luxurious the bed was, but we needed to drag ourselves up as there was plenty of Amsterdam to see in the short time we are here. We walked around the canals a bit more and went to a couple of local street markets (Waterlooplein market and Albert Cuyp market). A few bargains were available, but nothing like an Asian street market. We walked through the red light district in the daytime (hey, its hard to avoid as its right in the centre) which didn’t quite have the same buzz about it, but the girls were still in the windows, a lot looking very bored or talking on cell phones.

We also went to an area which I think translates to English as Newmarket, which is an area frequented by young people with lots of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating area. The day was very warm, so this area was quite busy.

We went to a restaurant called Coco’s Outback, an Australian restaurant nearby our hotel whose slogan is “Lousy Food and Warm Beer”. We had lunch watching State of Origin II (Queensland won series, yay!) - I had a crocodile burger and we both had the national dish of the Netherlands, fries with mayonnaise.

Now what would Amsterdam be without its museums, but all the art museums that are here don’t really interest us, so we decided to go to the torture museum. Mildly disturbing, but must make people glad that they live in this modern world.

Dinner was KFC (even though I’ve failed I still got to try it), which I didn’t even feel bad about because the food in Europe is so plain (Missing Asia and looking forward to Mexico - MMmm fajitas). Also the cost of food here is ridiculously high.

We then took a canal cruise, which took us round the canals of Amsterdam with an (English!) commentary explaining the history and various features we saw. One of the more interesting things that they pointed out was that when the houses were constructed they were taxed on their width, which is why all the houses are tall and thin. This made the staircases in them very steep and narrow, which necessitated that each house have a hook coming out of its roof, which is used when people move house to pull the furnishing up and through a window.

Tuesday 23 June 2009 (Flights and Amsterdam)

For the most part this was a boring day, as it involved getting up early, catching a flight from Riga to Frankfurt, waiting at Frankfurt airport for our delayed flight to Amsterdam, then finally catching our flight to Amsterdam and getting in well after 8:00pm. If I knew what I know now about the best way to book flights, we would have avoided having to go back through Frankfurt and thus had most of an extra day to explore Amsterdam. But the whole purpose of our trip was fulfilled today when I got to have a Pork McRib from McDonalds at Frankfurt airport (the weddings are only the secondary reason).

Anyway, when we eventually did get to Amsterdam, we both thought the airport was a great way to impress visitors, being quite unique, and having all signs in English. Unfortunately, upon leaving the airport, we were confronted with the truth about Amsterdam. Catching the train to Central Station at which we saw how dirty and smelly this city really is - particularly so after just visiting Hong Kong and Riga Old Town, both which were very clean cities.

Although most people speak at least some English when spoken to in English, their English is quite limited. Walking down the street, you never hear people conversing in English (noticing a theme here yet?), and all the street signs are in Dutch. We attempted to use the Metro system but could even come close to working out how - asking the information desk was not going to work as she had difficulty telling us how to get to the boarding area.

Anyway, we checked into an extremely nice hotel called Eden Rembrandt Square (the beds were as luxurious as we‘ve ever come across), a four star hotel right in centre of the main nightlife area of Amsterdam. So glad we took advantage of some cheap rates and booked this hotel instead of the usual Amsterdam style "hotel" we had originally booked. Despite it being after 10:00pm, we decided we would venture into town. We walked around the canals, which have no barriers whatsoever, and the cars park right on the edge. The streets are all made of cobble stone, but much more modern even cobble stones than those in Riga Old Town.

We ventured through the red light district and saw the ladies in the red-illuminated windows, and even saw some people going into the booths, after which they shut their curtains. The rest of the red light district was made up of sex shops, sex museums, peep shows and suchlike. It was an extremely busy area. We quickly visited Dam Square and Rembrandt Square (we will investigate these further later) and went to a “coffee shop”.

Like Frankfurt, everything seems to be so expensive here! Like the same price you would find in New Zealand, but in Euros.

