Chinese New Year and to Bangkok

Well, I did say there would be a fireworks display, and there was one - the biggest one ever!!!! It lasted about 20 minutes, and they were launched from 4 barges in the harbour, so basically Brockham x 4!

On Friday we actually managed to get up relatively early (10am) and we went up to the Peak to have a look at the view of Hong Kong. The main way to get up in by the tram, which is apparently the steepest tram in the world (about 45 degrees!) Anyway, we made our way up there and spent a while looking at Hong Kong, but it was too hazy to see all of the detail. We got some lunch up there (Burger King) and it cost about 3 pounds! And guess how much it cost to "Go Large"?? $2!! which is about 17 pence! We stayed up there after that and just played on a random EA Games area, which had loads of X-Boxes, PS3s etc. We walked down from the top, as the queue was massive to get back down on the tram. It was pretty good actually, as we managed to find a cool path that took us through the mafia country. We were going to go back to the hostel before the fireworks, but it was already packed on the Avenue of Stars (the best place to watch the fireworks from) so we just tried to go straight there. When we got there, it was cordoned off by police (they always like to stop people getting to the best viewing areas!?!) but Stu managed to lie to one of the policemen, by saying that our parents were in there and we were supposed to be meeting up with them lol. We sat around waiting for the fireworks for about 2 hours, but it was worth it!!! See photos and videos for details!

On Saturday, Alex and Mike split up from me and Stu, as they wanted to go to an island called Lantau really early on in the day. We got up at about 1pm and went to an island called Lamma, which was such a contrast to all of the skyscrapers and people. It was a small island with a good touristy town and quite a few walking paths. The weather was amazing as well! We just went for a wander around the island, before getting the ferry back to Central, and then got the MTR back to Mongkok. As the rugby was on, we thought we had to go out and watch it in a typical Hong Kong bar - The Dublin Jack (Irish Bar!!) We met up with Paul there as well and started the drinking. This was at about 11pm, and we were supposed to be at the aiport at 6am! We had a number of pints before moving onto another couple of bars, and then to Fenwicks for some final drinking. Stu got ao drunk (I think to numb the pain of losing to France in the rugby) We didn't get back to the hostel until about 04:30 and we still had to pack. I got to sleep at about 05:00, and got up at 05:45. We finished off out Frosties (which I ate out of a glass again!) and then got a taxi to the airport. We managed to get to the check-in at just before 7, so we had plenty of time. However, we got to the lady, who told us that the flight was too full (oh yeh) and that they were looking for people to volunteer to go on a later Thai Airways flight. We thought we might as well, as she said we'd get $500 HK dollars and loads of other free stuff (breakfast voucher, free upgrade on our next Cathay Pacific flight...) We had breakfast and went back to Betina Kong (the lady lol) and she said that there were enough seats for us anyway (damn!)

The flight was pretty good; had our second breakfast and watched a few TV progs (its was only just over 2hrs, so no time for any film) We arrived in Bangkok all tried, and guess who was at the airport? Tom Ford!! He'd come down from the North to meet us. He took us to a nice hostel called Thai Cozy, which is in the centre of the party area and was cheap. For the rest of the day we just had a wonder round the markets (which sold all the usual - tasers, throwing stars, bongs...) In the evening Tom took us out for a few rounds of the infamous buckets, which are basically pure whiskey! Alex had a bit too much whiskey to say the least, and he managed to see his food again. The same happened with Mike as well, which means the night was a good one!

On Monday we got up at about 11 and had our free fry up which was a nice treat.We then went to the Golden Mountain, which is a big temple in the centre of Bangkok. It had loads of gold statues of Buddha and a massive gold thing on top lol. Pretty interesting to see. We walked back to our road, stopping off to buy noodles and melon from some of the sellers in the street, oh and a fresh smoothie from a bar. We went out again in the evening, but much later, as we only managed to make it to about 23:30 before falling alseep the night before. We went to a rooftop bar and had a bottle of whiskey between 5 of us, so all was good! We got back into the hostel at about 04:00 and went straight to bed. I had to get up early today just for the free breakfast, so now i'm tired and I know i'm going to pay for it later!!!! We're not doing much else today, just chilling around the hostel and Kaosan road, but will definately go out tonight.
Bye for now!