Hong Kong 7s weekend

   Last weekend was exhausting but huge fun. NT, HT and myself ( and half of our Singapore it would seem) flew to Hong Kong to experience the famous Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament. I'm not as big a fan of rugby as the rest of my family but even I knew that this 3 day festival is reputed to be the best and wildest of all so I was keen to come too and hoped to fit in a little light shopping and maybe a hike on one of the surrounding hills.  

 

HT had not visited HK before so we spend the afternoon of our arrival doing a little sightseeing along the harbour

 and came across The Queen Elizabeth cruise ship which HT had seen only a short while previously in Sydney

On the first day the rugby doesn't start until the afternoon so we had time to visit the Jade Market and haggle (probably not very well) for a few treasures. 

NT went back to join HT and get to the stadium early whilst my friend AL and I took the bus to Stanley. This delightful seaside town reminds me of Cornwall with it's pretty beach, market stalls and trendy cafe's 

We headed back to the city and to the stadium to join the boys, the rugby was now in full swing and you could hear the roar of the crowd from several streets away.

The stadium is really impressive and beautifully tucked in between tall buildings and hills

 I found NT and HT in the South Stand. This is the stand that has a reputation for being the 'party stand', only over 18's are allowed and an interest in fancy dress, beer drinking and singing is encouraged, we felt rather under dressed.

There were people dressed as Super heroes, fairies, Minions, nuns, Mario, pirates, bishops and a whole lot of other characters and animals

Over the 3 days of rugby NT and HT saw every single game I think. I wasn't quite so dedicated and took the opportunity to do a bit more sightseeing and to meet up with friends from the UK who recently moved to HK.

Last year on my first visit to HK I was thrilled to see hills surrounding it and heard that there is good hiking trails so this time I packed a little rucksack and my walking shoes and spent a morning hiking a route.

I took the tram up to the top of The Peak, the old tram felt a delightfully old fashioned way to ascend and the views on the way up and then at the top were amazing.

There was a huge crowd of people and the sound of drumming and then lion dancers coming towards me. A poster explained that there was a charity walk taking place that morning.

I started off down my path which was initially very quiet and then hundreds of the charity walkers appeared

Soon they were gone and I had the path pretty much to myself and again the fabulous views, first looking back on The Peak.. 

....then more views of HK harbour and it's outlying islands

 The path became more rural and it really felt like 'proper countryside'

The leaflet that I had showed an extra detour to ascend Mt. High West (494m). The 100 metre rise to the summit was described as 'quite challenging' but promised views of Lantau Island and Kowloon Peak. It certainly was a challenge, and involved scrambling up a narrow path using hands and feet in places

 I was a little disconcerted when I came across a 'Path Closed' sign but didn't want to turn back, I was having too much fun. Just then 3 men came down the path, I tried talking to them about the route but they didn't speak English nor I Cantonese so I decided that if they were happy to ignore the sign so was I. 

It was a very steep climb up but well worth the effort and as promised the views were extensive

I took the easier path down off the other side and after a while returned to my original route and walked on down to the Pok Fu Lam Reservoir and then took a bus back to the city

Later that afternoon I re joined my family at the rugby in time to see the last few games and the final between Fiji and New Zealand. The party atmosphere was reaching fever pitch, the players came out to fanfares and jets of smoke and fire

 Fiji won convincingly and as they took their trophy and mounted the stage a firework display exploded from the stands

It had been quite a weekend, rugby, shopping, sight seeing, catching up with friends and hikeing. I am getting to love visiting Hong Kong and look forward to a return trip asap-my walking leaflet has details of a route called The Dragons Back-with a name like that it has to be done!

Bangkok hippos, Jim Thompson's house and a Huntsman

Last week NT was in Bangkok for work so HT and I took the opportunity to join him for the weekend. 

I had searched online and booked the Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel that boasted being "a retreat with gourmet restaurants and lush 8 acre tropical gardens and beautiful swimming pool". Having visited this noisy, traffic choked capital many times NT was very sceptical that anywhere with this description could exist in central Bangkok. However he was wrong, not only did the hotel and its lovely garden exist there were birds and butterflies flying around and surprisingly there were lots of hippos!

 bathing in the ponds

 chasing each other around the garden

they were in the swimming pool 

                                               taking a dip in the waterfall

and sunbathing on the lawns

there were lots more hippos inside the hotel

The hippos were an art installation and all for sale but sadly even the smallest was too big to fit in my suitcase.

                          The next day we took a tuk tuk to Jim Thopmson's House and Museum.

 There were demonstrations of how the silk thread is carefully teased out from the silk worms cocoon 

 


and then dyed and spun with other threads to create a thick enough thread for weaving

some dancing..

and a guided tour of the beautiful teak house, which J.T. had constructed by combining 6 teak buildings, most of which were over two centuries old.

The house was elevated a full storey above ground as a precaution to avoid flooding during the rainy season

                                 

This pond contained lots of fish but also a huge turtle with a white body, which I've never seen before

Jim Thompson was an American retired military officer who loved Thailand and devoted himself to the revival of the hand weaving of Thai silk and contributed to it's worldwide recognition. 

By chance the day we visited would have been his birthday and a ceremony was being held. Sadly J T disappeared in 1967 whilst on holiday in Malaysia so wasn't able to attend, he would have been 109.

Much later on we looked for somewhere we could watch the final matches of the Six Nations Rugby and found ourselves in the namesake of our local UK bar -The Huntsman, which seemed quite fitting. Unfortunately although England won their match they did not get enough points to win the championship.