Homeward Bound :-(

We treated ourselves to a little lie in until 8am!!!  We then had the morning to go to The Peak above Hong Kong, which we had postponed from our previous misty visit. A peek out of our 51st floor window confirmed that whilst visibility couldn't be described as excellent the Peak was not covered in cloud and therefore the trip up would be worthwhile.

We headed through Hong Kong Park to The Peak Tram Terminal. It was only 14 degrees outside but Jonny was still dressed for Australia and his shorts, shirt, sandals combo drew some confused looks from the Puffa jacket wrapped locals – as did his dancing in the fountain! 

The Tram has been running for over 100 years and is pulled up the steep incline by a single metal wire. Jonny said that it had never failed and there had been no accidents, Samantha having inspected the situation and with her health and safety hat on, wondered if that record would hold through today - we are pleased to report it did.  At points the ride up is really quite steep and it is slightly disconcerting that not only are you at 45 degrees to the skyscrapers you can see out of the window, but also whilst at these angles the tram stops to pick up passengers at stations!! 

When we arrived at the top Samantha was very pleased to find that there were actually quite a number of shops, although slightly disappointed to find that most were shut as it would appear people in Hong Kong like to have a lie in on a Sunday morning. After having a quick bite for breakfast and a coffee it was time to have a look around and Jonny took the opportunity to use the Year of the Dragon Wheel of Fortune (or crap as Samantha described it) to help him in a quest for a new job.

We then made our way to the Sky Terrace 428 (it is 428 metres above sea level) and were soon peering out over HK harbour.  Even with the cloud and slight mist it was quite an impressive sight. From the pictures it looks a great place to be at night when the HK skyline is at its best.

Along our journey we have been presented with numerous opportunities to have our picture taken to commemorate specific places or activities and it didn't surprise us to find a photographer with his camera poised on the terrace: we dutifully posed as he snapped away, only wondering what the backdrop would look like, would it just be a white fog?  We needn't have worried, with the power of Photoshop the engineer downstairs beautifully enhanced the backdrop and the HK skyline became clearly visible (if only he could have done some work on the chins)! 

We spent a little bit of time wandering round the now open shops to pick up some souvenirs, and although Samantha wouldn't let Jonny buy the rather tasteful waving gold cat, we did get a bargain on some fridge magnets, 4 for the price of 2 - with all the fridge magnets we have collected on our travels, we think we might now need a bigger fridge!!! 

Our final stop was at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, what Forrest Gump was doing high above HK we're not too sure but it was quite entertaining and presented the opportunity for some final souvenirs.

Back down on the tram, a quick dash through the park, check out of the hotel and it was time to head to the airport for our final leg home.

The flight home took 11 and a half hours, the pilot putting his foot down so we touched down an hour ahead of schedule, and we wondering if Eric would have picked up on the early arrival or whether we would be stranded at Heathrow. 

We needn't have worried as eventually the jovial little gnome appeared and we were whisked back to Speldhurst in good time for a walk round to The George and Dragon for a couple of pints of Larkins.

Having been up for 25 hours (only grabbing a few hours sleep on the plane) we retired to bed for the first time in a month in good ole Blighty but with our hearts still in Australia!