Travel Entry - Hong Kong

Every April/May, there is a holiday week in Japan known as Golden Week. Several holidays - Showa Day, Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day - occur during this week. So, most Japanese families vacation during this time (usually because companies, schools, etc. are closed). For our first Golden Week - we spent 3 days in Hong Kong and then met up with Kaz's parents in Singapore for 6 days. 

My initial impressions of Hong Kong were that it reminded me a bit of New York City. Lots of tall buildings, lots of people (and a much more diverse mix than in Japan), lots of food, lots of hustle and bustle...and a little bit of that "grimy" feel. Hong Kong is currently one of the biggest banking towns in the world. And, both English and Chinese are considered official languages - so getting around, communicating, and reading signs and menus was MUCH easier than in Japan. I really enjoyed visiting; yet, I don't think I could live there (I don't think I could live in NYC long-term either though).

Hong Kong has an interesting history. I won't go into too much detail - however, I found that a bit of history helped me to understand the uniqueness of Hong Kong. Hong Kong was originally a British Colony and was Britain's gateway into China. Because of this, Hong Kong was given special treatment and began to develop as a trade city. In the early 1980s, negotiations began between the UK and China in terms of "who" Hong Kong belonged to. And in 1997, the UK "turned over" Hong Kong to China; however, Hong Kong was to be an "autonomous territory" within the sovereignty of mainland China. This means that they have their own political system; and, legal, economic, and financial affairs - including external relations with foreign countries. But are still considered part of China.

It's interesting because most people living in Hong Kong are ethnically Cantonese, but living in a very Western society. Their culture, way of life, food, and even language differs so much from other areas in China. We found it interesting that many of the articles in the newspapers were clearly opposing the Chinese government...and there were even signs posted that were meant to give mainland tourists advice on how to behave when in Hong Kong.  The difference between Hong Kong and mainland China hit home to me even more when I tried to check Facebook at the airport in Shanghai during our layover. I was unable to because Facebook is actually blocked by the Chinese government in mainland China. However, every bar, hotel, and restaurant in Hong Kong wanted you to "like" them on Facebook! 

Now that you have a bit of background information - here are some of places we visited and experiences we had while in Hong Kong.  Enjoy! :)

Sites Visited!

Night 1

After navigating a layover in Shanghai - and realizing that our checked luggage had not made it to Hong Kong (and no one quite knew where is was) - we were starving and ready for dinner. The concierge at our hotel recommended a "cheap, but famous diner" down the street - and we were sold! 

Dinner at Tsui Wah Restaurant - enjoying Hong Kong noodles!

Hong Kong has an awesome food culture - in fact, one of the top "suggested" things to do in Hong Kong is eat! And that we did! :) Hong Kong serves a lot of Cantonese-type Chinese food - with a bit of a Hong Kong flair. And, you can also find every other type of food you might want as well. I was expecting lots of Chinese food - and was pleasantly surprised by the huge selection of other types of food! I even had my first hard cider since coming to Japan at a little English pub!

After dinner, we took a walk by the water to take in the Hong Kong skyline at night. The buildings were all lit up - and because all the buildings are crammed so close to each other - you almost need sunglasses! 

The Skyline

Day 1 

After breakfast, we set out to explore Hong Kong. Similar to New York City and other big cities - Hong Kong is composed of many neighborhoods. Each with their own vibe and culture. And in addition to visiting some of the "must see" sites - we also spent lots of time walking through the neighborhoods and getting a feel for Hong Kong culture. 

Taking the ferry across...

Since our hotel was on Hong Kong island - we took a ferry across (for about 20 cents) to the Central District and walked around. There was a neat park (Tamar Park) along the waterfront. Since it was Saturday, there were tons of yoga classes going on across the lawn and I definitely had the urge to jump into one of them! One thing that surprised me as we walked around this area of Hong Kong was the fact that there were parks mixed in with all the tall buildings. We walked through Hong Kong park - and once you were inside - you almost totally forgot you were in a city - until you looked up and saw the skyscrapers. We even stumbled across an enclosed aviary in the middle of the park - and were able to see tons of tropical and exotic birds. Hong Kong Park was also the site of our "Discovery Channel" experience. There were turtles everywhere - and Kaz and I were watching them (along with tons of other people). I noticed that there was a frog swimming in the water and pointed it out to Kaz. All of a sudden the turtles began ganging up on the frog - and let's just say - I had to stop watching. I really didn't think turtles ate frogs! :(

The park nestled in the buildings

As we tried to block the "frog situation" from our mind, we joined most of the tourists visiting Hong Kong in line for The Peak Tram. After about an hour wait, we rode the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak which gave us amazing views of the city. It was a cloudy (and rather hazy) day, but we still got some neat views. I was again able to see just how many tall buildings are crammed into this super tiny space. It really makes you wonder how they are going to fit any more - and yet, there was construction happening everywhere! 

Taking the tram up to Victoria Peak 

At the top

So many buildings

Yep - it's called Ho Lee Fook!

YUM! 

