Blogs from Hong Kong, Asia - page 6

We decided to take it a bit easier today and tried to sleep in a little later. I don't think it really worked as we were still out the door before 11 am. The place that I really wanted to have breakfast at didn't open until 11:30, too late for us to wait that long, so we went to another place just a couple of doors along from our guesthouse. The place was called Hunghom Cafe. Since it was a Saturday morning, the place was heaving and I wondered if we would be able to get a seat. However, once we were inside, I saw that the restaurant was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. We were shown to a table and had a look at the menu. We both opted for the ... read more

A pretty short, but at times quite turbulent, flight had me arriving in Hong Kong around lunchtime. I was gutted to see that they no longer stamp your passport at immigration. I love collecting passport stamps. The atm as soon as you exit the baggage collection area was great, as it meant I didn't have to faff on looking for somewhere to get some money. A quick purchase from Seven Eleven meant that I had the correct change for the bus. There was a bus already there, but it looked pretty full and the line was still quite long, so I decided to wait for the next one. The journey took about an hour and deposited me on Nathan Road. After getting a little lost, the map on my phone had the guesthouse's location wrong, I ... read more

Planning for this trip ended up being a little rushed to my liking as I wasn't entirely sure where in Asia I wanted to go and it was also dependent on whether I got a bonus at work so I had enough spending money for the trip. Usually I plan my trips well in advance but with decisions around selling my home and buying a new one I knew that I needed to get this trip in quickly. I was torn between Thailand and China as the two countries high on my list for Asia. I decided most people tend to go to Thailand so I thought I'd be different and go visit China. My haste decision planning not going in my favour as I find out that I need a visa for China; all the ... read more

So, by popular demand, I’m back on the blog, retelling some of our adventures. This trip is about returns, giving ourselves time to do things we haven’t done yet and reacquainting ourselves with some of our favourite things...Including champagne to celebrate the delay of our flight due to grim weather at Gatwick. We last visited Hong Kong 12 years ago, exhausted and hungry from travelling round China the only thought then was eating; whether that was Macky D’s or tea at the Peninsula. We wanted more time to experience and ‘do’ HK. I suppose the soundtrack to this part of our trip has to be Christmas music, which is played on the MTR (tube), shops, hotels, boats and oddly even in the cable car to the Buddhist monastery. The Xmas lights and decorations are everywhere and ... read more

For the second time in a month, we found ourselves in Shanghai's massive Pudong airport. Last time we were headed back to the U.S. and booked a nearby hotel to spend our long layover in. Stretching out for a few hours in a comfortable bed and having a relaxed meal is a rare luxury that we enjoyed when we had the chance. This time we were going in the opposite direction and had already spent a long day of travel from San Francisco. Our stopover this time was 3 hours. Long enough to be uncomfortable but not long enough to leave the airport. We still had a couple of hours more to fly and we really missed the opportunity to relax in the comfort of a hotel. The excitement of getting to our destination didn't deter ... read more