The Grays' Amazing Race around the World

Day 1, the Grays left CT on a long haul to London. SAA 220, flight reasonable, crew good, food fine, only hassel in flight entertainment and the fact that the lights did not turn off.

London with Jo and Bryan (Mac's sister and brother in law) was great. They took the kids to a Theme park (must get the name), whilst we undertook some local admin and snuck in an afternoon nap. Chris and Jodi came over for dinner which was great. Mac and Chris had a call with Owen (in Ireland) to discuss his wedding plans for the weekend.

11.00pm GMT heading to bed, 7.30am taxi to the airport to head to Vancouver.

So we left Whistler and headed for Vancouver Airport. Much more relaxed trip this time - no need to rush. We flew on an Air Canada Flight to Hong Kong. Its a LONG flight, 13 hours and you cross the international date line. So we went from being behind all our friends in SA (9 Hours) one day, to being ahead of all of them the next (6 hours).

Arrived in Hong Kong, initial impressions of the airport were that it's organised. We caught the Airport Express - a high speed train (guess what our GauTrain will be) into Kowloon Station. A 20 min trip. From here we caught an Airport shuttle bus to "the Holiday Inn" - this was the stop nearest our hotel - the Hotel Panorama by Rhombus. Our hotel was a little walk down the road. Colls was a little dodge with my chosen route, but we were at our hotel in 5 mins.

Just to provide some context. We chose to stay in Kowloon. This is part of the mainland or New Territories. Hong Kong Island is in fact across the bay (Victoria Habour). In a sense this is real Hong Kong, were the less well heeled live.

Our hotel was very nice. Due to a room mix up Coll, Josh and myself got upgraded to an executive suite on the 31st floor. View of the Harbour and the lights of Hong Kong were amazing. On these hotel stops James and Dan are roomies. We headed out for a brief walk in the city - really just around the block. The smells and activity of the city were a little overpowering for my weary band of travellers and we retreated back to our hotel to have a bite to eat. We were determined to brave it though and ordered Won Ton Noodles (for four of us) with Pish having Clam Chowder. The Noodles came with some dim sum. It was a big meal, a bit too "smelly" for some in the Gray family, but filling:).

Next morning we decided to take a tour of Hong Kong with a hop-on-hop-off tour company - The Big Red Bus Company. side note - in all our travels we have found these "touristy" guides the best way to see a city. They really are a great first perspective - perfect if you only have a day or two or if you are there for a month. They give you a brilliant overview, with a little history and relevant local context - I would highly recommend them whether it be London, San Francisco or Hong Kong.

So for the day. We took the Blue line first which gave us an insight into the history and layout of Kowloon. From here we walked along the Ave of Stars - waterfront promenade with chinese movie star hand prints (a bit like Hollywood walk-of-fame). There are a number of stars, but guess very few that we know. But stars like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Ting Lee (:)?). Got a cool pic of the family next to a statue of Bruce!

After a quick Starbucks - even in Hong Kong ("I am hungry") - we headed across the habour on the Star Ferry going to Hong Kong Island. This took us to the start of the Red Route.

The buildings are quite amazing to look at and Dan got a chance to see some really amazing architecture in the flesh so to say. Our next big stop was at the Peak Tram. A Tram running up one of the key hills in Hong Kong. we took the tram up to what was a very touristy place. We also bought the most expensive ice creams I think we will ever eat. Josh and the boys got to play in a kiddies playground at the top and once taking in the sights we decided to walk down. A great walk back into the city through the rain forest walk ways past the many high rise apartments for the very well off. By this stage our little band was shattered and we headed back across the bay to the hotel. A day well spent.

We finished our day with dinner at the hotel's top floor restuarant - soon after mains we had two sleeping kids. The light show was inmpressive though.

Next morning we repacked and headed for the airport via the same route we arrived. Next stop on the Amazing Race - Singapore!!

Well the Grays left from Singapore on Wednesday afternoon for Tioman and our Island break at Minang Cove. Seletar Airport is a great place to travel from. when we arrived the officials were already expecting us:) The Staff canteen across the road provided a spot to grab some drinks (our flight was delayed due to bad weather on the island). I grabbed a very good curry there.

Eventually we took off, the flight was short (30 mins), landing in Tekek, Tioman. We were met by As the Captain of the boat from Minang Cove and escorted across the road the harbour departure. Lee was on the boat to meet us (he turned out to be the diving instructor).

As mentioned there had been a storm that had passed through the island earlier that day and it left the sea choppy and we had quit e a bumpy ride from Tekek to Minang Cove - Josh dealt with it well!

to be continued