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Ackroyds done it again!

As we took it pretty steady the day before, we tried to cram as much into day three in Hong Kong as we possibly could.  Well, considering we woke up about 11.30 anyway.  First off we caught the star ferry back over to the island for a spot of dim sum for lunch in the city hall.  For anyone that doesnt know, dim sum is steamed seafood or meat, normally wrapped in some sort of gooey pastry.  Sounds disgusting, but i love it!  Ackroyd on the other hand wasnt too keen, as he retched with nearly every mouthfull because of the texture of the things.

After lunch, we caught a bus and then the famous tram up to the peak for unrivalled views of the Hong Kong skyline and bay.  The tram slowly trudges its way up a rediculously steep slope (feels like about 50 degrees, but probably isnt) and when you hit the top, the views are breathtaking.  You can see for miles in either direction, over to Aberdeen in the south of the island or over the city itself and Kowloon on the mainland.  It gets very busy up here, but Ackroyd and myself managed to find a lower viewing platform which was quiet and we got some good snaps, but in the process managed to lose Alex.  We found him about half an hour later walking about like a headless chicken.  The boys had a quick Haagen Daas and then it was back down the tram and straight on the MTR to Mongkok.

We arrive din Mongkok and foudn the markets without too much looking.  It is pretty good fun just walking around the crammed markets negotiating the prices for every little purchase, from bracelets (alex bought them for some reason) to football shirts and fake Louis Vuitton bags.  Managed to get a full Holland kit with Van Nistelrooy and six pairs of fake Calvin Klein undies for about a tenner, so i was a happy lad.  Now i have a total of 14 pairs of boxers, when I started i had three!  As it approached 5pm, the market stalls started closing, so we decided to head back and get washed and changed before heading off to the horse racing at Happy Valley.  As if today hadnt been expensive enough already!

After a quick wash and change, it was back on the MTR to Causeway Bay, pick up a quick KFC and walk to the races.  Happy Valley racecourse is huge and so impressive at night.  One side of the racetrack is surrounded by a huge stand with about six floors of boxes and seats down below.  Then inbetween that and the racetrack is where the riff raff like us kids stand and watch the races at trackside, which i actually prefer.  First race i didnt have a clue what i was doing, so i just put 20 dollars on a random horse to place, turned out it was favourite and won by an absolute country mile - result - me winning about 70p.  As we drank more and more beer, we started betting more and more money on horses to win and in the second to last race, me and alex hit the jackpot, with me winning about 30 quid and Al wining about 60.  Tonight we are definately going out in Wan Chai.  Final race, we all put 100 dollars on the same horse to win at 8/1, only for it to lose by a head.  Bugger, i would have been loving life had that beast romped home.

Feeling giddy after winning a bit of 'do ray me', we caught the tram outside the stadium to our favourite drinking haunt, 'Wan Chai'.  We headed straight to Devils Advocate with some girls we met on the tram and an Australian lad who Alex gave a roasting about the ashes.  Poor lad.  We soon found out that on wednesdays in Wan Chai, a lot of places do a deal that it costs only 20 dollars (1.40 GBP) for a pint if you pay with Standard Chartered 20 dollar bank notes.  Regardless of this, me and Alex kept on popping out of the bars at regular intervals to go to Seven Eleven for a few beers as it is well cheap.  We finally ended up in a bar called Bottoms Up speaking to a girl who went to uni with Simon Bristow which was quite random, inbetween yet more horrific dancing.  I had about 10 litres of tequila poured down my throat by the barmaid for free which was welcome before i got talking to some Irish lass.  Next thing i knew i was off back to her friends place near Stanley.

Once again, we didnt all manage to make it home together, as Alex wandered off and got a taxi on his own, I went off to Stanley and Ackroyd, poor Ackroyd, was on auto pilot and ended up in another brothel!!!!  Turns out that he spent 240 quid wining and dining a phillipino and took her back to a hotel for the night!!!  He didnt actually wine and dine her, that is just mine and Al's joke because he spent so much money in the place.

All in all a pretty eventful day.

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