General Impressions of Riga

Riga was surprisingly a great place to visit, and will feature among the highlights of this trip, particularly as our expectations were low. It was lucky that we were there during there big mid-summer festival, as there was a lot more happening due to this. It is interesting to think that but for Patrick’s wedding, I doubt that we ever would have visited Riga.

The Old Town area was a nice place to wonder around with very old architecture. We were constantly bumping into people we knew wandering around these parts. The streets were on the whole very quiet. The people of Riga do not smile and for the most part speak very little English. One thing that stood out about the people of Riga was how many beautiful women there were (a substantially larger proportion than anywhere else we have been in the world), and to add to this, they were almost exclusively accompanied by ugly ass guys.

Walking the streets at night felt reasonably safe, however, definitely not as safe as home or as safe as we felt in Hong Kong. Would always recommend walking in groups at night. There were some beggars, but not heaps.

Some of the dreary buildings and the stern faces of the Latvian people could get you really depressed after a while (would imagine this would be particularly so in Winter), and while it was a fabulous place to visit, it would not be a place I would like to live. One other more important reason why it would be absolutely impossible to live here is that most (if not all) restaurants do not sell wine! What is going on?

On the whole, things were fairly similar priced to back home. Although the prices looked cheap as a New Zealand dollar was only worth 0.32 Lats.

Monday 22 June 2009 (Riga)

This was our relaxing day in Riga, in which we were able to take things slow. We considered checking out one of the local beaches, however, the language barrier prevented us from attempting to catch a bus there.

We decided we would stick to places within walking distance, so went down to a massive local market that was inside and around old aircraft hangars. It was largely a food market, with one hangar dedicated to meat (no food hygiene here either), one to seafood, and one to fruit and vegetables. The butchers in the meat market were all older butch Latvian women. The fruit and vegetables were all the same stuff we get back home. There was masses of cheese, which seems to be very popular here. They also had clothing and shoes at very reasonable prices, with a few rip offs of big name labels.

The other activity which we were planning on doing today was a open gun range close to the city, which Patrick strongly recommended. Apparently you can shoot M-16s, Uzi 9mms and suchlike. Unfortunately it was closed due to it being a public holiday - big mid-summer festival holidays.

Some more street wandering, and then dinner was at Lido again, the traditional Latvian restaurant, with the some of the crew from the wedding who were still in Riga. We then went down to the biggest “beer garden” (a large outdoor area with live music) in the Old Town and had a few beers, with Zelta Lager being only NZ$2.40 for a 500ml glass.

Unfortunately we did not see a single KFC in our time here, so I have failed in my mission so soon. Neither did we see a Starbucks, so Jennifer failed in her attempt to have her photo taken with her grande cappuccino at every city we visit.

Sunday 21 June 2009 (Riga)

After a big night, breakfast was in the castle at 10:00am. We then went to pack up our hotel room, and headed down to the barbeque area by the lake. Some more drinks and a big game of volleyball preceded some delicious barbeque cooking, Latvian style. The water in the lake was a clearish brown colour, which apparently is not dirty but from the minerals in the water.

There were some more presentations including certificates for those that provided the more memorable moments. We also found out what was behind the confiscated goods, as all the goods were then auctioned off to the highest bidder, with all proceeds going to the newlyweds. Due to some strong counter bidding (by Argentina - a friend of Patrick‘s from Argentina), one guy was required to pay 27 Lats (almost NZ$90) to get his suit jacket with wallet back.

We then all caught the organised bus home (apparently the bus driver slept in his bus) and checked into our apartment for the next 2 nights.

For a pre-dinner drink we went to Hotel Reveal, which has a bar on its top floor (the 26th floor) with stunning views of Riga and its surrounds. We then went to Cili Pica (or Chilli Pizza in English) for dinner, which is a massive chain restaurant here in Riga - and possibly other parts of Europe, not too sure. We found out that obviously Latvians do not like hot food, as the hottest pizza available had no spiciness at all (think Mild Butter Chicken spiciness). After the last two days, and early night (but still after midnight) was exactly what we needed.

Saturday 20 June 2009 (Riga)

This will be a rather long entry due to how much happened on this day.

