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Published: October 13th 2012
After a short 3.5hr flight from Osaka (Japan) with Peach Airlines, we landed in Hong Kong, somewhere we had both been looking forward to for some time. As it was late when we got off the plane and we didn't have any accomodation booked, we decided to get some sleep at the airport for a few hours rather than make our way into a city we didn't know at 2am, so we found some chairs in a quiet-ish corner and settled in for the night. The next morning I was awake early after not sleeping too well, but Scott was sound asleep complete with his eye mask and blow up pillow, so once i'd woken him up (and he'd done his morning stretches on the floor while people were checking in for a flight behind us!) we headed outside and jumped on a bus bound for the Kowloon area of Tsim Sha Tsui which took about 45 minutes.
Upon arriving it was hot, dirty and busy - like a shot of adrenaline, Hong Kong quickens the pulse and we knew straight away we would love this city.
This area is known for having HK's cheapest accomodation in a couple
of 'Mansions', which are not so much mansions but more spawling high rise tower blocks with tons of low cost rooms in them and a multi-cultural crowd. We steered clear of the infamous Chungking Mansions and instead went next door to the slightly smaller and calmer Mirador Mansions, where after running the gauntlet outside and downstairs of people trying to sell us suits, watches, copy bags and a few other things, we found a great little room in a guesthouse (Pearl GH), owned by a lovely lady for the bargain price of £21 a night! The actual building was not nearly as bad as we had expected and our room (which had air con, a tv, wi fi and private bathroom, albeit within a space no bigger than 6ft x 9 ft) was fine for what we needed, plus it was in the area we wanted to be in so we were happy.
Room sorted, our next mission was to arrange our China visa's, something we were a bit apprehensive about as we weren't 100% sure we could get them outside of the UK. We were getting ready to go to the embassy across town and lose a day
in the process, but we needn't have worried as our lovely guesthouse owner said she could arrange them for us (via an agency) and we would have them back within 2 days which was just what we wanted to hear. In London the visa's are around £70, and if we had gone to the embassy in HK (with no guarantee we would get them) they would have been half that, but for the convenience of having it down for us we paid around £46 which was still a good price and it meant we would definately have them which was the main thing and we wouldn't lose a day of sightseeing in HK.
After our productive morning it was almost lunch time and we were hungry, so set off to find a restaurant we had heard about before coming away called Tim Ho Wan. This is supposed to be the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the world, specialising in Dim Sum all under £3 so we just had to try it! Armed with a map we started walking and found it after about 25 minutes, not by the sign (no English) but by the queue of people outside, so
we got in line and were handed a piece of paper with a few Dim Sum items on to order while we waited with the 40 or so other people outside, so that when we got a table they would come quickly - well we ended up waiting 95mins but it was worth it! Once inside the place, it reminded us of a cafe back home (with less than 30 seats in total), but we could tell by the amount of local people in there it was going to be good. The main dish we had heard about was the baked bbq pork buns, so ordered those along with some other bits - spare ribs, beef spring rolls, pork vermicelli cakes and prawn dumplings. The food was all incredible - especially the pork buns, which were sticky and sweet and mmmm - and all for less than a tenner - this was Dim Sum at its best and made for a delicious first meal for us in Hong Kong!
We then hopped on the tube (MTR) a few stops across the water to the 'Central' area of Hong Kong. This area is the main business district and the number
of expat's out here was truly suprising - it almost felt like we were back home in the City of London. Aswell as the business area, Central is also home to some fabulous shops (all ouside of our budget), Lan Kwai Fong, the restaurant/bar area, and the trendy neighborhood Soho. Central had a great feel to it and we enjoyed walking around taking in the fast paced atmosphere while thinking it would be cool to live/work in a city like this. After a while we went back to our guesthouse for a rest, before showering and changing for that evening.
