Six nights in Hong Kong

It's a Buddha, and it's big.

I've had a busy start to the Asian half of my trip.

I'm staying with a good friend, Helen, who has been living here for 18 months and another good friend, Sue has flown out from the UK to join us. Sue and I will be spending 10 days in China from Tuesday and, after another week in Hong Kong, Helen and I will be off to Vietnam.

I'm already exhausted! We've all had a lot of catching up to do, and Helen is very keen for us to experience her lifestyle here in HK. That has, so far, consisted of three nights out until 1am, 3am and 5.30am respectively - along with a late night when I first arrived and bored Helen silly with my Aussie tales.

Inbetween socialising, we've somehow managed to fit in a few of the sights and travelled on every mode of transport available to us here (apart from the famous Star Ferry). I particularly enjoyed our trip to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island. In order to get to the top viewing gallery (a couple of levels of a mural inside the platform and a whole metre of space to stand on and look up at a very large foot), you are required to buy a meal ticket to be used at the local monastery. Despite the fact that the 'free' view from a couple of levels down was rather better (in terms of looking up at his-bronzeness), the meal ticket worked out at around five pounds - so it hardly broke the bank and I was intrigued to see what our vegetarian hosts would serve up. We had a very entertaining hour eating very healthy - but exceedingly bland - dishes. The most interesting of which was the soup, which looked and tasted like dishwater. Further entertainment was provided by watching the reaction of the other unsuspecting tourists around us as this soup was delivered to their tables first - and seemingly the sole course.

Rather than returning via the bus and ferry we'd used to get to Lantau - we walked down the road to Ngong Ping village to catch the new cable car over the hill to Tung Chung, where we took the MTR (Hong Kong's underground) back to Hong Kong Island. If Alton Towers had a Chinese section - then Ngong Ping village is exactly how they would do it! It's a new development consisting of restaurants, tea shops, a couple of 'experiences' (Monkey Theatre and 'walking with Buddha') and the 700th 7-11 store in Hong Kong! Of course (as seems to be the norm in most countries I've visited this year) - there's also a Starbucks (in tasteful Chinese Architecture).

We've also travelled by tram up to the Peak (the tallest point on Hong Kong Island), which offers stunning views of the surrounding areas - when the sky is clear. We could see Hong Kong Island and the shores of Kowloon across the bay, but not much more. We've also wandered around the Central district, where we were very amused to be filmed by an Asian tourist. He was really very brazen about it - but looked quite shocked when I waved at the camera. This seems to be the norm over here - despite a large number of westerners living in Hong Kong, when you wander into a more local Chinese district you do become a bit of a celebrity.

Last night was a huge night out for Halloween - hence the 5.30am bedtime. The Lan Kwai Fong district is a few streets filled with bars and restaurants (apparently all franchised from the same person). It has a similar atmosphere to holidaying in the Med in terms of cheesy music, crowded streets and lots of partying - but without the more ugly side of our tourism (lairy, hammered Brits, in particular). Not somewhere I could go every night but I let down my 'cool' veneer (!) and sang along to hits of the 80s with ghosts, 'Scream' phantoms, witches and red-devils (to name the more appropriate Halloween costumes on display).

Anyway - although internet access is free in public areas (an excellent idea) - this is the first and possibly last time I'll be on for a while. It's strange but very pleasant to suddenly find myself in the company of other people while I'm travelling about. I'm being terribly anti-social spending an hour online - and I know that Helen is keen to make sure we see as much as possible of the place while we're here. Which is absolutely right.

I hope all's well, wherever you are?