We awoke at about 9:30am, fully adjusted to our new time zone. After packing up our gear, we got a coffee at a wi-fi café, and then checked out a few of the shops in Old Town. We then went back to the Sports Bar to watch the All Blacks second test against France (does not seem to matter where we are in the world, we can always watch the Blacks) - a fairly dull victory. As with yesterday, when we were in the Old Town area, we kept running into people who we know, that is, the people who are also in Riga for the wedding.

After the rugby, we all piled into the bus that was organised to take us to Birini Castle (the venue for Patrick and Sanita‘s wedding), about an hour from Riga. The Castle and its surround were impressive, sitting on the bank of a lake. After we got there we checked into our hotel room, and went to the castle to enjoy some pre-wedding canapés with a traditional Latvian wine type drink that had flowers in it.

The ceremony itself had a very nice setting, being right out in front of the castle in a gazebo on the lake. The only unfortunate part from our point of view was that the entire ceremony, except the vows, was in Latvian. We could follow the general gist of what was going on though. There were a number of individual and group photos followed by some Latvian games that were a mixture of bizarre and fun. They included checkers played with cider cans as the playing pieces, a kissing race game, and a game where you had to try and hit the orange off your opponent’s spoon. The groom also had to throw a bell into a big tree, which was full of bells from previous marriages there.

After the games each couple had to walk down a coloured ribbon, which, depending on the colour gave an indication of what your life together was going to be life. We chose the gold ribbon, and it meant happiness. When the bride and groom arrived back from their photos, the groom had to stand on a plate wrapped in a towel, and the number of big pieces it broke into was the number of children they would have. After a few attempts, the plate would not break, however, the bridesmaid said that this meant that their children will be strong.

Next was a delicious dinner and some well spoken speeches. We were sitting with James Jordan (a friend from when I was younger), Matt Smith (a friend who I studied Computer Science with) and a friend of Patrick’s from Argentina, all of whom work with computers - so there was a fair bit of geek speak. There were some fun traditions at dinner that whenever anyone clinks their glass, the bride and groom had to kiss, and whenever anyone started stomping their feet, the bride and groom had to get under the table and kiss.

Throughout the evening, the bride got kidnapped by some of the guests and it was the groom’s task to go rescue her. Also, whenever anyone left any of their gear anywhere, it would get taken and put into lock-up (read tomorrow to find out what happens to it). Of course it wouldn’t be a Latvian party without drinking straight vodka, and there was plenty on the tables.

The band played a mixture of Latvian and popular English songs, and after a while, and plenty of drinks, the Latvians were dancing to the English songs and vice-versa. It seems that they have a lot of American music here in Latvia and the Latvian’s knew the words to some of the English songs, despite for the most part having very little comprehension of the English language. The dancing went on into the night, and them some Gypsies (who we later found out were not invited) turned up and taught us some traditional Latvian dances, and one weird game involving a carrot and a bottle. Apparently the gypsies were expecting to get paid, but as they weren’t invited, all they got was an opportunity to eat some of the leftover food. They also delayed the midnight part of the ceremony for about an hour, which involved the bride and groom sitting on their mothers’ laps for the last time.

The dancing continued into the wee small hours, and got a bit carried away at one stage when one of the Latvian boys and one of the Kiwi boys had a dance off to “You can leave your hat on” and both got down to their underwear. At the time we went to bed at 3:00am, it was still quite light! After that the remaining few people went down to have a dip in the lake, and the Latvians did not require any swimwear.

Friday 19 June 2009 (Riga)

We are definitely doing this trip the right way round the world, as adjusting to the new time zones is proving easier than first anticipated. Hong Kong was only 4 hours behind New Zealand, and Riga (our destination for today) is only 5 hours behind Hong Kong. Frankfurt and Amsterdam are only a further 1 hour behind Riga. The biggest test will be when we get to Mexico, as that will likely be a bigger jump in time zones.

The flight to Riga was swift (only 1 ½ hours) and did not require us to go through any passport control - evidently because we were already in Europe, our passport is not required, which is going to seriously cut down the amount of stamps we will get. Arriving in Riga was the simplest process so far, we simply collected our baggage and left - no immigration, no customs (what is with these places? It is no wonder that so many people get caught in Australia and New Zealand trying to bring in illegal things).