We decided to walk down to the front to see the famous HK light show and skyline at night, and what a sight! The glittering skyline was amazing, easily the best one we have ever seen - tall skyscrapers blazed neon and the lights danced over the lit up buildings across the water to music for a while, it was great to see. Then we walked over to Temple Street night market and found a great little Indian for dinner where we enjoyed a good curry - we had been craving one - and strolled through the market, which
sold everything from copy designer bags, to phone cases, to usb sticks in the form of popular cartoon characters (Scott bought a Darth Vader one) and jewellery. The shopping here is so good, but not for us this time sadly! Surrounding the market were lots of small fresh crab stalls, which must be a local specialty out here. After a while we called it a night and walked home, thoroughly enjoying our first day in Hong Kong.
The next morning we had a quick breakfast of 7/11 yoghurts before catching the MTR over to Central and finding the peak tram to take us up to The Peak, right at the top of Hong Kong island. The gravity defying tram ride was cool and took around 10 minutes to reach the top, where we were greeted with sweeping views over the whole city which were amazing, even though it wasn't perfectly clear. We wandered around the top of The Peak seeing the city from different angles for a good hour then we took the tram back down and found a local Goose/pork and rice place in Central for lunch which was tasty and something different (and cheap).
We had
heard about something called the 'Mid level travelator' which is like a really long escalator (infact the longest in the World) that takes you up through the town without having to climb the stairs, so we found that and had a look round the Soho area, then jumped back on the MTR a few stops to the Causeway Bay area. We found a supermarket and got a cake and some fruit and went to sit in Victoria Park for a while with out little picnic which was nice, then went back to our guesthouse around 4pm.
That night we were craving those amazing pork buns again so went back to Tim Ho Wan for a feast of Dim Sum and this time got 2 loads of the pork buns - and they were just as good as before! Upon leaving we spotted a pet shop down the road so of course I had to have a look, and they had the cutest little puppies and kittens in there - we wanted to buy them all and take them home they were adorable! We then walked through the Ladies market, which was similar to Temple St market the night before,
and then went to Lan Kwai Fong for a couple of drinks and headed home around midnight.
Day 3 in HK and after getting our passports back complete with China visa's in them we took the MTR to Lantau island (after treating ourselves to a Subway brekkie) which is about 45 minutes away from HK island to see the Big Buddha. We took a cable car across the island for about 40 minutes which had great views and went super high - I got a bit scared at times as it went so high but the views were worth it! Then once back on land we walked up over 300 steps to see the Big Buddha, which is massive and really cool, before walking back down (killer on the legs plus it was really hot!) and getting a bus over to Tai-O, a fishing village on the other side of the island. Once there we jumped on a speed boat through the stilt villages which were interesting to see, before going out onto the open water (China sea?) in the hope of spotting some white/pink Chinese dolphins.
Now we didn't expect to see any dolphins here, but when
the boat captain shouted and pointed we saw a couple of grey/blue ones in the distance swimming around which was lovely, and even better was when we looked the other way and saw some of the rare white/pink dolphins jumping out of the water - they were really amazing. We then went back to the vilage, walked around it for a while and then got a bus back to the MTR station and headed back to HK island. This was probably our favourite day in Hong Kong yet!
We took the Star ferry back to Kowloon from Central instead of the MTR this time as it only cost just over 2HK$ (15p!) each and was a nice change to the MTR with its super cold air con. That evening we got ready and got the ferry back over to Central, taking in the impressive views of the bright skyline one last time. We wanted to have a nice dinner tonight and there were a lot of nice looking restaurants (Thai, steak, Indian, American etc) but they were quite pricey and beyond our backpacker budget so we settled on an American fast food chain (naming no names) for a quick
munch and then went to some of the bars in Lan Kwai Fong for a few happy hour drinks. In one of the bars we met some local girls who were really friendly, maybe a bit too friendly, and after a while we got the feeling we were both being propositioned by them so we made a quick exit back to our guesthouse!
We decided to leave Hong Kong the next evening so on our last day we checked out of our guesthouse and went in search of a pizza joint we had heard about which sounded delicious, so we skipped breakfast in favour of an early lunch. We found it (Paisanos Pizzeria) and were overjoyed to see the huge American style pizzas in the window, they looked ss good, and even better was that they sold them by the (very big) slice in a lunch time special! I had a slice of cheese while Scott got extra chicken on his, and it tasted soo good!
