Hong Kong (Ty)Fooey ... free the Hanoi five

And it's goodbye SE Asia and hello Hong Kong ... or so we thought!

It was all going so well until our 11am flight was called, and then cancelled due to Typhoon Prapiroon closing Hong Kong Airport! Vietnam Airlines/Cathay Pacific were actually pretty good, ferrying everyone to a nearby hotel in order to wait for the 12.30am flight. However, there was an earlier flight (7pm) and we were quite keen to leave Hanoi, so we teamed up with Mel, Jo and Toby from Sydney and stayed at the airport on the off-chance it would go...

Unfortunately it didn't and Hong Kong airport remained closed for another day but we did have the best time ever at an airport! After entertaining ourselves for a few hours crashing the business lounges, the five of us decided to share some Dalat - remember the valley of luuuurve?! - red wine (which at $5 a bottle was overpriced by at least $4).


3 or 4 bottles later and suddenly vodka shots (only duty free we ever bought that didn't even make the plane!) seemed a good idea! The next thing you know we've roped in Mr Vogue and Mr Prada from Milan (business class lovies), and a Taiwanese business man and his secretary (who'd never tried vodka before) and a great time was had by all!

27 hours (and a few tantrums) later we finally took off from Hanoi to the sound of passengers' cheers! Unfortunately that meant arriving at our 'hotel' at 10.30pm and leaving for Beijing at 3pm the next day ... giving us a whole 4 hours of sightseeing time!


The views coming onto Hong Kong Island were breathtaking with amazing high rise buildings all around, all with great (if not feng shui) designs. We got the funnicular to the top of the peak which offered some fantastic views and photo opportunities, as did the Star Ferry to Kowloon and back a little bit later.

Buildings and spectacular views aside, Hong Kong seemed a pretty strange place - it definitely had a veneer of sophistication and glamour. However, once you scratched the surface it was just (to steal the name of a popular cafe) 'same, same but different' to the rest of Asia! This was especially evident by our 'hotel' (tiniest room you've ever seen - our understairs cupboard at home was bigger!) charging us for the night we missed for failing to notify them we weren't coming, despite us calling them, sending 2 emails and getting the airline to call - robbin' b*stards (Steve's catchphrase since we left England)!

Although we hear it has gone downhill somewhat since the Brits left ...