Tessa and Dave picked us up from the airport, and getting a bit lost on the way back gave us a chance to see some of the outskirts of Riga, which involved a lot or very poor areas with beat up windowless houses. Our apartment was in Riga Old Town, which is quite magnificent. It has very old style buildings and streets made of cobble, which when walking down makes you feel like you are living several hundred years ago. Some parts of the Old Town reminded us of Christchurch, with nice parks and a good sized river running through the middle. The streets were very quiet in Old Town, both pedestrians and cars. Despite this, walking on the streets you never really felt safe, particularly after several people had warned us how closely you must guard your wallet.

We went to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, which was interesting. We also spent a bit of time walking the streets and happened to catch a routine by uniformed soldiers at the Freedom Monument. There was also a market of locally produced goods (mostly honey and well decorated gingerbread biscuits) with traditional song and dance for some festival that was going on. We had dinner at a traditional Latvian restaurant, where you help yourself to whatever you want (including pouring your own beer for tap) and taking it to the cashier to calculate the cost of your meal. Beer is the one this here that seems to be cheap. All the food they served was the usual stuff, salad, chicken, fish, pork etc, the main novelty was the selection of differently cooked potatoes. After dinner we went to catch up with everyone else (Patrick, Sonita, Donovan, Melissa etc) at the local Sports Bar, which was playing the ICC World 20/20 semi-final live between Sri Lanka and West Indies.

It was around 11:00pm when we went to bed (big day tomorrow!) and the sky was still light. We have also heard that it gets light very early (from around 4:00am) so will be interesting to know how many hours of darkness there actually are.

Finally a big thanks to Tessa and Dave for taking such good care of us while here in Latvia.

Thursday 18 June 2009 (Flight - Hong Kong to Frankfurt)

Hong Kong airport was rather impressive, and probably deserving of its rating as second best airport in the world. Terminal 1 had eighty international departure gates - needless to say it did take some time to walk to our gate.

The Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 was disappointing after the previous Air New Zealand flight. It was old, rickety and creaked a lot. There were no adjustable air conditioning fans so waiting for take of was excruciating. No on-demand entertainment (we were prepared for that though), with the entertainment being provided by 14 inch CRT televisions, each serving about 8 rows of passengers - so from where we were sitting it was difficult to see. Luckily, the netbook turned out to be an excellent toy for the flight (I am writing this on the plane), and some episodes of Gossip Girl and a movie helped pass the time well. With it power saving features enabled, the netbook looks like it will get around 5 ½ hours of battery life while constantly playing video, which is very good (almost 3 times what our ordinary laptop gets!)

Arriving in Frankfurt was the most relaxed thus far. No arrival cards, no swine flu forms or temperature checks were required, just hand over your passport, get a stamp and away we go. This was the fourth country in a row that we have been to that had a non-existent customs. No bag scanners or forms, just a sign that said customs and an exit for “nothing to declare”. We could not even see an aisle if you did have something to declare, not that we would have any idea what needed to be declared as there were no signs. Despite it being around 7:30pm, the temperature was at 28 degrees Celsius, which believe it or not, felt quite comfortable.

The first thing we bought in Europe was a 500ml bottle of coke at approximately NZ$5.00. This does not bode well for Europe. We also noticed that all the locals were all speaking German.

We overnighted in the Hotel Ibis Frankfurt Airport, which was not a great hotel, but sufficient for our purpose of trying to get a good night’s rest. The staff member seemed to get grumpy when I asked them for a second towel, as our room only had one.

General Impressions of Hong Kong

The people on the whole are rude, particularly when walking down the streets. When two people are heading in the opposite direction, there is no “I will wait a second and let you pass” attitude, it is always very pushy and more of a “I will go first“. Even wait staff in restaurants are never polite and never smile. I have never encountered such level of rudeness anywhere else in the world. Walking on the street often ended up being one of us behind the other.

