i’ve just come back from an excellent vacation in hong kong. i stayed with a friend’s family who were enormously generous to me and made sure i saw far more than a normal tourist would. there are quite a few pictures hence i’ve broken it into three posts so i can write what they are.

this set starts out with boats heading for hong kong harbour taken from where i was staying in 數碼港 (cyberport).
next up are night shots of the skyline. new york really has nothing on hong kong in this respect…
the remainder of the pictures are from a day visit to 長洲 (cheung chau), a small island twenty minutes on a ferry from hong kong harbour. the difference between the bustling city of 中環 (central hong kong) and this incredibly relaxed calm island is huge…

on our return from 長洲 we saw literally tens of thousands of people crowding to the shoreline to watch the national day fireworks celebrating china retaking hong kong. we managed to find a spot in a multi-storey car park to watch them from. they went on for so long, they left a huge amount of smoke in the air which made the street lighting look really cool.
the trams in 銅鑼灣 (causeway bay) are the oldest form of transport in hong kong and cost 2 HKD to ride (about seven english pence).
i went back to 中環 (central) to wait for the sunset because i wanted shots of the traffic. on the way i spotted these kids who were fighting over the various bits of bubble blowing equipment their parents had got them. the parents didn’t mind me taking pictures (which was a pleasant change from london :)).
once the sun had set, the traffic was crazy so i got these streaky shots. they’re not great since even this late, the traffic was moving incredibly slowly (and the bridge was vibrating)
the next couple of shots are pretty random, one is a building taken from the peak and the other a kid riding his bike through a fountain. unfortunately, the water was never well timed

two weeks before i arrived, a cable car service from 東涌 (tung chung) to 昂坪 (ngong ping) opened. the trip takes around twenty-five minutes during which you can see the walkway underneath you. it’d be a great walk but would takes ages. the scenery is fantastic.
if you look closely at the large picture of the buddha, you’ll see a blue blob at the bottom. that’s a person. it was a very big buddha.
there are quite a few scenery pictures here along with a sneaky one of my friend chi facing the buddha.
the cable car goes over a shallow coastline where there are hundreds of people cockling (my best guess). the high viewpoint makes for great pictures (you should look at the larger pictures for more detail - click the magnifying glass).
that night, the moon was the closest to the earth it’s been for eleven years so there was a family bbq. all the children were playing with cyalume sticks and i hoped to get a few more good pictures, but just the one came out well.
on the last day, we went out with chi’s family for a day on a boat. we dropped anchor near one of the southern bays and spent the afternoon swimming and eating. a pretty perfect day.
i’ll be going back