Advertisement
Published: March 27th 2010
Before we knew it we were packed up and being dropped off at the airport in Melbourne, on our way to Hong Kong for probably around 2 weeks. We were laughing at how quick things can happen and change. We had just been planning the next week in Melbourne, and the next thing we knew we were sitting in the airport in Kuala Lumpur on a 4 hour layover and then in a cab in Hong Kong a few hours after that!
We are staying at a hotel in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon, which is fairly close to the skatepark where Brett is working and fairly close to the entertainment area and Nathan Rd in Kowloon. We are also a few blocks from the ladies market, computer market and night markets here in Mong Kok where you can get some really good food for quite a bit cheaper than some of the other areas. And there is definately no shortage of places to eat and shop over here, we still can't get over how many shopping malls there are! There must be one in every block that are at least 6 floors.
While Brett has been at
work, I have been checking quite a few things out and doing a lot of walking. My feet are worn out! I have checked out the harbour area, and Nathan Road, some of the markets and malls (and haven't even bought anything!) and made my way over on the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island just across the harbour. It is about a 10 minute ferry ride, and costs $2.50 HKD which is the equivalent to about 35ยข Australian. Hong Kong Island is home to alot of the huge skyscrapers of financial and electronic companies, and yes some more shopping malls, and some of the historical sites and attractions that Hong Kong is famous for. Between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon their combined population is approximately 3,156,000 (in a combined area of aprox 34.5 sq. miles), while the population of all of Hong Kong is just under 7 million.
On Hong Kong Island I walked around for nearly 5 hours, with a stop for lunch at a really good Mexican cafe (I know weird place to be getting Mexican but it was awesome, so go to Taco Loco if you ever come here). I wandered around the streets of
Soho, which is cool area with cafes, bars, galleries and shops that is situated on these narrow streets that run up the hills. You can get from the bottom to the top by the Central-Mid-Levels escalator which is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. The entire escalator system covers over 800 meters in distance and elevates over 135 meters from bottom to top, and takes around 20 minutes to ride the whole length. It was built in 1993 to provide a better commute from the hilly steep slopes, and they say it averages 55,000 a day on it. The escalator runs downhill from 6:00am to 10:00am for commuters and uphill from 10:30am to midnight, and there is a wide sidewalk that runs alongside of it that you can use if it is not running in the direction you need.
The food has been really good, and depending where you go can range from really cheap at the street markets to really expensive. There is such a range of the different cultures of food and a huge amount of western food like pizza, pasta and burgers which seemed to be packed with locals, and we will have
to admit we did go have pasta one night when we had enough chinese food.
The weather has been a bit up and down with temperatures. It was really hot and quite humid the first few days we were here, with the highest pollution levels since they started keeping track in the 1980's, due to a dust storm in Northern China. And then the last few days have seemed quite cool, with one day only reaching a high of 15.
There is still a lot on the list to check out, just had to give my feet a day of rest, and Brett's off on Sunday so we will go check out a few other areas.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0422s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
winona
non-member comment
Great blog
What a great blog, Kara! It's fun to read and view the photos. Hong Kong looks a bit different from what I expected.