English was very poorly spoken, even in restaurants (including American chain restaurants). Often only one or two people would speak English, and they would be sought out to help translate, or you would be required to point at what you want. We did not even try to ask for directions anywhere, even at the hotel, as there was no chance that we would be understood.

Restaurants are generally quite expensive (including the street restaurants) compared to what we expected, with prices being similar to at home. We only managed to find a couple of places that offered good value.

The city was very clean. There were cleaners everywhere constantly sweeping, emptying bins, and cleaning anything people touch (ie. door handles, escalator handrails etc). Generally there were not any offensive odours, and the toilets for the most part were well looked after - we only saw one in-ground toilet at the market).

The city had a very safe feel about it. Even though there are masses of people constantly walking into each other and strange people approaching you constantly to try and sell their wares, we never once felt unsafe, even walking through the less well-lit areas late at night.

Shopping on the whole was not as cheap as people will have you believe. If you can bargain well, you can get some good priced items at the markets, but this is mainly fake clothes, wallets, sunglasses and souvenirs. The remainder of items sold in shops (including electronics) generally only seem to be about 10-20% cheaper than in New Zealand. If you come to Hong Kong for shopping, you would be well advised to check out Shenzhen, particularly for electronic items.

All in all a great place to visit. Would strongly recommend Macau for a day trip to anyone staying in Hong Kong.

Wednesday 17 June 2009 (Hong Kong)

Today was our relaxed day, whereby we stayed up late last night and slept in this morning in an early attempt to readjust to our next time zone. This was by far the hottest day here, as the sun was out without a cloud in the sky to protect us.

We decided to head to a different area of Hong Kong Island and just explore a bit, during which we found both mangosteens and actual freshly made roti canai (the rotis in Macau were pre-prepared). The mangosteens were tasty, but not all they were cracked up to be… although I had a feeling that they were not quite ripe, however the fresh lychees were delicious. The roti canai was from a Malaysian restaurant, which had the roti maker in his own window displaying some mad skills as he flipped the roti canai (something Jen had not seen before). Was very good value at around NZ$12 for a set lunch including soup of the day, south Indian style curry, roti canai, dessert and a fruit juice. Needless to say, the roti canai was the highlight.

There was also a local market in the area, which is frequented mainly by locals. It had a different variety of things from the tourist-aimed market, including a lot of rather repulsive smelling cooked and dried foods, most of which we had no idea what they were. We also passed a couple of local butcheries, who had no form of refrigeration whatsoever.

We went through a crazy busy dedicated computer and electronics mall, which had a heap of shops which seemed to sell all the same items as the others. The prices were disappointing, and it certainly was not worth buying anything here given the lack of warranty that you would have once bringing it home.

Dinner was at another street restaurant, that had more customers that were white than locals. We then finished our shopping and on the walk home we actually saw some of the shops were closed, which was rather unusual in the evenings. Yesterday and today we actually saw a lot more tourists than in the previous few days, but in overhearing them talk, a lot of them were not speaking English either.

Tuesday 16 June 2009 (Hong Kong)

Well today was the day we decided that we would go to Hong Kong Disneyland. After picking up our now customary morning mango treat at the bakery across the road (today was Mango pancake), we were able to get to Disneyland by rail, with the last train being Disneyland themed, a nice touch. 

Disneyland itself was very good, but a little too similar to the one in California. It was a bit smaller, and in particular there were less of the thrill rides. However, all my (Ari) personal favourites were there, including Space Mountain, It’s a Small World, and the Jungle Cruise. The major advantage this Disneyland had over the in California was the number of people. Now it is a weekday, but when we got there shortly after opening, there were no queues for any rides, and throughout the day we never waited longer than 10 minutes for a ride.

Also two good stage shows, The Lion King (which was our favourite) and Mickey’s Golden Globes, and a water parade during which we both got rather wet. Predictably the food and drinks were very expensive, and drinks were very much needed at regular intervals given the temperature of over 33 degrees (again). Quite opposite from the rest of Hong Kong, but expected, the staff (or “cast” as they are called) of Disneyland were very friendly, often smiling, and always willing to help.

