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Published: January 12th 2008
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So- the start of a new trip... My younger sister Simone has been on a university exchange for the past 5 months at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and with the end of the exchange approaching my parents had planned to visit and continue on to visit Jakarta with her, as she was born there. My not-so-subtle hints saying I wanted to come along seemed to work, as it soon turned into a family trip 😊 Quite unique as we haven't travelled together as a family for 10 years or so!
During an 11-hour fully booked Cathay Pacific flight with a noisy Dutch family two rows ahead of us (to give you an idea: whilst the rest of the passengers got ready to sleep, this family decided it was the perfect moment to start taking pictures of each other and comment loudly on them). We didn't get much sleep and arrived in Hong Kong at 7.20am rather tired. Still, we were very excited to see Simone again and we headed for our hotel with the airport bus, taking in the amazing views of the islands and catching up with Simone. After a short nap at our hotel
we took the MTR (metro) and a bus to the HKUST campus, which is a collection of huge stylish buildings set on a hill overlooking Clearwater bay. As the exchange students have their dorms here, it's definitely not a bad place to live!! We visited her dorm and walked along the bay where you get a great view of many of the small islands of Hong Kong. We then had some delicious Dim Sum at China Garden, an on-campus restaurant. From here we took another bus to Sai Kung, an area known for its seafood. Along the water the boats display their freshly caught fish, crab, lobster, and all sorts of other seafood which I honestly could not recognise and did not look very appetising, i.e. the large white seaslug.
After passing many restaurants with all their catch on display in aquariums, we took a table and ordered a couple of seafood dishes to share. It was a very messy, but tasty dinner! From Sai Kung we took a wrong bus but eventually made it back to the hotel, where we crashed in our beds and caught up on our sleep.
The next morning we took a doubledecker
tram to Central, where we saw thousands of women having a picnic and playing cards. As it turns out, the Philipinos living in Hong Kong (lots of them, apparently 😊 meet up in this area on Sunday, a great atmosphere! We admired the skyscraper views and took a walk through Hong Kong park, quite a large park hidden between all the tall buildings. We saw quite a few newlyweds - and then saw the wedding chapel, quite a business! From the park we walked to the Star Ferry, which we took to Tsim Sha Tsui. Here we went to Mong Kok, where the Ladies Market is (not just for ladies, by the way). Packed as usual, and the salespeople tried to lure us to their shop with lines such as "Hey missy missy, you like see? Good price for you". Still, not half as pushy as on the mainland, and we got some good bargains. Then we went on to Ashley Road - known for its good restaurants - and went to the first Indian restaurant in Hong Kong with the catchy name ......GAYLORD. Aside from the ridiculous name, this restaurant was amazing, great curries, desserts, drinks, service - top
notch.
The next morning my dad had arranged to meet at the Dutch consulate with a friend he knew from working at the Embassy. The location of the consulate was amazing, in Central, on the 57th floor!! Great views from the office overlooking Victoria Harbour and the skyline...phew imagine working there...
Then while my sister went to meet some of her friends living in the city, the 4 of us went to Victoria Peak, the mountain top on Hong Kong Island. Whilst waiting in line for the tram to take us there, my mum saw a familiar face: our neighbour from Vienna!!! We hadn't seen them since we moved 9 years ago, and didn't expect to see them in Hong Kong next of course....Our neighbours love Hong Kong and often spend New Years there. They were staying in a suite at the Intercontinental which is right on the water overlooking the skyline (!!). Since we didn't have plans for new year's eve, they asked us to join them to watch the fireworks.
So after enjoying the views from the peak and taking a walking trail around the peak, we headed back down and got ready for our NYE
dinner. The suite was quite something else, with a living room and dinner table large enough to seat the 7 of us....we had a delicious dinner and champagne and watched the fireworks, which went off from the tops of the skyscrapers!! Not how we thought we'd be spending new year's but a great surprise.
We were in bed by 1.30 as the next morning we were catching a 9am flight to Jakarta, Indonesia!
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