The next flight went reasonably fast also, and we arrived to Helsinki on time. Damn it's cold in here... Now taking a bus to Turku.
It's funny noticing that we have been way too long out of Finland. Both of us said "thank you" to a finnish Finnair flight attendant after being offered some candies.. :)
Milan now, after surviving the 13.5 hours flight. The flight actually went quite smoothly mostly sleeping. Timo checked us into the flight, and obviously paid back my earlier Hindu meals practical joke and selected "Strict Indian vegetarian" meals for me. Thanks.. Luckily the meals were actually really tasty. Even the flight attendants were quite amused after realizing that it was a practical joke.. I dont exactly look either an indian or a vegetarian.
Our last day in Hong Kong went by killing time and wandering around the city. It was slightly raining again, but luckily only slightly..
After leaving our hostel we utilized the excellent In-Town Check-In service of Hong Kong airport and checked our bags in for the flight home. As we got rid of the bags it was much more convenient to walk around the city for the rest of the day. As the last thing we went to check out the Symphony of Light laser show which is played every evening and then took the Airport Express train to airport.
Now we are just killing time and waiting for our flight to depart in three hours.. That 12 hours flight will be so horrible..
It has happened every time during this trip. Every single time we decide that it's a nice evening, people are outside partying and we would like to go to have a couple of drinks with them it starts raining. And not just drizzling a bit, but more like flooding.
For the last time it happened today. We went out and saw there was a lot of people in the pubs and streets just next to our hostel having a good time. We decided to go to eat first.. And half an hour later when we stepped out of the restaurant the flooding rain poured water on us and everybody had either left or packed inside those too small pubs. Thanks... Back in the hostel now.
Today wasn't the best possible day, as a heavy monsoon rain hit Hong Kong again and kept going on entire day. Even though we bought umbrellas we were totally soaking wet after just a while outside. Actually both externally and internally, as our today's destination was the Temple of 10000 Buddhas, which is located on a high hill. Climbing 500 stairs in heavy rain isn't exactly easy...
After visiting the temple we just walked around the city for a while, bought some souveniers and returned to the hostel to dry our clothes a bit. Now to some food and beers.. It's our last full day here before returning back home.
In the morning we took a bus to Macau ferry terminal and a speedboat to Hong Kong. The one hour ride was quite fast, comfortable and relatively cheap at around 15€.
After arriving to Hong Kong we searched our hostel, this time a different one due to the first hostel being fully booked. This time our hotel is located in Tsim Sha Tsui and it has just been opened last month. We have a quite comfortable private room with two beds, own shower and AC. The only problem is that the room is less than 2x3 meters in size, for sure the smallest hotel room I have ever been into. Wish it had just one square meter more space, would make things way more comfortable.. Now it's a bit hard to find a place for backpack.
The afternoon was first spent by walking around the city and then taking a tram up to Hong Kong Peak, the highest mountain top just above the city. There were huge queues to the tram as the place is probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city. Took an hour to actually get into the tram which then climbed steeply up to the hill in a couple of minutes.Of course we just couldn't use the easy artificial viewing terrace where everybody was going, but took a walk to a higher hill nearby for better views and less crowd. Thanks to Timo's excellent navigation skills we ended up walking the damn hill for a couple of kilometers wrong way, and it was really steep. Both of us were soaking wet after the climb and totally dead. After a while we finally found the correct viewing point for a nice view over the city.. Well, at least it's good for health, today was an another 15km walking day then, partially uphill..
Second day in Macau started late as we woke up well after midday, but the rest of the day was used effectively. We walked like 10-15 kilometers around Macau, visiting Macau tower, losing some cash (well, all 12€) in City of Dreams, the second biggest casino of the world and just getting to know the city. Both of us seriously considered taking the world's highest bungee jump down from Macau tower (233 meters), but the 250€ price was way too steep for that.
In the morning we took a high-speed train to Bangkok airport, for our AirAsia flight to Macau. Seems like every idiot in the country had selected the same day for flying, we saw so many unbelievable performances at the airport.. For example, two American guys in front of us on the baggage drop line got to hear that their bags were seriously overweight. Both of those emptied like 10 water bottles out of their bags.. Like seriously, what the fuck? It can't be that hard to know the weight limits, and why on earth somebody carries 10 bottles of bottled water around when it is available everywhere for 20 eurocents per bottle?? Or tries to board a one-bag flight with five bags? Or has unbelievable difficulties finding his own place on the plane after three tries?
Anyway, after three hours flight we landed to Macau. It's cold in here.. Only 25C during daytime, 20C now. We couldn't find any budget accommodation in Macau, so we had to select the cheapest hotel, Victoria Hotel which despite being the cheapest one (60€ room) still seems to be pretty high-class accommodation. Felt strange to actually have a high-pressure hot shower, haven't had one for a few weeks...
In the evening we took a short walk around the city photographing the massive casinos and the border of China. All the big casinos have their own free buses running between the casinos and the border, and as our hotel is only half a kilometer from the border those buses provide a perfect way to get home for free. :)
Today's program was a visit to Bangkok zoo. We departed the hostel after midday, took a river ferry to downtown and walked a couple of kilometers to the zoo. On the way there was some kind of fund-raising fair of Red Cross, and Thailand police had a shooting range in there. Of course we had to try and amaze the instructors a bit by two hairy foreign guys actually hitting something with assault rifles.. Still haven't forgotten how to use one even though my army service was like 11 years ago. :)
The zoo was pretty nice and big, although as it was a hot day most of the animals were sleepy and hiding.. Now back in the hostel again for dinner and maybe some beers later. Tomorrow we will fly to Macau.