Dinner was at an street restaurant, at which I found out what food in heaven tastes like, that is, the chilli prawns I had tasted like I had died and gone to heaven. Accompanied by a reasonable Hong Kong beer, San Miguel. 

We finally gave into a copy handbag vendor, and followed her up a smelly dark staircase up a few levels to an apartment that was rented specifically to display all the imitation branded handbags. While the selection was reasonably impressive, they did not have even close to the same range of copies being sold in Shenzhen, which would have had at least 500  to choose from. The crackdown on such merchandise is obviously working to keep these off the streets, however, it is peculiar that only certain brands fit into this category. A number of big named brands (Gucci, Diesel, Ed Hardy etc) are still sold on the streets.

Despite it being about midnight before we got home, and it being a Tuesday, the streets were still extremely busy with people walking, shopping, and some even having dinner. 

Monday 15 June 2009 (Hong Kong / Macau)

We decided that our passports actually didn’t have enough stamps, so we set off in the morning for a day trip to Macau. We wanted to see what made Macau so great that it takes in more gambling revenue than Las Vegas (making it the most in the world), and also making it one of the richest cities in the world (but only having a population of around 500,000).

We went through all the immigration formalities (again) and passing customs was a breeze, well, there was no customs. The one hour boat ride then saw us arrive at our destination. Upon arrival, there were complimentary shuttles as far as the eye could see, trying to lure you into the various casinos. One casino even went as far as to have an arrangement with the cellular network, so that as soon as your cell phone came within range, we received texts with special offers.

Anyway, we decided on a casino named the Venetian, which is the largest casino in the world, and the fourth largest building in the world by floor area. On the bus ride there, we saw much of Macau (being such a small place) including the Macau Tower, which is modelled on the Auckland Skytower, and the starting grid for the Macau Grand Prix. We also saw, or course, a lot of casinos along with some historical Portuguese buildings.

The Venetian was just about as impressive as a building can possibly get. Huge, Italian styling inside and out, and intricately detailed in places. The old-style Venice street was the setting for a huge food court, with food from every country (Japanese was on the menu for lunch). I actually thought the ceiling was the real sky, prior to realising it was a painting. 

After a wee bit of gambling, we went across to City of Dreams casino and wandered the streets a little. One thing we noticed was that the locals of Macau were a lot nicer and more courteous than the locals in Hong Kong or China., particularly the drivers - only problem was that there were so many tourists, we were continually getting shunted out of the way by rude Chinese people. We then went to Sands Casino and had dinner there. Some communication difficulty arose when ordering dinner though. The menu said: “Roti Chennai [sic] MOP$22”, which we thought was a little expensive, but acceptable. Anyway, we ordered four (being two each) which she repeated about five times to make sure she was correct, and some Thai red curry to go with it. When we got our order, we got TWELVE roti canai, as each order was three, along with an assortment of curries for dipping! Also a beer from South Korea called Blue Girl was rather tasty.

To finish our Macau experience, we went to the Cirque Du Soliel Zaia show at the Venetian. We decided that we would take this opportunity to go, as it was unlikely that time would permit at our other opportunity (Las Vegas). Anyway, the show was extraordinary, something I would describe as a collection of some of the best buskers in the world put together into one show, with massive production value and plenty of talent, but only lacking a little more humour (which it wasn’t intended to have, but I’m being greedy).

Sunday 14 June 2009 (Hong Kong / China)

Deciding what to do on any day here, one needs to take into account the weather forecast. The forecast for today says mostly cloudy with some thunder storms later - high of 33 degrees, low of 27 degrees, with a RealFeel temperature (a gauge that takes into account humidity, sunshine, wind etc to give the temperature that it actually feels like) of 46 degrees. 

So we decided it might be a good day for a trip to China. The train left from a station about 10 minutes walk from our hotel, and went right through to a station on the border of China, which took about 40 minutes. The process of getting into China took a lot longer, as we had to go through the Hong Kong departure procedure, obtain visas, go through health checks (for swine flu) and then the China immigration and customs.

