After a very long flight (quite why we chose to fly to Hong Kong via Melbourne is beyond us), we made it!

The first domestic leg was wretched – nobody should have to wake at 4am – but fortunately the long leg was without incident and possibly one of the best flights I’ve been on – there were a number of babies and children on board, but you would never have known it, so well behaved were they. We had a couple of hours in the Qantas lounge in Melbourne which rather took the edge off.

I managed to take some very, very pleasing shots from the window of the plane (many thanks to my lovely husband for giving me the window seat).

Be assured there will be many more of these in our future

I spent most of the journey reading marion coutts: the iceberg. Holy!Goodness! you should read it. No, really. Put down what you are doing and go and buy it. Go!

Despite the uneventful trip, the whole thing was quite exhausting, I do not know how very seasoned travellers manage to do this for weeks/months at a time!

It was dusk when we landed so we couldn’t see a great deal, but we could see enough that we (and the other passengers) were completely dazzled – there were very many gasps.

Honestly feel like a complete yokel when I look at All The Buildings! So Many Buildings! Everything is So Tall! It is amazing!

Our hotel is marvellous, the amenities wonderful and the views from our room spectacular. I have decided I want to live in a luxury hotel in my twilight years – I’m sure this is totally do-able (okay, it probably isn’t).

View from the room (with bonus reflection of the room) at 9am – very foggy:

We walked about quite a bit today – down to the harbour and around the promenade. It was pretty foggy/pollution-y, so most of my photos (so very many photos) have a pretty dystopian cast. Very Blade Runner.

And of course I’ve already been in a supermarket, which for new players is my favourite thing to do when I go anywhere.

RHH warned me I’d be ruined for public transport after using the MTR and wow! so fast, so clean, so cheap (a 3 station ticket cost us the equivalent of AU$0.84). And so very nice of the random Hongkonger to unsolicitedly show us (and the mainlanders next to us) how to use the ticket machine. Everyone we’ve encountered has been so polite and lovely.

So far at ground level it has been like a much cleaner, nicer version of the Sydney CBD.

Went for a very brief 3km treadmill (with dazzling views) run this morning, Don swam laps this afternoon. Plan to go for a long run tomorrow.

A++++++ would visit again.