Pete & Rach's Big Trip: Hong Kong: 8-12 Oct 2013

At the top of the Peak

Rach says:

We were both really excited about Hong Kong. From the airport it was an easy 20 minutes on the MTR to Central, then 4 more stops to Causeway Bay. We had to buzz in to our tower block, pass the guard sitting in a little cubby hole, then get the lift to our floor. Pete reckons it was like the setting for a 1980s New York cop film, I reckon it was like having our own (tiny!) Hong Kong apartment for 4 days. It was like a cupboard. The bed wasn't even full size and pushed against a wall, so every night I'd wake up with a dead arm. The view from our room was Hong Kong as I'd imagined, looking down through the yellowish light to the trams and buses at the intersection below, swarms of people and the surrounding tower blocks adorned with Chinese neon signs.

On our first night, we were surprised to find the restaurants in Causeway Bay shut around 10pm - and we thought this was a 24 hour city! We also had to get back into the habit of 'looking up' to find restaurants and bars (as we had in Japan) as most of the city is not at ground level. However, crossing over to Kowloon (especially the buzzing Mongkok area), it becomes a great city to wander about at night.

Looking up...

...and looking down

There are not many formal attractions in Hong Kong as such, but we enjoyed looking around the local markets, looking up at all the skyscrapers in the business district, and looking down on them from Victoria Peak (we went up twice, day and night). There is no doubt that the skyline is amazing and for us it was the main draw. We also visited the Chi Lin Nunnery and Chinese garden.

Chi Lin Nunnery - I like the contrast with the
high-rise tower blocks in the background

Nan Lian Chinese Garden

It feels a lot more Western (we were no longer novelties!) and there are lots of Western people in suits about who obviously work and live there. The buses are like London double deckers (but not red), they have double yellow lines, drive on the left and actually follow the rules of the road! They used to have red pillar boxes here, but since 1997 they have all been repainted green. The street names were all named by the British as well, with names like 'Hennessy Road', 'Connaught Place', 'Salisbury Road' etc. There is also an incredibly posh hotel called The Peninsula that looks a bit like The Savoy. There are parts of town that have buildings that look a bit like the ones in Regent Street, as well as the more Chinese-y parts, which are all high rise tower blocks and lots and lots of neon signs.

Neon!

We did go to Hong Kong expecting amazing food and a bit of a party time, but unfortunately all of the Cantonese food we came across was terrible quality (to the point we didn't want to eat it and one night we had two dinners - the best I had was at the airport). We did have some very good Thai and Vietnamese food there though. The bars were also not up to scratch, but I think we must not have known where to go. To really live it up in Hong Kong I think you have to be very wealthy - it was probably the most expensive place we will go on our trip.