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Flight into Halifax did a last second Go-Around due to fog. Second attempt was better. A nice taxi van was in the queue when walked outside. The van was all we needed to get home. Home sweet home.

Hong Kong via Beijing to Toronto so far...

Easy flights. Left hotel at 10am in two taxis. The taxis in Hong Kong have large trunks, but they've all (?) been converted to run on LPG, so the trunk is half full of LPG tank. Our suitcases were held in the half open trunk by a single bungee cord. Nerve wracking. 2.5 hour flight to Beijing's heavy brown skies. They're really going to have to fix that. 12 hour flight from Beijing to Toronto. Flew over mid-Alaska. We took off from Beijing at about 7PM on Tuesday and landed in Toronto at about 7PM on Tuesday. Gotta love the IDL. Now sitting in Toronto airport waiting for the late flight to Halifax.

Macau day trip - Sunday

We took the TurboJet fast cat ferry from Kowloon. I was disappointed that the boats were fast cats, not hydrofoils; but I felt a bit better when we passed a hydrofoil; we hit close to 80 kmh. Upon arrival at Macau we were accosted by Tony with a good offer for a 4-hour guided tour in his van. It was well worthwhile. We visited the Macau Tower, an ancient temple, the main square, had lunch in a wonderful restaurant, and visited the billion dollar Venetian casino complex. We took a gondola ride. It's nice making a day trip to another SAR (country), but Macau is now worth more time than just a day trip. It was great seeing the facade of St. Paul's again - my last time was 29 years ago! Macau was literally much smaller in 1984; Tony our guide kept pointing out where the shoreline used to be. I remember walking almost the area in several hours.

Macau day trip

The Ruins of St. Paul's as viewed from inside.

Harbour City, Kowloon

Harbour City stretches down the west side of Kowloon. All the buildings are connected to form an indoor shopping arcade selling almost nothing but big name designer goods. We had to walk over to Nathan St just to find some food last night; a 2nd Floor Vietnamese restaurant. Floors are numbered Ground, 1, 2, ... So the "2/F" is our 3rd floor. Today we will visit Victoria Peak and browse around a bit. Sunday we will probably visit Macau for a day trip. Hopefully the ferry to Macau will be a hydrofoil or something similarly exciting.

Hong Kong hotel

Marco Polo 'Prince' hotel. Quite nice. Two adjoining rooms. Quite spacious by HK standards. Lovely view of the harbour... ...LOL.

Hong Kong

Four nights. Hopefully with a day-trip to Macau by a very fast boat.