Posh Weekends...

Since we've come back to Thailand our standard of accommodation when we travel has changed a lot. Gone are the £3 bamboo huts with slats for air conditioning, 2 hours of electricity, and a 5 minute scramble in the dark to a hole in the ground for a toilet (you gotta love Rock Garden). Now we seem to have developed a taste for a few more luxuries when we travel.

When I lived here before I was never interested in Hua Hin, it isn't blessed with nice beaches, and it gets overrun by Thai families. It never had the appeal of Koh Samet or Koh Tao. When we went down for a change we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was really cool. It's not like anywhere else I've been in Thailand, it's not all about girly bars and partying and there are lots of really cool bars and restaurants. It's a very relaxed place and everyone who lives there is friendly and chilled out, not like many of the areas where you get locals mixing with tourists.

Devan Dhara Resort

When we first went down there we stayed in the Devan Dhara Resort. This is a really pretty place out of town. It is made up of lots of private villas in a variety of styles ranging from garden villas, 1 bed pool villas and super sized exec villas. We stayed in a garden villa minus pool. Thought having a villa to ourselves was treat enough!! We did however get a bit of villa envy as we peered through the gate of some of the vacant pool villas.

AKA Resort

The next time we went down to Hua Hin, we decided we would treat ourselves with a stay in a place with a private pool. Seems extravagant, but we book everything through http://www.agoda.com/ and we get some really cheap deals. A private pool villa at AKA resort about 10 minutes outside of Hua Hin centre cost only £75 a night. A little pricey, but not too bad for weekend treat when you compare it to what you'd usually pay for a private pool, and you even get an outdoor tub.

Another great little beach retreat is Petchaburi. Slightly closer to Bangkok it's only a hour and half drive so can be more tempting for a weekend away than Hua Hin. It does however lack the nightlife options of Hua Hin, only having a small selection of restaurants. We stayed in the Fisherman's Village, a beautiful small resort right on the beach. Like Hua Hin, the beach is not so nice and definitely not inviting enough to go for a swim, because of this resorts in both places have had to make themselves extra special, offering budget 5 star spa style accommodation at a reasonable price. Neither Petchaburi or Hua Hin would be a place I'd choose to take a tropical holiday, but for weekends away where you're not after white sand and coconut palms, they are the perfect place.

Fisherman's Village Resort

Hong Kong...the city that's got it all

For the Teacher's Day long weekend in January, we decided to take one of my students mothers up on her very generous offer of a place to stay in Hong Kong. She works as a first class flight attendant for Cathy Pacific and although she lives in Thailand most of the time she also has an apartment near the airport in Hong Kong.

We got cheap flights with Air Asia to fly out on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Hong Kong when it was dark and we could seethe lights of all the enormous buildings near the airport. We had been told that the apartment we were going to was in one of these new big developments. Little could have prepared us for the scale of the condos that have sprung up on Lantau Island near Hong Kong airport. When we pulled up alongside a group of 16 high rises each about 75 stories in height, all that went through my head was to wonder how often Hong Kong experienced earthquakes or tremors. Letting ourselves in to the beautiful 2 bed apartment on the 53^rd floor, I became a little disturbed by the height. I know we've been in bars higher than this, but we didn't have to sleep there.

First on our rather extensive to do list on our 3 day visit, was to go and see the pandas in Ocean Park. I have loved pandas for quite a while and we'll often flick on the the Thai Panda Channel to check out what cute stuff the new baby panda at Chiang Mai is doing. Although I don't like looking at animals in captivity, this is one of the only opportunities I was going to get to be close to the pandas. The ones at Ocean Park are housed in a large softly lit quiet building. You are not allowed flash cameras, and if you make too much noise you'll be scolded by the ever present guards. Pandas are such quiet peaceful animals, I bet they can't understand what all the fuss is about. They sleep about 70% of the time and when they are not sleeping they're stuffing themselves with grass and trying really hard to pretend they can't see you. It's not like they are active and show off, they don't jump through hoops or balance balls on their noses. They just eat, sleep, and look cute. Apparently they are not even that friendly, even as far as bears can be friendly.

While at Ocean Park we went to the huge aquarium there. To get there you have to take a long and breathtaking cable car ride along the rocky somewhat precipitous coast. It's quite a view and a great way to see the Hong Kong coastline, you dangle over the blue green ocean with a great expanse of blue sky and the odd bird of prey circling above. At the aquarium we were quite relieved to not encounter a whale shark, or something equally ridiculously over sized in a tank. Instead, we got to walk through a really impressive hall of jellyfish, all lit up with colour changing lights.

From Ocean Park we took a taxi up to The Peak. This is the area on the hill looking down over the high rise area of central Hong Kong. It is the top of an area known as Millionaires Hill. Judging by the impressive homes spread across the hillside its name is meant in quite the literal sense. The views from this area are spectacular, not only do you get to look down on the amazing collection of high rises, but you also get nearly 360 degree ocean views from some places. We went up there both day and night so we could fully appreciate the view. I treated Nick to a tasty but rather overpriced meal for his birthday, overpriced for the size of the meal and its one accompanying beer, but not overpriced for a seat next to a window looking down on one of the most iconic views in the world.

There are a number of other things in Hong Kong that should be done both day and night, this is one of the reasons why it's so hard to fit all the activities in and you end up so exhausted from trying. Taking the cheap Star Ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, and walking down the Avenue of Stars in Kowloon being two of them. We got to see the daily sound and light show when doing the latter. A huge tourist attraction and incredibly bad for the environment, but non the less very impressive. To look out across the water and see all of those huge buildings, in so many different shapes and sizes, all with different stuff going on inside, light up in coordination with multicoloured lights and patterns, flashing in time with the music. We went back to the Avenue of stars the next day so we could get pictures of the life size bronze of Bruce Lee silhouetted against the city skyline.

While you can spend time in Hong Kong and avoid spending too much money (a day can be lost just exploring the markets and admiring the buildings), it is also quite easy to start burning through cash at an alarming rate. Unlike most other places in Asia, not only can you find market stalls selling western sized clothes, shoes and boots, but also most of the shops you get at home can be found in Hong Kong. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a H+M store. There is also a huge outlet mall selling loads of top designer brands at really tempting prices. Finally, while trawling the streets shopping or just looking around, there are lots of interesting food stalls or rest stops to try. One of my favourites was afternoon dim sums in a rather grand and very full dim sum hall.

With all the sightseeing most days we got back to the apartment a bit exhausted and with no desire to head back out to check out the nightlife. Hong Kong is however, one of those places where you just have to keep going and try and see as much as you can. As well as going up to The Peak to check out the night views, we also went down to Lan Kwai Fong. This is an area similar to Temple Bar in Dublin. It has Irish/English pubs on every corner, hip street bars, and just about every type of cuisine you could think, apart from that is, Chinese food which strangely we couldn't find. This is definitely the international area. It was just like being at home when people pile out of work and head straight for the pubs, there were suits everywhere. What I liked most about this area, was the fact that all the girls were wearing boots and warm clothes. Often you go out in Thailand and you wonder why the girls even bother with the dress if they're going to wear it that short, and on heels so high they can't walk. It was nice to see girls thinking more about comfort than ridiculous trends.

Hong Kong has to be one of the best cities in the world to live, if you can afford it. You are only ever about 30 minutes away from the coast and it has tree covered hills that drop dramatically into the ocean for hiking and diving. It has all the best things about Asia; the weather, the food, the markets, and all the best things about the UK; the infrastructure, the organization, and the fact that people not only know how to queue, but miraculously they know how to get on and off escalators.