After a flight made miserable by a whining grizzly pair of youngsters sitting in front of us, we arrived at 9pm in Hong Kong, where we were met and taken to our hotel - The CityView in Tau Mau Tei. We had a small but nice room on the 14th floor.
After a good sleep we decided to go over to Lantau Island and see the great Bronze Buddha on top of one of the hills there. We walked down Nathan Rd, took the Star Ferry and then another ferry to Lantau Island and then a local bus to the Po Lin Monastery. A climb of some 400 steps got us to the base of the huge statue which is some 30m high. Lantau island is a delightful oasis in a crowded city with only 20,000 people on an island many times larger than Hong Kong Island. We visited the monastery and had a vegetarian meal and retraced our steps back on public transport. Buying an Octopus card made everything very easy. You can use it on the metro, buses, ferries and even for snacks. If you don't have one, it can be very difficult because all of the above only take exact fares and that can be pretty difficult to achieve. You can hand it back when you leave and get a credit for unused money that is on it. A great idea. It cost us just NZ$25 to get from our hotel to Po Lin and back. In the evening we went down to the harbour and watched the nightly laser show showing off all the impressive skyscrapers that adorn both sides of the harbour.
Our hotel is 3km or so from the harbour but since we had last visited 15 years or so ago, the area by the ferries has become very modern, very touristy and very expensive. The area where we were saying (near Mong Kok) has become the new shopping and market area so we were right in the middle of all the interest. A tube ride to the ferry at the bottom of Nathan Rd was done through a tube station right outside our door, costs $1 and takes 5 mins.
The weather has been goldilocks like all during our stay with no rain and just the omnipresence haze. Hong Kong is very expensive now. Forget electronics; you can buy things cheaper (much cheaper!) in NZ or the UK. Eating out is no cheaper than NZ unless you eat at the food stalls in the markets which we did a few times. It looks every bit like a modern western city with a few high rises thrown in for good measure. It has lost much of its former character, though no doubt its residents are happier with a better quality of life.
The next day we took tube and bus to the Stanley Markets on the other side of Hong Kong Island where we bought a few silk table runners. We bargained what we though was a good price of HKD40 (=NZD9) and then at another shop realised that we had paid too much as we got two more for just HKD50 for the two. Still :)
After we got back we went to the goldfish market, the ladies market and the bird market all just a short walk away. They were all very crowded as it was Sunday and also Mothers Day and every person and their mother was out promenading or eating. Wendy managed to bargain some silk dressing gowns down from HKD400 to HKD120 in the Ladies Market.
The final day in Hong Kong was spent taking advantage of a free tour of HK island, courtesy of Cathay Pacific. We did (not for the first time) Aberdeen Fishing Village by sampan, Repulse Bay and Victoria Peak before being taken back to our hotel. There were only 6 people on the tour and there are certainly not many European tourists here at present. At lunch at a huge Dim Sum restaurant we were the only white faces.
Our flight to Amsterdam left at midnight but luckily thanks to Cathay Pacific we had a late checkout of 6pm so we went down to the Temple St Night Market to fill in time before our airport transportation picked us just before 9pm. We wandered from stall to stall having a beer here, a chilli crab there, another beer here and a delicious plate of clams there.
Then back to the hotel and off to Amsterdam on a full flight. We were met at the airport by our friend Petra who took us back to their place in Montfoort, 30 mins south of the airport. After a welcome shower we went out to visit a local castle, th biggest in Holland (Kasteel de Haar) and then after a lovely dinner hit the sack for a well earned sleep.
Then the next day Petra and Nico very kindly took us up to Ossenzijl where Le Fabuleux was awaiting us. She seemed in good spirits and we spent the rest of the day spring cleaning and checking over the systems. We had a new shower base fitted (at extortionate price) and the engine seemed to purr in just the right way so we made the decision to leave next morning on our new adventure.
The day dawned sunny and bright and we cast off and headed down the canal to Steenwijk a two hour cruise away. We tied up in the town harbour and went to the local Aldi and C1000 supermarkets which are close enough to the harbour to wheel trolleys back to the boat. So we bought beer, wine, water and supplies and continued on our way until we got to the Ijsselmeer where instead of heading out into the open we turned inland into the area of water that the Dutch call the Randmeren or Ring Lakes. They lie between the new province of Flevoland (reclaimed in the 1920s from the Zuider Zee) and the mainland. Wide in places they are more like small seas and very popular in summer for sailing. We tied up at small free mooring area and watched some BBC TV on our new HD satellite receiver. Wow!
The weather deteriorated from then, and we cruised along the Randmeren in drizzle stopping at another lovely mooring spot on a island in the middle of one of the lakes. We were heading South on our way to Belgium and France and after leaving the Randmeren turned up the River Vecht, one of the most beautiful rivers in the Netherlands. The weather was fine again for a short while and we passed lovely aristocratic houses lining the river banks.
Today we are in Maarsen on the River Vecht awaiting the rain to lift before continuing South. The boat has been going well albeit several of the things the boat yard were meant to have done and paid to do were not done. Too late to go back now and complain. We won't stay there again as we will have a new base in Roermond in the far south of the country.
