Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Da na na na nat nat nat nat na...Hong Kong. Many of us only know of Hong Kong as a place to buy electronics, bags, watches, etc. Hong Kong is a great place for anyone!! It has it all, from fine dining to the finest accommodations in the world. We, however, are not on the correct budget to do so. Instead of staying at the Peninsula hotel in Kowloon with rooms reaching 4000USD/night, we stayed across the street in the infamous Chongking Mansions. Sounds great? No. Imagine a housing project in the US, and then slap it in the middle of the area with the nicest hotels and shops in the city. The accommodations are shit in Hong Kong on a budget. They are scary, full of immigrants trying to sell you illegal watches, handbags, sunglasses, pens, etc. When you say no to that, they try to sell you custom tailored suits. No again and you get weed or hashish. The place is crazy....small rooms and ridiculously small bathrooms. I'm talking you shower while you shit small.
Aside from the appearance and size of the accommodations, they are cheap and safe (from crime that is). Although, if you are in
the know about fire safety...you would probably shit yourself as fire safety = no safety. There were 2 small stairwells which were hard to find, one lead to a light well, and the other after going through a few doors you made it out to a small alley way which we found by chance after running into a few locked doors...yikes! (Uncle Les, we are sure we will have a chat about this one when we get back =). HOWEVER, this goes along way when you're in a great location.
Hong Kong is strange...it is expensive to stay, but cheap to play. There are many food places, some that are world renowned, but there is also a huge assortment of smaller price places that are great. In fact, we had cheaper, better sushi in Hong Kong then we did when we were in Japan...strange. Hong Kong is a huge city with a skyline that is amazing. They have a nightly light and music show that uses over 20 skyscrapers during the show. Each building is adorned with lights that dance with the music spewing from huge speakers. Some of the tallest buildings spray powerful laser lights all over the
sky, also in tune with the music. The show lasts for about 15 mins, but is highly entertaining. It is a must for anyone visiting.
The center of the city is reachable by ferry, a nice quick ride that costs about 25 cents Canadian. We walked around the trendy areas, past the longest outdoor escalator we have ever seen and of course Victoria Peak. We took a ride on the famous cable car to the top of Victoria Peak to catch a glimpse of this vibrant and bright metropolis from the top of a mountain. The views are great, well worth the trip. The Cable car rides on a 2" wire rope that is over 4km long, up very steep terrain (you must stay seated or leaning on something stable), and softly lets you off at the top. Once at the top, you could drop your whole budget on dinner if you wanted to, or you can just enjoy the view. This is also a quintessential part of a visit to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has so much to offer, but we had little time to do it...actually, we spent a lot of our time in search for
a mini laptop to accompany us along our travels. Would we go back? For sure. It is a perfect place to stop for a few days, eat lots and shop until you drop. It was a perfect place to end our unforgettable trip in China.
We left our wonderful accommodations for the Hong Kong airport super early in the morning aboard one of the city's fantastic double decker buses. They truly nailed down public transportation in Hong Kong. Clean, efficient, timely. These are important characteristics for a traveler in Asia. Anyway, off we were. The drive to the airport from the city center is quite nice. We passed the commercial shipping port, and it was massive! Cranes litter the sky, partially blocking the water. Thousands of sea-cans stacked 20 high, making up what looks like a city of colourful metal Lego blocks, only put together with the color coordination of a 4 year old boy. It definitely is one of the busiest shipping ports in the world, and it is impressive to see, even if just through a bus window, passing at 80km/h. Now, we say goodbye to China, and hello to Vietnam.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.212s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0525s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb