Hong Kong and Macau

We've just arrived at Steve's mum and dad's place in Southport this morning and are trying to stay awake until at least a reasonable hour tonight. Both feeling a bit jetlagged, so I'm trying to distract myself!!

We had good times in Macau and Hong Kong. WE flew to Macau on 17 June on the illustrious Viva Air Macau. Chung, I think you are right that they might fold in the near future!! For $300 a seat it was very cheap and cheerful, but it was a pretty ordinary flight on an old plane. Still we quickly forgot that part and lost oursevles in the Venetian Casino that night.

The Venetian is apparantly the world's largest casino and is new on the Taipa Island in Macau. It is HUGE and has a replica of Venice inside, complete with canals, squares and loads of shops. At one point we both thought we were actually outside only to look up and realise we were in a massive indoor room that had been designed to feel like we were outdoors in Venice...a bit crazy!

The rest of our stay in Macau was basically rained out, so we jumped on a boat and headed to Hong Kong where the weather became sizzling hot! Given that we are travelling we quickly found thta shopping wasn't really our thing (we can't carry anything!). So we decided to instead make the most of the weather and do a trek on the Hong Kong Island called the Dragon's Back. It ended up a a awesome beach called Big Wave Beach where we chilled out for a bit before walking on to Shek O beach (a bit more touristy). We walked for a solid 5 hours over some very hilly terrain so were knackered by the end of it, but we both reckon it was the highlight of our stay.

We met with JC's sister Jacsand her husband Stanley for dinner that night at the Aqua restaurant - AMAZING!!! It's on the 29th floor overlooking Hong Kong Island and the company, views and food were spectacular. Would certainly recommend it to anyone who goes to HK.

After a final day of wandering around shops and chilling out in parklands we then headed to the airport for our flight. BA has the smallest seats and legroom in the world, but after Viva Air Macau it was a bit of luxury!!! Oh yeah, we also survived Heathrow Terminal 5 with no mishaps, and the baggage made it all the way from Hong Kong Kowloon station to Manchester all bu itself! Woo Hoo!! ( Sim and Stevo, sorry to rub that in!!!)

So, highlights of the last 4 days...

1. the impromptu decision to trek the Dragon's Back with one bottle of water and no map. All ended well.


2. reflexology foot massage! Ah, a painful kind of bliss!


3. pork and chive dumplings in the street...sorry Chung no intestines this time!


4. the size and scale of the Venetian and the fact that we didn't see any other westerners, but did see about 10,000 chinese gamblers.


5. a good bottle of Aussie sem sauv Blanc with Jacs...I always miss what I can't easily have!!


6. beers in Knutsford Terrace before the flight out

Oh yeah, the few downers have been...falling on my arse outside the hotel on a hill (seems that I did something bad to my chest in the fall that I hope fixes itself this week as I currently can't lift my arms over my head). Also, so much for English summer. It reached 11 degrees today in Manchester and is freezing!!! I am wearing my thermal top!!!

Looking forward to some English pubs and Marks and Spencers food!!! hehehe!!

PS. check out some photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/Frankie.Rowe/HongKong

xxx

Mr and Mrs Lewis

After months of thinking about it, our time in Fiji has come and gone. We had a great week with 42 of our nearest and dearest, and loved every minute of it!

First of all, a big thanks from Stephen and I goes to everyone who made it across to Fiji and helped us celebrate. It really means the world to us and we are so happy we have shared a memorable week with you all. xxx!

Luckily the resort of Amunuca on Tokoriki island turned out to be a winner and they did a great job organising the wedding  - everything from a flower arch on the beach, traditional Fijian choir, frangipani flowers (to match my dress), beautiful tables and so on. It has to be said that Stephen and I were both pretty apprehensive about the Fijian experience!! It had been quite hard to organise as everyone was just so chilled out that it was a bit tricky to get the info we needed. But, in retrospect, what were we worrying about? Everything went smoothly and "Fiji time" did not seem to be operating in any major way...apart from the lack of any type of food on Monday!! 

As well as the wedding itself, there were a few highlight moments for us...

- The "Dance Off" between Mr BlueSteel and Pants off Pardy

- lunch with the fam at Tokoriki Island Resort

- cocktails from Wesi at the bar

- pilates and yoga with Rin and Claudine

- duty free drinks parties at the Lolomo suite

- footie with the local boys at 5pm

- crab racing

- getting extremely excited about cutting down and cracking open fresh young coconuts at midnight..only to find that none of us really liked coconut juice as much as we thought...

- Scrabble, scrabble and more scrabble

- the fresh flowers they scattered in our rooms each day

- Banana Boat rides with Claudine and Sam

- The smell of the Reef Oil! Go Richie and Alex!

- a pre wedding champagne with Jarod and Claudine

- eagle eyes Molitor finding the fishing rod and lapis lazuli stone.

- the fact we could walk out of our room at any time and be guaranteed to find someone at the bar!

- enjoying being able to see our friends and family...and knowing if they weren't around that they couldn't have gone far!

What more can we say about a week of chilling out in total bliss?! Ah, if only we had caught the lobsters....next time Chung and Zoe need to pack a spear gun along with their snorkels and reef shoes!

mmmm, as we sit here we have only 36 hours left in Sydney before we head off to Macau. Tonight we've enjoyed a bottle of vintage Louis R bubbles courtesy of one of Steve's clients and we're hoping that married life like this continues!!

All good...looking forward to more adventures!

xxx