Once in, not a lot was different, except there was probably even less English spoken (if that is possible). We were swiftly set upon by a hawker who would not leave us alone despite our lack of interest, and followed us for around half an hour. We finally managed to lose him after a few quick moves around some of the narrow alleys of the shopping centre.

Anyway, the reason for our trip was that we had heard that the shopping at this centre was considerably better than the shopping in Hong Kong. It was what could only be described as a mega mall, with several thousand small shops, and each shop owner sitting outside their shop yelling at you to come in as you walked past.

Our search for some real Chinese dim sum was frustrating as the restaurants were all full, with waits of around an hour. Once we finally got in one, sticking to some reasonably safe dishes saw us enjoy a delicious lunch. Safe was what was required when some of the less safe dishes included “Live chicken to fight even jellyfish” and “double boiled turtle and herbal”. Good priced food (for a change) saw our drinks and 6 dim sums coming to a total of NZ$15.

We learnt the Police are cracking down on copied merchandise (particularly DVDs and Handbags) so instead of them being on display, you look through a catalogue, choose what you like, and they call a gopher to bring it to you from nearby storage in unmarked black bags. The Police check the mall twice a day, and if they are caught selling such merchandise, they are “required” to bribe them. The mall got tiring very quickly due to the amount of repetition of shops and frustration of getting hounded so after going through the same immigration process in reverse, we were on our way back to Hong Kong. Passport is starting to fill up with stamps now!

For another very late dinner (almost 10:00pm - how come we can’t last this long before dinner at home), we thought we would test how truly multicultural this city is and have some Italian, which was very enjoyable. Afterwards we just arrived back to the hotel just before the forecast thunder storm hit, which included thunder which was by far the loudest either of us had ever heard. 

Saturday 13 June 2009 (Hong Kong)

We have quickly adapted to our new time zone, which saw us rising at around 8:00am to make our plans for the day. We decided that a reasonable weather forecast gave us an opportunity to visit Ocean World. Again using the MTR (which this time went under the strait between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island), connecting to a bus, really showed us how efficient the Hong Kong public transport system is. This also explains why, compared to other big cities, Hong Kong seems to have very light traffic. We bought Octupus cards, which are loaded with money, and can be used on all public transport, as well as convenience stores, fast food outlets, vending machines and suchlike. Once you are finished with the cards, you return them for a refund of your deposit and all money left on them.

The bus ride to Ocean World again showed how much green there is in Hong Kong. There was quite a bit of building upgrading going on, and huge scaffolding towers made entirely of bamboo were being constructed. Looked kind of dangerous, but they were all over the place. 

Ocean World itself was good without being fantastic. It was spread out over a huge area of hillside with massive escalators taking the visitors from one section to the next. The usual rides and animal enclosures were fun and interesting, and a very long gondola ride took us right back to the bottom. A large area of trees had been cut out in the shape of a sea horse on the side of a hill. The highlight though was definitely the panda bears. Poor timing on our behalf saw us miss most of the shows (ie. Sea lion shows etc) however, they were all shows we had seen elsewhere before.

On a side note, although we have only been here for a day and half, we have noticed a distinct lack of roaming wildlife. No lizards, spiders, or stray cats/dogs to be seen.

The combination of heat and a lot of walking sapped our energy fast and necessitated an afternoon rest back at the hotel room to recoup some energy for the evening travels. This coincidentally timed in with the All Blacks game (Isaac‘s debut game) - having the Australia Network channel is proving very useful - even though the game itself  was not great.

Dinner time took us in search of the Banana Leaf Malaysian restaurant which, according to the almighty internet, was on the third floor of a building just around the corner from our hotel. Upon arriving there, there was no signage, and the lift in the building only went to floors 5, 7, 9 and 11. Complete confusion led us to look elsewhere and we stumbled upon an Indian restaurant we had passed yesterday but had not been able to find the entrance to (I‘m beginning to sense a theme here). As we walked past today, again looking for the entrance, a hawker approached Jen to which she politely told him “no thanks”, as you do every 20 seconds when walking down the streets. She didn’t realise that this man was actually trying to get us into the very restaurant we were looking for. Anyway, a tasty meal ensued during which I decided that this was my favourite Indian restaurant,  not because of the taste of the food, but simply because they did not serve that sorry excuse for curry, the masquerading cream tomato soup known as butter chicken.

