hong kong

On Friday we did some touring of Hong Kong island. The weather was not great but it did mean we did not feel bad cruising through vast shopping malls fulled with Prada and Clarins stores. After some searching we found the lobby for the International Financial Centre I, a really impressive 100 story tower. There is a public library on the 55th floor but no public observation deck. After getting some visitor id tags we took the express lift up there. The lift had CNNs financial news showing which was quite funny and the 55 level trip took less than a minute.The view was amazing and the quality of the IFC tower both inside and out is second to none. Whilst not a true observation deck the library had more tourists than researchers trying to snap photographs of the amazing view. It was far more impressive than the view offered by the Sky Tower and whats is more it was completely free.

I am writing this in the Majestic Hotel in our first morning in Hong Kong on a wireless network service that puts everything in Wellington to shame (NZ$2 per hour unlimited use). We arrived in HK at midnight after a very nice Qantas flight from Sydney. The food was surprisingly good and the Total Entertainment system is really fantastic. I have been to Fosters Hong Kong Terminal a few times now and its definitely the coolest airport terminal in the world. We got to our hotel around 2am local time after the train ride into town and an interesting discussion with a taxi driver that spoke no English at all.