Hong Kong... City of Lights

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We arrived in Macau and had no intention of stopping as we wanted to get to Hong Kong straight away. Due to technical problems we sat on the runway at Bangkok for hours before the flight took off leaving our arrival in Macau very late, and almost missed the ferry as the last one is at midnight. As soon as we arrived, cleared immigration and got stamped in we jumped straight into a taxi and headed to the port where we cleared immigration again, got stamped out (shortest time ever in a 'country' - 30 mins) and then boarded the 11.30pm sailing to Hong Kong.

We arrived after an hour, cleared another set of immigration and got stamped in (total passport stamps in one 24hr period - 6), jumped in a taxi which took us to Kowloon, an area where we'd heard there was loads of budget accommodation. We were knackered by this point and it was late so we didn't look too hard and it showed, we ended up sleeping in a tiny box room with two beds squeezed into it, the owners giant fridge containing all kinds of weird stuff and a bank of CCTV monitors showing all the views of the building. This little gem cost us 250 HKD which is a big change from Vietnam as for that price we could've got a mansion.

The next morning we took it easy, got freshened up and moved to a hostel in Mong Kok called Dragon Hostel which my parents had booked for our stay in the city. This place was much nicer and not that much more expensive. We still didn't have a private bathroom but my parents room did so we just planned on using theirs.

We killed a bit of time walking round the local area and grabbing a bite to eat before heading to the airport on the airport bus (HK$33) to meet up with my folks who would be joining us for the rest of our time in Hong Kong. It's pretty hard describing the feeling when seeing your folks for the first time in 10 months, but when they came through the arrivals door I couldn't help but rush up and give them a huge hug, it really was great to see them.

My folks got sorted out at the hotel and gave us a load of presents from back home, including a pregnancy test we'd asked for just for reassurance, as we weren't sure whether to trust the 8 we did in Vietnam. Sure enough it came back positive so that's great news. Afterwards to end the day we took a walk down Argyle street to the harbour to get a good view of Hong Kong Island. It was slightly foggy but the view was spectacular nonetheless, I think I'm going to like this city.

The next day we went back down to the harbour and caught the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. This was a very reasonably priced way of getting across and a great sightseeing experience so well recommended. From the harbour we walked to the peak tram which took us to the top of Victoria Peak, and although the day was slightly misty, the views were spectacular taking in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and beyond. I imagine the view would be pretty spectacular at night with all the lights.

After taking in the view and taking plenty of photos we headed back down on the tram again and took a walk around the Zoological and Botanical gardens. It had a few monkeys, orang-utans and large bird aviaries but the weather was starting to get pretty bad by this point so we hit a few bars and pubs to stay out of the rain before heading back to Kowloon on the Star Ferry again.

After freshening up back at the hostel and waiting for the rain to clear we headed back out to have a look round the ladies market, a pretty busy market which was very close to the hostel. We had no intention of buying anything but it was easy to see why Hong Kong is so famous for its shopping as it was crammed with some real bargains. I only planned on buying one thing while in the city and that was a new camera to replace the one that I dropped in the sea, as my underwater housing is camera specific so is completely useless without the right camera.

The next day, once awake, we headed to Lantau Island to see the worlds tallest, seated, outdoor bronze Buddha, the Tian Tan Buddha Statue. We caught the efficient MTR to Tung Chung so we could catch the cable car up to Ngong Ping Village where the statue is, and once out of the station clapped eyes on on possibly the largest queue in the world, it was massive. We waited for over two hours in the end before boarding the cable car and although the weather wasn't great it was totally worth it. The 20 minute trip goes over Tung Chung Bay, ascending and descending over the mountains and valleys of the island before reaching Ngong Ping Village and the views were incredible.

We explored the village which is pretty much just a tourist village and made our way up the hill to take in the scale and beauty of the Bronze Buddha which was pretty cool and then headed back to the cable car which again had a massive queue waiting for it. After a collective groan we noticed there was another option, if you didn't mind standing there was a separate queue, and this queue was non-existent, so that's what we did, getting straight on to the next available cabin. I don't understand why no one else was taking this option, they were going to be standing in the queue anyway and you got no better view out of the car sitting down.

Over the following days we visited the various markets in the city, not really for any shopping but just to get a feel for what the city was about. We visited the Goldfish Market, Tung Choi Street Market, Flower Market Road, Yuen Po Street Bird Garden and market, Stanley Market and Temple Street market. Temple Street market was definitely our favourite as it was large, sprawling and varied, stocking everything from clothing, handbags, shoes, seedy sex items, fruit, veg and the usual tourist tat. I managed to purchase a large, incredibly heavy, cast bronze statue of Guan Yu which I'd been after since our travels in China so that was ace the only problem was I bought it without even a second thought as to how we were going to get it home, I wanted it, I bought it... thank god for DHL!

We also visited Ocean Park, a really good aquarium, and the island of Cheung Chau as we were getting a little stuck on finding things to do; a week in Hong Kong is definitely enough time to explore.

One thing we did see which is definitely worth it if you're in the city is the Symphony of Lights a completely free, light and laser show accompanied by music that plays out across the buildings of Victoria Harbour every evening at 8 o'clock. As if the view of Victoria Harbour isn't enough? Amazing stuff!

So after a week we said farewell to my parents, waving them off at the airport with a few tears before jumping on the MTR to the ferry port back to Macau, where we'd be flying back to Bangkok. Hong Kong was pretty amazing and we'd definitely return for a transit stop if needed as the shopping was great. 😊

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Comments

[DAD]

Where is the write up for Honkers.?????