We then went to the Symphony of Lights on the harbour, which is the largest permanent light show in the world. Looking out onto the magnificently lit up Hong Kong Island skyscrapers at night is a remarkable experience in itself so to add to this by making the lights on the buildings dance in time with music makes it truly memorable.

Another quick trip to the market ensued and then wandering the streets taking in the sights, during which a drink was needed every half hour to keep us going, the best of which was made solely from fresh mango and ice.

Friday 12 June 2009 (Hong Kong)

I want to start by apologising for the length of this blog... these entries are not written as a blog, but more like a travel journal.

First impression of Hong Kong is that it was a lot greener than I expected. Riding to the city in the airport bus, there were huge areas of trees, shrubs and grass, and even amongst the skyscrapers a lot of effort had been made to keep a green look to the main streets. We also drove past huge areas of “apartment slums”, which dispels any myths that apartment living is only for the wealthy.

Arriving so early was not great, as we had to wait around 5 hours before we could check in. So we walked around the city in the clothes we wore on the plane, so it was very hot. Adding to this was the fact that we hadn’t slept much on the plane, hadn’t showered and no shops were open until about 11am. We walked down the Avenue of Stars and then took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island - which has an impressive skyline. A thunder and lightning storm arrived, and was in some ways a welcome relief from the heat.We sought solace in a nearby mall, which was probably one of the most expensive malls in the city - all the big brand (real) stores were there, Armani, Versace and the like. We sampled some Snapple, a drink referred to in Seinfeld. 

However the rain brought out the umbrellas, which we found out was not good for walking around the city. By this time the streets were jam packed and the locals have no qualms with banging their umbrellas into anyone and anything. Interestingly, most places had special free umbrella bags, and one even had a machine to put your umbrella in a bag.

As with every country we visit, I (Ari) have to try the KFC. Was probably the worst KFC we’ve ever had, but some interesting menu items. We actually ended up there after a rather unsuccessful search for a open eatery at that time of the morning (around midday). Good to get that out of the way so we can move on to the Dim Sum.

Lots and lots of hawkers on the streets, mainly peddling suits and watches. Definitely not as pushy as in Thailand, but annoying nevertheless.

Finally checked in to the hotel, which was the smallest ever hotel room. Think our Armagh Street apartment less the kitchen, lounge, balcony and wardrobe. We understand this is quite big for Hong Kong! Still, modern, great location and the biggest selection of free bathroom crap ever seen, plus free juice and mochas in the lounge room made this a pretty good choice.

Market shopping was quite similar to Bangkok, except the markets were not quite so big and bargaining was not quite the same. At Temple Street markets, the vendors did not even approach you, but at the Ladies market they were more forthcoming. Not only the markets, but all the streets were still extremely busy making it a struggle to move down the streets. Ice and bubble tea stalls on the side of the road were packed with people. Using the MTR (subway) to get to and from the markets was very efficient. One other interesting point was how little street lighting was on the streets, as all the lighting comes from the masses of neon signs.

Finding dinner was difficult. Despite the fact that it was about 10:00pm by the time we got round to getting dinner, the first three restaurants we thought we might enjoy were full, some with people waiting outside for tables. We found a rather interesting chain Chinese restaurant where communication was difficult. In fact all communication has been a lot more difficult than we expected - English is spoken a lot less than we had been told - certainly no more than in Thailand.

A long but enjoyable day was ended by watching some rugby league back at the hotel, resting some tired feet. As a side mission to the next few days will be to find some fresh roti canai, along with some fresh exotic fruits, particularly the mangosteen.

Flight 1 - Christchurch to Auckland to Hong Kong

Loved the Boeing 777-200, good selection of on-demand movies, but only watched The International. One bathroom was so big I couldn’t reach the toilet paper while sitting down - which was a great idea for certain claustrophobic people. Great dinner and breakfast. As we approached Hong Kong, we were told that it was 27 degrees, and it was only 6:00am.