Then we went over to Stanley by bus, an area south of HK island famous for its beach and market. The ride there was really nice and offered some great views over
the different bays as the bus went quite high. Once at Stanley we walked through the market for a while and then walked down the promenade along the seafront, which was lovely but didn't feel like Hong Kong or even Asia at all, more like an Australian beach town with all the menus in English and offering burgers, steaks, fries and salads instead of Asian food, so that was a bit strange but it was nice. We sat on some rocks for a while in the sun and were gutted we didn't bring our swimming stuff with us as it was another hot day but we know we have lots of beach time to come so it didn't matter too much.
We loved Hong Kong and could definately see ourselves back here one day as it is such a great city and has everything we love - good weather, tasty food options, great shopping and lots to see and do, plus it offers good value for money. Sure its gritty and over-populated, and sometimes the constant sales pitches get annoying, but the pro's outweigh that. There are English signs everywhere and most people speak it, things are well organised
and run on time, and its easy to get around on cheap public transport, yet it has the feel of a big Asian city which we like. We had a great few days here and were sad to leave, but it was time to move on.
Later that day once back in Kowloon, we grabbed a Mc Donalds (its so cheap here its hard to resist!) and some snacks as we were about to head to the border and take a night bus into China for the next stage of our Asian adventure - goodbye organisation and English, hello pushy touts and chaos!
S&V's Travel Info & Tips: General Info: Approx 12 HK$ to £1. Hong Kong is a big city but stay near Tsim Sha Tsui and you will have easy access to everywhere by metro, walking or bus. The airport is 45 minutes away by bus and cost 33HK$ PP. Get an Octopus card when you arrive for 150KD$ - this includes 100HK$ on there and you get 50hk$ back when you give the card back at the end of your stay, and you can use it on the metro, the buses and also in 7/11 shops and other places so it is really handy.
Transportation: We mostly used the metro (MTR) for getting around the city as it was quick and cheap, or sometimes we walked. The octopus card saves you a bit of money per MTR journey instead of buying tickets seperately each time. Buses are also good and much cheaper from the airport (the metro is 90HK$ pp compared to 33HK$ pp on the bus), you will also need to take a bus to Stanley. The Star ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central is great and only costs 2.5HK$ per journey, it takes about 10 minutes to cross. Food: Where to start! HK has tons of food options, but we definately reccomend Tim Ho Wan for cheap and tasty Dim Sum (get the pork buns!), Paisano's pizza for the huge pizza slices at lunch time and of course McDonalds for those days when you need a taste of home - a Big Mac meal was only 21HK$ and they also do an 8HK$ chicken burger! The Indian restaurants all looked good, the one we went to was called New Delhi and did a set menu for 75HK$ PP including a starter, a curry, poppadoms, rice, naan and a beer.
Accomodation: We were pleased we stayed in Mirador Mansions as it was central and cheap, and would reccommend Pearl Guesthouse which is clean and the owner is lovely, it's on the 6th floor (door A9). For £21 a night we got a double room with air con, wi fi and bathroom. We asked in a few different places and prices ranged from about £20-£30 a night depending on how long you were staying etc. Other observations: x) Hong Kong is great value for money, but make sure you haggle at the markets - whatever they say the price of an item is, half it and you will meet somewhere in the middle! xx) You can sort out China visa's in most guesthouses and we found the cheapest place was Pearl GH where we stayed - another guesthouse in MM wanted 1000HK$ PP for the visa's, we only paid 560HK$ PP at Pearl. xxx) The border crossing from HK to China is easy - just take the MTR to Lo Wu (45 mins), walk across the platform and get stamped out of HK, then walk across the border into Shenzen, China. . . . If only this bit was as easy as the rest of our trip so far - more details of this journey in our next blog!
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Donna and Neil
Donna and Neil
Paisanos!
We are regular visitors to HK and LOVE Paisanos pizza, they are one of the best in Asia we have had. Seems like you had a fab time in HK, enjoy China!