Five countries and a wedding

I do like Hongkong. Yes, it vies with Dubai as the world's biggest construction site, but it is an amazing place. (Should I call it a city, or a country, or a Special Administrative Region?...I'm not really sure what the correct terminology is these days!). It is also a place that has huge contrasts. It is undeniably crowded and yet one only has to get on the MTR and get out to the outlying territories and there are numerous walks and trails which are almost deserted. It is also a place that is incredibly jam packed with "stuff", big and small as shopping as the national pastime. The roads, the MTR, the bridges, the skyscrapers, the malls and the apartment blocks that tower above every inch of usable, liveable space are all a testament to mans engineering imagination and ability. Hongkong is like a tree. There is as much of it underground as there is above ground. In the main parts of the city, the MTR stations all have malls built above them and the underground walkw...

By the time our flight had landed and we had transferred to our hotel it was already after 5pm. So we just freshened up and found the food court in the Langham Place mall next to the hotel for some food (chicken, prawns and special fried rice), a quick look around and then bed as we had been up since 3.30am. Amazingly, this was our third visit to Hongkong in less than three years! We woke on Saturday morning well refreshed and set off for the day. Having purchased our Octopus cards for the MTR we headed for the Ngong Ping 360 cablecar which would take us up to the Big Buddah on Lantau Island. It was probably the best cablecar ride I've ever been on in terms of distance, height and scenery. As we climbed higher we found ourselves looking down on the aircraft flying in and out of the international airport and had superb all round views, including the bridge and tunnel link to Macao which we had first seen on our last visit. At the top we climbed the 268 steps to get up close to the B...

Our last few days in Perth were spent very pleasantly although nothing as exciting as zip lining or maritime roller coasters. We had a long walk along the coastal path from Burns beach and we had another walk up to Lesmurdie Falls where the river is carving its way through some of the oldest rocks on earth. It was also a great place to get panoramic views of the city and suburbs. Needless to say all our walks were either preceded or followed by refreshments at a nearby hostelry with one of the nicest ones being at the Core cider making farm where the tasting paddle was very much appreciated. We also visited some of the more established tourist attractions, the Aquarium of Western Australia down at Hillarys Boat Harbour and the RAAF museum. The highlight at the former was the shark feeding (although they didn't seem too bothered), whilst the aircraft museum held quite an interesting and eclectic collection ranging from a Lancaster to a Catalina to a Tiger Moth, but nothing too out o...

A 45 minute trip by fast ferry from Hillarys Boat Harbour is Rottnest Island. As the forecast was for clear skies and a temperature of 22C, we decided to make the most of the favourable weather. That said, the crossing could, at best, be described as "sporting". Still. We made it in one piece and had a day to explore. The Island has a chequered history. During the late 1800's it was used as a penal colony for Aboriginal dissenters who were held under absolutely appalling conditions. Thankfully the error of the old colonial ways passed and as the storm clouds began to gather with the approach of WW2, its strategic importance came to the fore as it provides an imposing position guarding the approach to Fremantle harbour. (Fremantle was second only to Pearl Harbour in terms of a naval and submarine base at the time.) Nowadays the Island is a nature reserve and eco-holiday destination with self-catering lets and there are no cars other than a few service vehicles. To get arou...

Firstly, a quick apology for the delay in posting but your correspondent was hit by a 24 hour bug and was confined to barracks for a day. However, all is now back to normal and our time in WA continues apace. Claire's sister started her journey back to the USA on Friday and our goodbyes were said. At the same time, the weather began to show a marked improvement and on Saturday we awake to clear blue skies, light winds and the thermometer beginning to climb to 21C.  After breakfast we set off for the town of York which is about 100km east of Perth and proudly proclaims to be Western Australia's first inland town. On the way we stopped at an olive oil factory, only to be distracted by some makeshift ziplines set up next to the driveway. We soon dissolved into fits of laughter and giggles as we took turns to slide down the lines. Never mind a playground for under 12's, it was a playground for any age! York itself became both important and (relatively) wealthy at the end of the...

