Beautiful Bali - part 3 - the beach

In this part of the world, night comes very quickly after day. The evenings don't stretch on for hours: it's light, then dusk, then dark, usually within the space of about half an hour. In Bali this was even more pronounced than in Hong Kong. You could literally see the red sun sinking into the water. I'll let the photos do the rest of the work! 

Holiday at Home: Part 3!

The Beach & Piazza

Here is part three of our recent 3-day weekend: the beach & Piazza! Hong Kong has a lot of coastline (733 km), but not many long beaches. A lot of the coastline is rock, or harbour, and often has very little sand. Many of the beaches are small coves, which don't lend themselves to walking along for hours as we Brits are used to. The beach at the Gold Coast was the longest beach I've seen here to date! 

The view from our hotel window

A deserted beach on a sunny Monday morning!

Another thing that made The Gold Coast unique was the piazza just around the corner from the hotel. We discovered it on our first night as we were wandering around the beautiful gardens. Behind the hotel is also the Gold Coast Yacht and Country Club. 

The Gold Coast Piazza

On Sunday night there was an Arts and Crafts market, which lent itself to a lovely atmosphere of stalls and shoppers. With its European-style design it feels like a little slice of the Mediterranean in Hong Kong. 

With the Gold Coast Yacht and Country Club in the background

Arts & Crafts stalls and shoppers

Holiday at Home: Part 1

The Food!


Recently Nick & I had a 3-day weekend and couldn't decide where to go. We thought about getting on a plane to nearby Korea or Bali to go sightseeing in a new country. We pondered getting on a boat to Macau to stay in a luxurious 5-star hotel. In the end we decided that Hong Kong had both sightseeing and luxury to offer, without the hassle of travel. 

Chefs discussing what to bring out next

The hotel that we were staying in (more on the hotel in Part 2) offered an all-you-can-eat "Champagne Jazz Brunch". We decided to grab this rare opportunity of being available on a Sunday with both hands and arrived with empty stomachs. 

Pastries to go with a coffee or two!

Hong Kong has embraced the idea of buffet like nowhere else I've ever seen. There is food from all around the world. 

Cheese! 

I had greatly looked forward to the jazz band, but was very realistic about what to expect. The only time I've previously seen 'jazz' in Hong Kong was in my local shopping centre and I think 4 trees playing instruments would've had more rhythm. These guys were a great improvement rhythmically, although I would question the "Jazz" component of their billing - playing, as they were, tunes from jazz legends such as The Beautiful South, Lionel Richie and Lips Inc. 

Desserts...yum! 

The food was phenomenal and the atmosphere lovely! A thoroughly good start to the 3-day break.