After enjoying Victoria Peak, we walked through the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens on our way to SOHO (South Hong Kong). We stopped at a hip coffee shop called Elephant Grounds (which was in the back corner of a store) and had coffee and the most amazing ice cream sandwich ever! More walking around led to a pre-dinner cocktail at a cute Italian restaurant as we waited for our reservation at another Chinese-style restaurant. I have to admit that we totally selected the restaurant based on its name and not the menu. However, the food and service was wonderful! 

Market

Day 2

We started the day by taking the ferry across to the neighborhood of Wan Chai. Wan Chai is one of the older and more traditional areas of Hong Kong. We walked through open-air markets that were selling everything you can imagine (and might not want to imagine). The smells were rather intense - and not always in a good way. Mixed in the markets were small shops selling traditional Chinese medicines...and many dried "items" that may have been body parts or organs of some sort. About a three-minute walk from these markets - was one of the coolest coffee shops we've ever been to. The coffee shop - which was called The Coffee Academics was a complete 180-degree change from the markets we had just walked through. I definitely found this neat - the fact that two things that were SO different could exist (successfully) in the same place.

More markets...

Traditional Chinese Medicine Shop

This coffee shop was less than three minutes away...

Window, and...other bus!

After some yummy coffee and treats, we decided to take a bus to the south side of Hong Kong Island to explore the town of Stanley (which used to be a fishing village). One thing I found fascinating about the buses in Hong Kong were that they were double-decker...and the drivers maneuvered them through the narrow streets as though they were tiny cars! The bus ride was windy - and our bus driver was particularly rough on the breaks...and took the corners super quickly. At one point, we were literally playing chicken with another bus...and the buses had to slow down and get around each other (on a cliff) with literally less than six inches to spare. Luckily we arrived in Stanley about five seconds before I was about to lose my cookies...so Kaz waited patiently as I laid on a bench for a while until my stomach stopped doing somersaults. Stanley had many markets - and a cute waterfront promenade with shops and restaurants.

Stanley

Enjoying the beach

I am not sure how - but as I was trying not to puke on the bus - I noticed that we had passed by a really cute beachy-looking area on our way to Stanley. The area known as Repulse Bay has one of the few public beaches in Hong Kong. There is a lot of waterfront - just not beaches. We took the bus (I was hesitant - but at least this stop split our trip back to the city in half!) to the beachfront and enjoyed some tropical drinks and a few rays of sunshine. 

The clouds are setting in...

Our plan was to take the bus back to the city - but was we approached the bus stop - we noticed a huge crowd of people - and soon realized that one of the buses had broken down on the narrow road...at rush hour! So we somehow managed to hail a cab. Our driver talked to us in Chinese the entire ride back - with his only English words being - "Handsome boy - you together?" over and over. Kaz decided to take it as a compliment! :)

Tim Ho Wan - BEST pork buns ever!

Another popular food in Hong Kong is Dim Sum. Dim Sum is a style of Chinese Canton cuisine that is prepared as small, bite-size portions of food which are usually served in small steamer baskets or on plates. In some Dim Sum restaurants - the food is wheeled around on a cart and you pick what you would like to eat (and often have no clue what it is) - and in others you can order from a menu. For dinner we ate at the cheapest Michelin Star restaurant in the world, which happened to be a Dim Sum restaurant. The line was out the door - and we had to order before we got into the restaurant (and were allowed only one addition to our order once we sat down). Dinner probably lasted all of twenty minutes - yet the food was amazing! The pork buns were to die for! 

More dim sum

Hong Kong egg tarts

Day 3

We decided to eat some more Dim Sum (at a more traditional-type restaurant) on our last day in Hong Kong....even though we had eaten it for dinner the night before. Dim Sum is more traditionally a brunch food...so we had it for brunch. We also made sure to try Hong Kong egg tarts - a famous treat - that we had not tried yet. Surprisingly, the are rather quiche-like - I was expecting them to be sweet. On our way to brunch, we stopped at a coffee shop (that we just so happened to stumble past) called 18 Grams - The Coffee Roastery. I had a nutella latte - delicious! 

After brunch, we packed our bags and headed to Lantau Island, which is famous for The Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery. In order to get to these attractions, you take a cable car WAY up the mountain. It was actually a thirty-five minute ride (once you got on the cable car). The weather was perfect - sunny and clear - as we boarded the cable car. However, the higher we got...the more we got into the clouds...and the more we realized just how cloudy it was at the top of the mountain. Everything at the top was engulfed in clouds...giving it an eerie, yet rather peaceful kind of feel.  We weren't able to see The Big Buddha as clearly as we had hoped - but the outline through the fog was really, really neat! Because we couldn't see much (and because we were running short on time), we didn't get nearly enough time to explore. So, this will be must-see for us if we ever return to Hong Kong in the future. We headed back down the mountain to the sunny skies below...and made our way to the airport for part two of our trip! 

Views from the cable car

Going up

Into the clouds we go

We can't see Buddha

Enjoy the cool perspective 

So neat

Taking the cable cars down 

See you later, Hong Kong! 

Sunny Moments: Getting to visit a new place - and all that went with that; found luggage!

Cloudy Moments: Lost luggage (China Eastern airlines); almost pukey bus rides; clouds that decided to obstruct our views a bit.