One cannot visit Australia without seeing a kangaroo or two and this trip was no exception. Just up the road from where we are staying is a large area of parkland which doubles as a cemetery but minus the headstones and it is a haven for wild kangaroos. They are very used to people and therefore we could get up close to them and take some good photographs. The roos are also very partial to any fresh flowers left on the memorial plaques although I'm not sure what mourners think when they see their dahlias being eagerly munched. Moving onwards we drove to Yanchep  nature park where we could observe much more Australian flora and fauna. Amongst the highlights were koalas, white cockatoos, frogs, kookaburras, galahs, more kangaroos and many early spring flowers. There were warning signs saying to beware of tiger snakes (one of Australia's most deadly), but fortunately they didn't put in an appearance. The following day we drove southwards to Mandurah in order to take a boat rid...

We had some time to spare in Fremantle after the wedding before driving home and decided that the best thing to do would be to look around Fremantle Prison, now a world heritage site.  It's not possible to just wander around unaccompanied so we took a tour which gave an introduction to the prison and its development from its beginnings when it received those unlucky souls sentenced to transportation in the early 1800's through to its closure in 1991. The guide gave us an extremely interesting, entertaining and thought provoking talk throughout the tour, mixing factual information with some amateur dramatics. Overall it was a fascinating couple of hours and a stark reminder of the darker side Britain's colonial past. By today's standards the early years accommodation and facilities were positively inhumane and even the latter day facilities were grim. Every single detail of the custodial sentence was meticulously planned...for example there were three steps up to the cha...

Note: As this blog is in the public domain I feel it best not to mention names or to include photographs in this particular post and trust that readers find this understandable. Even though the wedding was planned for Saturday in Fremantle, we all drove down to the town on Friday lunchtime and booked into our hotel. We were all staying for two nights, as it meant that there would be no rush to be in time for the ceremony itself, and then after the festivities, there would be no long drive home. In order to use up the time on Friday afternoon we took a leisurely look around Fremantle's maritime museum. This proved extremely interesting and told the story of several ships belonging to the East India Company which were wrecked on the nearby coastline whilst exploring new trading opportunities. It also meant that we were out of the wind and rain which seems to have been pretty incessant since our arrival in Australia. Also checking in to the hotel for the two nights were two good frien...

No trip to Perth is complete without a trip down the Swan valley in order to visit a few vineries and breweries. Indeed, in anticipation of this event and to get into the mood (sort of) I even managed to watch the movie "Sideways" on the flight down from Tokyo. Our first stop was the Feral Brewery where we tried the tasting paddle of six beers, ranging from the light IPA's through to the heavy stout. Although I preferred the former, all were very palatable. The second stop was Riverbank Estate winery, just for a brief tasting before moving on to the Mandoon Estate for some lunch, more tastings and the purchase of two bottles of their sparkling wine and a bottle of their rose for our hosts. The fourth and final stop was the Providore and the Margaret River Chocolate Company where not only did we taste their wines, but also their various chocolatey liqueurs, preserves, jams and sauces.....not to mention a few of their actual chocolates. A few more small purchases were made!

As I had mentioned in my introductory post, we were now traveling onwards to Perth from Tokyo for Claire's brothers wedding. Our transportation picked us up at 5.30am for the drive to Narita and the first leg of our flight from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur which took 6.5 hours. There was ample time for the connection and then another 5.5 hours on to Perth which meant that we got to our hotel some 22 hours after rising that morning.  A good nights sleep ensued and we woke to rain, wind and a temperature half that of Tokyo at just 16C...it was just like winter....which in fact it is here in the Southern Hemisphere.  Claire called her brother who came to collect us and then came a rather momentous moment. As her other brother from England and sister from the USA had also recently flown in for the wedding it was the first time in just over 50 years that all four siblings had been together.  Obviously this called for a celebratory lunch and the rest of the day was spent catching up o...