It was so beautiful! Prokofiev's score, the WA symphony providing the music, the lavish 1930s costumes and sets... and the tragic storyline. A wonderful evening of ballet. I actually cried at the end of the first act after the balcony scene, it was truly uplifting. And then I cried again when the two star crossed lovers took their lives. Those dancers can act!

Goodbye Chengdu! We took an early morning flight from Chengdu and landed in HK at lunch time. We thought it would be a good idea to take the train into the city... It was nuts lugging all our luggage up the stairs and all, the MTR is not disabled people friendly. Probably not a good idea if you have 20+ kg of luggage. And it is quite expensive. We'll take a taxi back to the airport.

We are living at the Citadines hotel on Ashley road. It’s right in the heart of TST and it isn’t far to walk anywhere at all. We walked around the area and found a perfect dim sum restaurant, hidden away on the third floor on Canarvon Road (Ohhh so yummy!!). It was so deja vu because I'd been there 2 years earlier with Hidi at the Pizza hut on the first floor. It brought back all these memories! It was an interesting experience ordering dim sum in HK because even though we know what everything is called... We can't read traditional Chinese, and we were searching so hard for the Hargao and couldn't find it! We ended up asking the waitress to point it out to us. Dimsum was so excellent, now I feel so deprived back home in Perth :(

Did lots of shopping around the area, tried a foot reflexology massage to soothe our tired achy feet, and finished the day off with a cocktail in a coy little bar on Knutsford terrace, watching funny HK "Candid Camera". I think we spent more in one day in HK than 2 weeks in Chengdu! HK is truly capitalism and consumerism at its finest.

Monday

Qing was overwhelmed by the hot humid suffocating HK summer heat – honestly it looked like she was going to die. So we took refuge in the air-conditioned shopping mall at the harbour. It was rows upon rows of expensive designer shops so we didn’t bother browsing. We just sat there enjoying the aircon :)

Later we took a star ferry across to central (so cheap and quite good fun), did a bit of shopping and stumbled across the most awesome cinema experience ever. You can order lunch and get it delivered to you during your movie, the ticket boy collects tickets in a tuxedo, and the restrooms are individual self contained (think airplane), with sink, WC and full length mirrors all in the cubicle. We watched 'Duplicity' with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. They are so good to watch together. And we had fish and chips brought in to us during the movie!

I got myself a haircut at the insistence of my sister. I haven’t had it this short for about 2 years. The hairdresser was skillful and it’s nice to have it short again especially since it takes too long to dry in winter and it gives me headaches sometimes. Before and after!! I kind of like it! It feels light and breezy, and I feel young again.

We met Hidi for dinner at a Vietnamese-french fusion restaurant. As usual, food in HK does not disappoint. It was nice to meet her again after she left Perth about a year ago… I miss my Auntie Hidi! We had dessert (my favourite durian pancake, the kind with thick cream. We then walked down the harbour to take in the spectacular views of HK central at night. So romantic!

Tuesday

We had Char siew and roast duck for lunch! The food here puts Taurus to shame. After lunch we took a pleasant taxi drive along the coast and across the causeway to the airport. HK reminds me so much of Singapore, the roads, city, public housing, condominiums, train… It’s easy to feel at home there and even though I’ve only been there twice, it already has a special place in my heart. It’s been a signal of change and new things to come. I always seem to end up going there at significant times in my life and I can’t wait to go back again.

Unfortunately, my sister wasn’t feeling too flash today, probably from the heat of summer and overwork at the Panda centre. So, we are having a quiet one in the hotel room. We went to the pharmacy to stock up on vitamin C tablets and do some last minute shopping. We bought lots and lots of Chinese tea, 竹叶青 (Zhu Ye Qing) (I found out that it isn’t tea made from bamboo leaves, but the plant just looks like bamboo), chrysanthemum teas. It was a lovely shopping experience; the shop keeper invited us to sit down while he made us some tea. He served it to us so gracefully (imagine how inadequate it made us feel as women – we can’t serve tea half as well as he can!), and he told us about the stories behind it, how their names came about, how (green tea in tall glasses, flower teas in the small ones with lids) and when it should be served (e.g. green teas are for summer and flower teas are for winter), that you should wash your cup between green and flower teas, and that bitter teas are cooling for the throat and good for digestion. We sat there for an hour just drinking tea and talking, and we walked out with AU$60 worth of tea, plus we gave him an Australian $5 note as a souvenir because he thought it looked nice. So that was counted as 20 yuan towards the tea, and we wiped out all our RMB on tea. Oh, we also found out that if you have twins, you don’t have to pay a fine in China. But if you decide to have another baby after a first, then yes, you do pay the fine.

After dinner, we went to get our Qipaos from Du Jiejie, they are absolutely gorgeous. They fit so well, the workmanship is first class and they were so cheap! Well worth the money we spent on them. We took pictures in our hotel room and emailed them to daddy and mummy. Daddy said we are "silly girls, but pretty girls" :D

Saturday

· 杜甫草堂. Thatched cottage of dufu, poet of tang dynasty. Beautiful gardens and surrounds and well worth a visit. Lots of photo opportunities!! :)

· Tea house in the gardens next to Qing Yang Gong. Traditional bamboo chairs and peaceful atmosphere.

· 武侯祠. Wuhou Memorial Temple is dedicated to the memory of both Liu Bei (161 - 223), Emperor of the Kingdom of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period (220 - 280), and Zhuge Liang (181 - 234), Prime Minister of the Kingdom. Historical and informative, well maintained and quite lovely to walk around. It connects to Jin Li Jie, so it's a good idea to go in the afternoon and then stay in Jin Li for dinner and watch the lanterns turn on. So pretty!

· Jin Sha Archaeological Museum, an insight into the daily lives of a Bronze Age civilisation.

· 人民公园 (Ren Min Gong Yuan) to experience the leisure activities of the Chengdu people. People gather for traditional chinese music, opera singing etc. They aren't paid, they aren't busking, and they just do it because they like it. They also have a lovely teahouse culture because you can just sit there and enjoy the music and the atmosphere. But be warned that the public toilets are pretty bad... hold your breath and wear closed shoes!

· 宽窄巷子 (Kuan Zhai Xiang Zi) another old neighborhood that got a thorough facelift, similar to Jin Li but funkier - it is now a trendy pedestrian alley that fuses beautifully restored traditional architecture with modern and well-appointed restaurants, teahouses, cafes, restaurants and shops. A couple of beers and free popcorn courtesy of Jerry Lee (the very friendly restaurant manager) at the internationally themed beer garden pub. Very cute (and kind of kinky) German and Belgian costumes for the staff.

Our food expenses appear to be taking a downward trend. Here is how much we spent for dinner per day for the both of us combined. I don’t see it getting any cheaper than this!